The city of Bustleburg's problems may be legion -- fires, crime, pollution, vampires -- but no one warned Professor Daniel Teague about woodpeckers. Daniel's house is his sanctuary from the city. All is well until a small, adorable red-headed avian wreaks utter havoc. With the Nature Society, Animal Control, and the rest of the city thwarting him at every turn, will the professor's smarts and derring-do be enough to defeat a literal birdbrain? NOTE: This story is from the author’s collection, The Silliest Stories Out of Bustleburg.
The Key Peninsula floats quietly through time in Puget Sound but exists more like an island in the hearts of her residents. Descendants of the first peoples and pioneers mingle with newcomers washed ashore from distant cities in these stories of small town life in a community too small to have a town. Young homeowners grapple with the depredations of heartsick woodpeckers. Anarchist loggers nail indignant poems to roadside trees. Shamanic gardeners work to heal a damaged world one lawn at a time. Deceptively simple stories with deep feeling.
Threat Multiplier takes us onto the battlefield and inside the Pentagon to show how the US military is confronting the biggest security risk in global history: climate change. We learn how the military evolved from an environmental laggard to a climate and clean energy leader. And we discover how a warming world exacerbates every threat--from hurricanes and forest fires, to competition for increasingly scarce food and water, to terrorism and power plays by Russia and China. The Pentagon now considers climate in war games, disaster relief planning, international diplomacy, and even the design of its own bases. No one knows the stakes better than Sherri Goodman, the Pentagon's first Chief Environmental Officer, also known as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security). In Threat Multiplier, she offers a front row seat to the military's fight for global security, a tale that is as hopeful as it is harrowing.
Known for his meaty seriocomic novels–expansive works that are simultaneously lowbrow and highbrow–Tom Robbins has also published over the years a number of short pieces, predominantly nonfiction. His travel articles, essays, and tributes to actors, musicians, sex kittens, and thinkers have appeared in publications ranging from Esquire to Harper’s, from Playboy to the New York Times, High Times, and Life. A generous sampling, collected here for the first time and including works as diverse as scholarly art criticism and some decidedly untypical country- music lyrics, Wild Ducks Flying Backward offers a rare sweeping overview of the eclectic sensibility of an American original. Whether he is rocking with the Doors, depoliticizing Picasso’s Guernica, lamenting the angst-ridden state of contemporary literature, or drooling over tomato sandwiches and a species of womanhood he calls “the genius waitress,” Robbins’s briefer writings often exhibit the same five traits that perhaps best characterize his novels: an imaginative wit, a cheerfully brash disregard for convention, a sweetly nasty eroticism, a mystical but keenly observant eye, and an irrepressible love of language. Embedded in this primarily journalistic compilation are a couple of short stories, a sheaf of largely unpublished poems, and an off-beat assessment of our divided nation. And wherever we open Wild Ducks Flying Backward, we’re apt to encounter examples of the intently serious playfulness that percolates from the mind of a self-described “romantic Zen hedonist” and “stray dog in the banquet halls of culture.”
Annotation Going beyond the basic how-to guide, this handy reference provides pilots with all the knowledge needed to get the best performance from a seaplane. Discussions include takeoff performance and techniques, external loads, and reducing water drag. Planning and flying a trip into the deep wilderness, including wilderness preparedness, navigation, and operations, is covered. Also discussed are centre-of-gravity effects on seaplanes, stability on water, fuels and fuelling, mooring, and seaplane camping.
Gorgeously illustrated and with a classic feel, this is a brilliantly funny story of a rabbit and a bear whose friendship is tested by a very noisy woodpecker ... Ideal for readers moving on from picture books. 'A perfect animal double-act.' (The Times, Book of the Week) 'PEACE AND QUIET,' shouts Rabbit. 'THAT'S ALL I WANT.' Owch. He's hurt his own ears again. What with Bear's snoring, and a BANG!BANG!BANG! noise from up in the tree, Rabbit knows that Something Simply Has To Be Done. But high in the branches, perhaps Bear can show Rabbit how to see the world from a different place ... From novelist and playwright Julian Gough, and the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Jim Field, this is a tale of friendship, wisdom, and how to be REALLY NOISY. 'Rabbit's Bad Habits is a breath of fresh air in children's fiction, a laugh-out-loud story of rabbit and wolf and bear, of avalanches and snowmen. The sort of story that makes you want to send your children to bed early, so you can read it to them.' Neil Gaiman *Shortlisted for the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and the Children's Book of the Year in the Irish Book Awards* Read all the Rabbit and Bear books: 1. Rabbit's Bad Habits 2. The Pest in the Nest 3. Attack of the Snack 4. A Bite in the Night 5. A Bad King is a Sad Thing 6. This Lake is Fake!
