Juan Antonio Ramı́rez examines the complex ideological, artistic, political and architectural repercussions of apian metaphors and their influence on architecture and ecological thinking for those in the Modern Movement of architecture.

“Integrates history, technology, sociology, economics, and politics with this remarkable insect serving as the unifying concept” (Buffalo News). The tiny, industrious honey bee has become part of popular imagination—reflected in our art, our advertising, even our language itself with such terms as queen bee and busy as a bee. Honey bees—and the values associated with them—have influenced American culture for four centuries. Bees and beekeepers have represented order and stability throughout the changes, challenges, and expansions of a highly diverse country. Bees in America is an enlightening cultural history of bees and beekeeping in the United States. Tammy Horn, herself a beekeeper, offers a social and technological history from the colonial period, when the British first brought bees to the New World, to the present, when bees are being trained by the American military to detect bombs. Horn shows how the honey bee was one of the first symbols of colonization and how bees’ societal structures shaped our ideals about work, family, community, and leisure. This book is both a fascinating read and an “excellent example of the effects agriculture has on history” (Booklist). “A wealth of worthy material.” —Publishers Weekly

Practical answers to the urgent moral questions of our time from the ancient philosophy of Stoicism Twenty-three centuries ago, in a marketplace in Athens, Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, built his philosophy on powerful ideas that still resonate today: all human beings can become citizens of the world, regardless of their nationality, gender, or social class; happiness comes from living in harmony with nature; and, most important, humans always have the freedom to choose their attitude, even when they cannot control external circumstances. In our age of political polarization and environmental destruction, Stoicism’s empowering message has taken on new relevance. In Being Better, Kai Whiting and Leonidas Konstantakos apply Stoic principles to contemporary issues such as social justice, climate breakdown, and the excesses of global capitalism. They show that Stoicism is not an ivory-tower philosophy or a collection of Silicon Valley life hacks but a vital way of life that helps us live simply, improve our communities, and find peace in a turbulent world.

This beautifully illustrated book pairs poetry with nonfiction, telling the fascinating stories of the animals who have found homes in our city landscapes across the world, from the pythons traveling Singapore's sewers to the monkeys living in India's temples. Humans may have built towns and cities, but we aren’t the only ones who live in them. Given the smallest chance—a park, a garden, a window box; a basement, a subway tunnel, a bridge—wildlife manages to survive in the city. Among colorful illustrated pages buzzing with city life and animal activity, you'll discover the host of wild animals who live among humans: butterflies, bats, spiders, honeybees, coyotes, and more. Each animal’s story is told through a short poem accompanied by an informational paragraph. Some poems are comical, some poignant, and all make the reader see the world in a different way. After a rousing exploration of animal life, find definitions of the various types of poetry forms used in the book: haiku, cinquain, sonnet, terza rima, villanelle, triolet, reverso, acrostic, and free verse. Look around—you may discover neighbors you didn't know you had!

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.