Cottonmouth Droppings/em illuminates the power of female support across generations. It reveals how friendships confront and correct the stale patriarchal status quo in high school and college athletics. This riveting story explores the corrupt behavior of abuse and assault through the power-hungry relationships in a small southern town where most of the long-time residents seem to care more about their local high school and college sports than facing the horrible truth about one of their own. JB Taylor, Head Coach Doc Winters and with the help of a nefarious cop, Whit Cain, develop a formidable, yet disturbing relationship while they guide JB’s son Carter through the pipeline of high school and college sports. The story leads the reader from high stakes betrayals and the safety net provided by officious people in the town.

Forced to spend his summer vacation with relatives in Louisiana, twelve-year-old Mitch Valentine finds himself a candidate for the Cottonmouth Club when he and a group of local boys become involved in secretive outdoor activities.

Islands and Snakes contains 13 chapters describing ecological systems with foci on snakes and their ecological roles on islands around the world. Each chapter is written by one or more authors who is an authority on that particular system. Summaries of research on the various islands are written in a narrative manner that includes science as well as personal insights in easily understood language. These varied vignettes of science feature islands around the world, and in all cases, fantastic species of snakes and their roles in the community of insular organisms in which they occur. Both challenges and opportunities associated with island life are discussed, as well as the unique attributes of snakes and their conservation as unique and important parts of nature. Chapters include colorful photographs and illustrations, and collectively they convey information on topics that include ecology, behavior, biogeography, physiology, adaptation, and evolutionary biology. An introductory chapter presents a review and perspective on the historical importance of island ecology and how snakes have contributed to our understanding of evolution and adaptation. The other chapters focus on snakes inhabiting islands associated with Asia, Australia, South America, North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The final chapter features the unique "table top islands" or tepuis of South America as examples of ecological islands where elements of biota have become isolated by geographic features of landscape similarly to oceanic islands.

National Audubon Society sanctuaries across the United States preserve the unique combinations of plants, climates, soils, and water that endangered birds and other animals require to survive. Their success stories include the recovery of the common and snowy egrets, wood storks, Everglade kites, puffins, and sandhill cranes, to name only a few. In this book, Frosty Anderson describes the development of fifteen NAS sanctuaries from Maine to California and from the Texas coast to North Dakota. Drawn from the newsletter "Places to Hide and Seek," which he edited during his tenure as Director/Vice President of the Wildlife Sanctuary Department of the NAS, these profiles offer a personal, often humorous look at the daily and longer-term activities involved in protecting bird habitats. Collectively, they record an era in conservation history in which ordinary people, without benefit of Ph.Ds, became stewards of the habitats in which they had lived all their lives. It's a story worth preserving, and it's entertainingly told here by the man who knows it best.

In Dispatches from Pluto, adventure writer Richard Grant takes on “the most American place on Earth”—the enigmatic, beautiful, often derided Mississippi Delta. Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto—winner of the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize—is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining. On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope. Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.

Did you know: Elephants poop enough to fill the trunk of a family car ... every day? Fossilized poop is called coprolite and scientists have found coprolites even older than the dinosaurs? Termite colonies use their own poop to help build castles as tall as a house? Award-winning author and photographer Wayne Lynch takes a fun and scientific look at poop in the animal world. Children will be fascinated to find out that some wild animals eat their dung, others use it to send messages or mark their territory, and some even squirt it on themselves to cool off! Filled with amazing facts, animal stories, and colour photographs, The Scoop on Poop will change the way you look at droppings forever. So join Dr. Lynch as he dishes out the scoop on poop, facts on feces, tips on turds, data on dung, and the goods on guano.

Connect with God in new and unexpected ways, seeing hidden manna all around you as you learn to pray while walking outdoors. Prayer can be an intimidating mystery, even when we have practiced our faith for years. Yet God has hidden prayer prompts for us in nature, right outside our doors. These simple treasures can inspire deep connections with God as you uncover the spiritual truths hidden inside them. Sarah Geringer discovered many prayer prompts in nature during the worldwide pandemic. On walks with her beloved dog Memphis, she spotted reasons to pray scattered all around her, like the manna God provided for Israel’s sustenance in the wilderness. His loving provision of connections via nature lifted her faith during that challenging time. The metaphors she discovered will inspire your own prayers, whether you live in the country or the city. The beautiful truths you encounter will sustain your faith through all four seasons of the year.