The author melds personal history with frank biological data about every stage of life, creating an "autobiography about my body" that seeks meaning in death, but moreover, life. Shields filters his frank--and usually foreboding--data through his own experience as a 51-year-old father with burgeoning back pain, contrasting his own gloomy tendencies with the defiant perspective of his own 97-year-old father, a man who has waged a lifelong, urgent battle...

Tells the story of one of the world's great ecosystems and its transformation from natural landscape to farmland. The tallgrass prairie was once a prominent feature of the North American continent that was reduced, in less than a century, to the vanishing point.

"The Ark of Taste is a living catalog of our nation's food heritage preserving treasures passed down for generations--some rare, some endangered, all delicious. Created by Slow Food USA, the Ark shines light on history, identity, and taste through these unique food products, featuring recipes and the stories of how they reach our tables. In these pages you'll learn about: Carolina Gold rice, Wellfleet oysters, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, The Moon and...