Rory Hendrix is the least likely of Girl Scouts. She hasn't got a troop or even a badge to call her own. But she's checked the Handbook out from the elementary school library so many times that her name fills all the lines on the card, and she pores over its surreal advice (Uniforms, disposing of outgrown; The Right Use of Your Body; Finding Your Way When Lost) for tips to get off the Calle: that is, the Calle de las Flores, the Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother, Jo, the sweet-faced, hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop. Rory's been told that she is one of the "third-generation bastards surely on the road to whoredom." But she's determined to prove the county and her own family wrong. Brash, sassy, vulnerable, wise, and terrified, she struggles with her mother's habit of trusting the wrong men, and the mixed blessing of being too smart for her own good. From diary entries, social workers' reports, half-recalled memories, arrest records, family lore, Supreme Court opinions, and her grandmother's letters, Rory crafts a devastating collage that shows us her world even as she searches for the way out of it. Tupelo Hassman's Girlchild is a heart-stopping and original debut.
Geometry and topology are subjects generally considered to be "pure" mathematics. Recently, however, some of the methods and results in these two areas have found new utility in both wet-lab science (biology and chemistry) and theoretical physics. Conversely, science is influencing mathematics, from posing questions that call for the construction of mathematical models to exporting theoretical methods of attack on long-standing problems of mathematical interest. Based on an AMS Short Course held in January 1992, this book contains six introductory articles on these intriguing new connections. There are articles by a chemist and a biologist about mathematics, and four articles by mathematicians writing about science and mathematics involved. Because this book communicates the excitement and utility of mathematics research at an elementary level, it is an excellent textbook in an advanced undergraduate mathematics course.
"Surely such a familiar landmark and its flora need no introduction. But leaf through the book (or better yet, get Brown and Choukas-Bradley to take you on a tour) and you realize that while the rest of the world has been looking at Sugarloaf through a telescope, this intrepid pair has been using a magnifying glass.... Their record of these trees and wildflowers] has become one of the most complete guides to local upland flora available, and they hope it will be used not just in other natural areas but in back yards where people want to raise native plants themselves."--Washington Post "In between a field guide and a botanical manual, Choukas-Bradley and Brown have created a must-have... to tote into the woods of Sugarloaf Mountain. The authors have included every flowering plant they observed during ten years of extensive hiking and exploration on Sugarloaf. This guide would be useful to any naturalist, serious or casual, venturing into the wilds of the Northeastern United States and adjacent Canada."--E-Streams "This book contains an easy-to-use, non-technical botanical key for flowering plants--herbaceous and woody alike.... The author describes each plant and its individual parts, all related species, and details on the plant's growth habit, its natural range and habitat, its bloom time, and where it can be found on Sugarloaf Mt."--Solidago: The Newsletter of the Finger Lakes Native Plant Society A thorough yet user-friendly companion to the authors' popular paperback Sugarloaf: The Mountain's History, Geology, and Natural Lore, this volume is an exquisitely illustrated guide to 350 eastern woodland wildflowers and trees found onsite at Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland. It includes a botanical key and an illustrated glossary of common and scientific names, and is packed with nearly 400 elaborately and artistically detailed pen-and-ink drawings to make plant identification simple and fun. Melanie Choukas-Bradley is the author of City of Trees: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, D.C. and a longtime contributor to the Washington Post. She teaches field botany for the USDA Graduate School. Tina Thieme Brown has worked as a landscape artist and environmentalist for twenty-five years. She teaches art at the U.S. Botanic Garden, is an artist on the Countryside Artisans Studio Tour, and creates art inspired by the Sugarloaf Mountain countryside in her 1790s log cabin studio. Choukas-Bradley and Brown lead Sugarloaf Mountain field trips for the Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States and other organizations. Published in association with the Center for American Places
This book is the result of a large-scale yet detailed study of early medieval grave furnishings from the Netherlands, aiming at the creation of a comprehensive artefact typology and updated relative chronology for this under-explored period in the Low Countries.
Baltimore Trails is a comprehensive and detailed guide to trails on public lands in and around Baltimore. Discover Hemlock Gorge, a small slice of Appalachia transported into northern Baltimore County, with its timeless peace and ancient gnarled hemlocks; or Black Marsh, where birds skulk among the vegetation of pristine freshwater wetlands; or the unique landscape of Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, which shelters more than 38 rare plant species. Baltimore Trails answers the needs of hikers and mountain bikers, offering accurate maps, up-to-date access information, and reliable trail descriptions. Bryan MacKay, a lifelong Baltimore resident and avid naturalist, walked, cycled, and explored nearly 80 trails in local state, county, and city parks, as well as area watersheds. He provides a detailed description, topographic map, and the length, location, and degree of difficulty for each trail. Some trails offer an easy afternoon stroll, while others provide a day of rugged hiking or biking. Thumbnail essays offer scenic highlights and discuss typical plants, animals, and local ecology. Every trail was field-checked in 2007 for the second edition. Miles of new trails are included, as is updated information on recent trail reroutes.
