Animals Birds Dinos

The second volume in the multimillion copy bestselling series

Millions of readers have delighted in the wonderful storytelling and everyday miracles of James Herriot in the over thirty years since his delightful animal stories were first introduced to the world.

Now in a new edition for the first time in a decade, All Things Bright and Beautiful is the beloved sequel to Herriot's first collection, All Creatures Great and Small, and picks up as Herriot, now newly married, journeys among the remote hillside farms and valley towns of the Yorkshire Dales, caring for their inhabitants---both two- and four-legged. Throughout, Herriot's deep compassion, humor, and love of life shine out as we laugh, cry, and delight in his portraits of his many, varied animal patients and their equally varied owners.

Editor Larry Rosche's Birds of the Cleveland Region is described as the second edition of a work of the same name by Arthur B. Williams published in 1950 by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Williams's was the first authoritative and inclusive treatment of this avifauna. This new edition continues lhe tradition, taking account of records of birds recorded in the region since that time, as well as new species (both newly-observed and derived from taxonomic refinements) and new locales involved. 

Janet Messineo knew from the get-go that she wanted to become a great fisherman. She knew she was as capable as any man of catching and landing a huge fish. It took years--and many terrifying nights alone on the beach in complete darkness, in search of a huge creature to pull out of the sea--for her to prove to herself and to the male-dominated fishing community that she could make her dream real.

Messineo writes of the object of her obsession: striped bass and how it can take a lifetime to become a proficient striped bass fisherman; of stripers as nocturnal feeders, hard-fighting, clever fish that under the cover of darkness trap bait against jetties or between fields of large boulders near shorelines, or, once hooked, rub their mouths against the rocks to cut the line.

She writes of growing up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire, the granddaughter of textile mill workers, tagging along with her father and brother as they cast off of jetties; of going to art school, feeling from a young age the need to escape, and finding herself, one summer, on the Vineyard.

She describes the series of jobs that supported her fishing--waitressing at the Black Dog, Helios, and the Home Port, among other restaurants. She writes of her education in patience and the technique to land a fish; learning the equipment--hooks, sinkers, her first squid jig; buying her first one-ounce Rebel lure.

She re-creates the thrill of fishing at night, of being buffeted by the island's harsh winds and torrential rains; the terror of hooking something mysterious in the darkness that might pull her into water over her head.

She gives us a rich portrait of island life and writes of its history and of Chappaquiddick's (it belonged to the Wampanoags, who originally called it Cheppiaquidne--"separate island"); of the Martha's Vineyard Derby: its beginning in 1946 as a way to bring tourism to the island during the offseason, and the Derby's growing into one of the largest tournaments in the world.

Messineo describes her dream of becoming a marine taxidermist, of learning the craft and perfecting the art of it. She writes of the men she's fished with and the women who forged the path for others (among them, Lorraine "Tootie" Johnson, who fished Vineyard waters for more than sixty years, and Lori VanDerlaske, who won the Derby shore division in 1995). And she writes of her life commingled with fishing--her marriage to a singer, poet, activist; their adopting a son with Asperger's; and her teaching him to fish. She writes of the transformative power of fishing that helped her to shake off drugs and alcohol, and of her profound respect for fish as a magnificent animal.

With eighteen of the author's favorite fish recipes, Casting into the Light is a book about following one's dreams and about the quiet reckoning with self in the long hours of darkness at the water's edge, with the sounds of the ocean, the night air, and the jet-black sky.

"Lively and fascinating . . . The reader comes away cheered, better informed, and with a new and deeper appreciation for our amazing canine companions and their enormous capacity for love." --Cat Warren, New York Times best-selling author of What the Dog Knows

Does your dog love you?

Every dog lover knows the feeling. The nuzzle of a dog's nose, the warmth of them lying at our feet, even their whining when they want to get up on the bed. It really seems like our dogs love us, too. But for years, scientists have resisted that conclusion, warning against anthropomorphizing our pets. Enter Clive Wynne, a pioneering canine behaviorist whose research is helping to usher in a new era: one in which love, not intelligence or submissiveness, is at the heart of the human-canine relationship. Drawing on cutting-edge studies from his lab and others around the world, Wynne shows that affection is the very essence of dogs, from their faces and tails to their brains, hormones, even DNA. This scientific revolution is revealing more about dogs' unique origins, behavior, needs, and hidden depths than we ever imagined possible.

A humane, illuminating book, Dog Is Love is essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a dog--and experienced the wonder of being loved back.

Gentle Giants: A Book of Newfoundlands is Bruce Weber's loving 1994 tribute to his beloved "Rowdy," the breed itself, and the owners that love them. If you own a Newf, or more aptly are or were owned by one of these saliva slinging bears, this book is for you. Impeccably designed and printed in gravure, it includes text by the author-photographer, the original poem "A Newfound Prayer" by Patti Smith, and brief quotes from Eugene O'Neill, Carl Sandburg, Will James, Zane Grey, Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin, and Joseph Conrad.

Bulfinch Press, 1994. 1st edition. Photo-illustrated boards with blue cloth spine; spine lightly faded; binding sound; text and photos clean and bright. VG

Everything you ever wanted to know about owls, from behavior to history and mythology, all written in the author's engaging and accessible style. With gorgeous illustrations by Leonard Baskin, this 1st edition volume is a very special gift for any fan of these nocturnal birds of prey.

Dust jacket in protective cover; price clipped; one small tear at bottom of front cover; lightly soiled; white cloth over blue boards; spine very lightly foxed; front cover has embossed illustration of owl; illustrated endpapers; binding tight; text clean and bright. G+/G+

This book seeks to capture the idea of the whale in the human imagination through a collection of evocative writings and images from ancient times up to the present day. Ranging across the cultures of the world for its material, this superbly produced visual and literary anthology explores the complexity of humankind's relationship with the whale: the awe-inspiring creature that fills our myths and legends, art and literature, with its mystical, sometimes fearsome, often tragic, presence.