Sybil has dreams; the prophetic kind, although interpreting them correctly is another matter. Her latest dream involves her sister Emerald, who wants to pursue her art once more and move on with her life after losing her husband. John, once felt he was making a difference as an ER doctor, but finds himself slipping away in his Manhattan practice as well as in his marriage. Allison, John's wife wants to change her ho hum existence with John into something spectacular. Mark, Allison's brother, a struggling musician, wants to quit rambling in life and find his purpose. The cold changes everything.

Two families are fated to come together. Emerald and Sybil, two sisters, run an offbeat coffee shop in New York. Emerald has a small child to raise alone. She can't seem to move on after having lost her husband in a freak accident three years earlier. Sybil, somewhat of a clairvoyant, saw the accident in a dream. What she can't see is her own fate. John, a doctor, has what most would consider the perfect life: a wife, two children, a nice house, and a successful medical practice. But he is at the point in his life where he is questioning everything, and so is his wife, Allison.Then, there is Mark, Allison's younger brother, a struggling musician with a stream of failed relationships and the complete opposite of his OCD sister.It is color and cold that lead them on a world of discovery from New York to Amsterdam and back.

“A lovely, fascinating book, which brings science to life.” —Alan Lightman Combining science, history, and adventure, Tom Shachtman “holds the reader’s attention with the skill of a novelist” as he chronicles the story of humans’ four-centuries-long quest to master the secrets of cold (Scientific American). “A disarming portrait of an exquisite, ferocious, world-ending extreme,” Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold demonstrates how temperature science produced astonishing scientific insights and applications that have revolutionized civilization (Kirkus Reviews). It also illustrates how scientific advancement, fueled by fortuitous discoveries and the efforts of determined individuals, has allowed people to adapt to—and change—the environments in which they live and work, shaping man’s very understanding of, and relationship, with the world. This “truly wonderful book” was adapted into an acclaimed documentary underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, directed by British Emmy Award winner David Dugan, and aired on the BBC and PBS’s Nova in 2008 (Library Journal). “An absorbing account to chill out with.” —Booklist

In Ice, Klaus Dodds provides a wide-ranging exploration of the cultural, natural, and geopolitical history of this most slippery of subjects. Beyond Earth, ice has been found on other planets, moons, and meteors—and scientists even think that ice-rich asteroids played a pivotal role in bringing water to our blue home. But our outlook need not be cosmic to see ice’s importance. Here today and gone tomorrow in many parts of the temperate world, ice is a perennial feature of polar and mountainous regions, where it has long shaped human culture. But as climates change, ice caps and glaciers melt, and waters rise, more than ever this frozen force touches at the core of who we are. As Dodds reveals, ice has played a prominent role in shaping both the earth’s living communities and its geology. Throughout history, humans have had fun with it, battled over it, struggled with it, and made money from it—and every time we open our refrigerator doors, we’re reminded how ice has transformed our relationship with food. Our connection to ice has been captured in art, literature, movies, and television, as well as made manifest in sport and leisure. In our landscapes and seascapes, too, we find myriad reminders of ice’s chilly power, clues as to how our lakes, mountains, and coastlines have been indelibly shaped by the advance and retreat of ice and snow. Beautifully illustrated throughout, Ice is an informative, thought-provoking guide to a substance both cold and compelling.

A poignant and non-didactic exploration of difference, self-acceptance, the power of friendship, and inner strength. Milo is a penguin who, unlike the other penguins, does not like the cold. When he takes a chance and goes on a trip to a faraway place where it’s warm, he finds friends who accept him, and with their support he learns to accept himself. When he returns home, he is even able to befriend others who are different. The Penguin Who Was Cold is an endearing tale of a young penguin named Milo who does not want to dive into the icy water of the pack ice to catch fish. Unlike his comrades, he stays put, standing alone at the edge of the ice and contemplating the cold sea. When a whale appears and offers to take him on a trip, Milo readily accepts. It is the beginning of a fabulous journey. In the faraway South Seas, Milo is amazed by the colors, the warmth of the water and the air, and most of all the friendly welcome he receives from the tropical animals who accept him for who he is and then give a precious and symbolic gift.

More than a hundred years after a small band of humans stole an antimatter-fueled starship and headed away at near-lightspeed, a colony of those renegades' descendants are now struggling to survive on Brimstone, a barely-habitable world of ice and bitter cold four dozen light-years from Earth. In the long run, they hope to slowly terraform Brimstone, making it, if not Earthlike, at least bearable. In the short run-well, life is hard, and everyone lives in everyone else's laps. Not easy for anyone. Particularly hard if, like Manda, you just aren't cut out to get along with others in conditions of constant crowding and zero privacy. Most people wouldn't be eager to get away from the main colony and work on a scientific project in the howling frozen wastes. For Manda, it's a deliverance. But news of the intelligent life she discovers in Brimstone's depths will change everything-if she can bring the news back to her fellows alive. For, it turns out, there are political plots and counterplots still active in the colony, dangerous twists tracing back to Earth itself...and outward to the stars.

A cold snap has everyone in the town of Toby Mills feeling down, until the mayor's wife thinks of a way to warm things up again.