Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year A revelatory tale of science, adventure, and modern myth. When the writer Donovan Hohn heard of the mysterious loss of thousands of bath toys at sea, he figured he would interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, and read up on Arctic science and geography. But questions can be like ocean currents: wade in too far, and they carry you away. Hohn's accidental odyssey pulls him into the secretive world of shipping conglomerates, the daring work of Arctic researchers, the lunatic risks of maverick sailors, and the shadowy world of Chinese toy factories. Moby-Duck is a journey into the heart of the sea and an adventure through science, myth, the global economy, and some of the worst weather imaginable. With each new discovery, Hohn learns of another loose thread, and with each successive chase, he comes closer to understanding where his castaway quarry comes from and where it goes. In the grand tradition of Tony Horwitz and David Quammen, Moby-Duck is a compulsively readable narrative of whimsy and curiosity.

Portly, perceptive and spectacularly moustachioed, India’s finest private detective, Vish Puri, tackles his most difficult case to date in the long-awaited return of Tarquin Hall’s delightful humorous whodunit series set in New Delhi. “Vish Puri is the Indian Poirot” Financial Times “A wonderfully engaging PI” The Times “Vish Puri [is] a Punjabi Sherlock Holmes” The Guardian When Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Detective, learns he’s won the long-coveted International Detective of the Year award, it’s supposed to be a secret. But within hours, it seems all of Delhi knows – and his indomitable Mummy-ji announces she’ll be coming with him to the ceremony in London, never mind that she’s not been invited. To add to his woes, a senior government bureaucrat gives him an undercover mission he can’t refuse. Puri is tasked with tracking down India’s most-wanted fugitive: a billionaire pharmaceutical fraudster codenamed Bombay Duck, who’s rumoured to be hiding in the British capital. Puri’s only spending a week in London . . . and he’s already promised his wife he won’t work during their once-in-a-lifetime trip. In desperation, he enlists the help of his reluctant nephew Jags and dives headfirst into the case. But can Puri hook the Bombay Duck and bring him to justice – all the while keeping his investigations secret from his wife and meddling mother? Packed with the sights, sounds and flavours of both New Delhi and London, author Tarquin Hall – who divides his time between India and the UK – delivers an irresistible read for fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Harini Nagendra and Jesse Sutanto.

"Cat is hot, but then he spots duck. Duck is cool! It is a windy day! Sam and his family are wearing lots of hats!"--Back cover.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

In his seventh book, award-winning author Terry Grosz takes the time to reflect on the events in his life that led him to a career defending wildlife, and the milestones that occurred within that career. With the characteristic blend of outrage and humor that his readers have come to expect, this book takes a look at the stories behind the man. Learn how a boy who pitched hay, worked as a logger, played high school and college football, and discovered the beauty of the outdoors became the man who worked in state and federal wildlife enforcement for 32 years. And discover why, as people like him become more rare, we find that we need them more than ever.

What became of Harold Prettyman, a German agent captured by the British during World War Two? Eighty years later, an investigation by reporter Jack Flynt seems to end at a new dormer bungalow with white pebble-dash walls, not the grey stone terraced house in the Welsh valleys from which, according to a recently declassified MI5 file, Prettyman operated a radio transmitter from the attic alerting German U-Boats to Allied shipping movements. Dead ducks are news stories destined for the News Editor's spike and Flynt suspects he has found one until a letter arrives at the bungalow with the same coded message --Many Happy Returns Harold Prettyman--used by Prettyman and his accomplice in 1940. But there are no Allied food convoys in the North Atlantic and, believing the letter a hoax Flynt's newspaper moves him to another assignment—the disappearance of a Foreign Office diplomat suspected of fleeing to Moscow like his predecessors Burgess and Maclean. But Scotland Yard seems more interested in the Coal Miner, a missing Van Gogh masterpiece looted by the Red Army Trophy Brigade as war reparations, but now the focus of an exhibition at Tate Britain after being returned to its owner by the Commission for the Recovery of Looted Art in Europe. The painting discovered hanging on the kitchen wall of the apartment of a dead Trophy Brigade officer had been taken in lieu of pension. Private homes, art galleries and museums across the Russian Federation continue to hold large quantities of booty from the Second World War, worthless since President Putin banned the repatriation of cultural artifacts, but priceless in the West. So, is the Coal Miner exhibited at the Tate the missing Van Gogh or a forgery made by a copyist at the Hermitage in St Petersburg? A zig-zag trail leads Flynt's search for Harold Prettyman into the world of Diplomatic Bags, fakes, and money laundering.

"Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--