Miranda refused to listen to warnings. She didn't love Mark Sanders, but that didn't matter. He was heir to the estate where her mother was housekeeper. As Lady Sanders, Miranda could ensure a better life for her mother as well as herself. But Mark was killed just before the wedding—the day her mother suffered a paralyzing stroke. Jaime Knevett, the new heir, suggested a way out of Miranda's dilemma. But Miranda had destested him for years and it was with reluctance that she agreed to marry him. Then, after the ceremony, she found herself deserted.

100 of nature’s most colourful creatures are profiled and photographed in a major new book on animal disguise and display.

A collection of 90 readers aimed at students aged 7-17 learning English as an additional language, or those who would like extra support with their reading. Levelled into bands of Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced, these readers are categorised into three strands: fiction, non-fiction and science.

Scorpions have captured the imagination of humans from early times, arousing a morbid interest that no doubt stems from their venomous tendencies. Misunderstood and persecuted as they often are, it is only relatively recently that we have begun to understand their complex behaviour and biology. This book, written by one who confesses to a passion for scorpions, describes in layman's terms the way scorpions' bodies are constructed, the strategies that enable them to survive harsh conditions, their use of venom and other aspects of their successful existence over millions of years. It will help amateur naturalists as well as professionals in associated fields to identify southern Africa's rich scorpion fauna and, it is hoped, will shed new light on these secretive creatures. The species included here are those most likely to be encountered. Many are readily identifiable with the naked eye and have very wide distributions. As far as possible, the book avoids complicated terminology and includes practical information on where to look for scorpions and how best to handle them.

“If Thoreau drank more whiskey and lived in the desert, he’d write like this.”—High Country News Welcome to the land of wildfire, hypothermia, desiccation, and rattlers. The stark and inhospitable high-elevation landscape of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert may not be an obvious (or easy) place to settle down, but for self-professed desert rat Michael Branch, it’s home. Of course, living in such an unforgiving landscape gives one many things to rant about. Fortunately for us, Branch—humorist, environmentalist, and author of Raising Wild—is a prodigious ranter. From bees hiving in the walls of his house to owls trying to eat his daughters’ cat—not to mention his eccentric neighbors—adventure, humor, and irreverence abound on Branch’s small slice of the world, which he lovingly calls Ranting Hill.

The Sibyl is an anthology of original dark poetry, hymns and dirges written over a span of nine years. Each of the three chapters (Conception, The Festering and Chaos) are stages of being and explorations of the Sublime, as experienced by different cultures around the world. The poems in the text integrate primordial beings, various phenomena and concepts drawn from different traditions and unifies them through Chaos.