A guide that teaches birders how to effectively identify eastern waterbirds in flight using a method of identification that emphasizes birds' structure, behavior, and overall color.

In 1993, Amira Aass, a young Israeli reporter, drove to Gaza to cover a story - and stayed, the first journalist to live in the grim Palestinian enclave so feared and despised by most Israelis that, in the local idiom, "Go to Gaza" is another way to say "Go to hell." Now, in a work of calm power and painful clarity, Hass reflects on what she has seen in Gaza's gutted streets and destitute refugee camps. Drinking the Sea at Gaza maps the zones of ordinary Palestinian life. From her friends, Hass learns the secrets of slipping across sealed borders and stealing through night streets emptied by curfews. She shares Gaza's early euphoria over the peace process and its subsequent despair as hope gives way to unrelenting hardship. But even as Hass charts the griefs and humiliations of the Palestinians, she offers a remarkable portrait of a people not brutalized but eloquent, spiritually resilient, bleakly funny, and morally courageous. Full of testimonies and stories, facts and impressions, Drinking the Sea at Gaza makes an urgent claim on our humanity. Beautiful, haunting, and profound, it will stand with the great works of wartime reportage, from Michael Herr's Dispatches to Rian Malan's My Traitor's Heart.

This charming account of the voyage of two men in a small boat half way round the world from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 is a rare insight into a time, not long ago, when sailors had no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons that we take for granted today. Without lifejacket or a liferaft, they 'just took what came along', hand steering all the way, navigating by sextant, hand-cranking their engine and using oil lamps for light at night and for navigation. Sailors will be staggered how primitive conditions were only a few decades ago, even though it was the norm at the time. Part travelogue and part adventure story, the two friends encountered drunken harbourmasters, the mafia, the legacy of slavery and lost civilisations in the Pacific. Beautifully written, vivid in its descriptions of the two men's exploits ashore and on board, this quirky and entertaining book will be a fascinating read for sailors and non-sailors alike. 'A compelling story - I feel like I have sailed with them.' Yachting Monthly

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again Sea Fever is the sixth mystery novel featuring George and Molly Palmer-Jones by Ann Cleeves, author of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope crime series. A rare and unrecorded sea bird captures all the birders attention whilst right under their noses the most fanatical birder of them all disappears . . . Later, Greg Franks’ corpse, the head bludgeoned, is found floating in the sea. Had it not been for Greg Franks, amateur detective George Palmer-Jones would not have been on the bird watching trip in Cornwall to the first place. He had been hired by Greg Franks’ anxious parents to try and persuade their errant son to return home. George would have turned the case down flat but the offer of a free weekend’s bird watching was too tempting to resist. Now, he must unhappily shoulder the burden of finding why the young man had been murdered. Who hated Franks enough to kill him? Almost everyone, it seems . . .

KATE TERRELL is a forty-plus-year-old woman who decides to end her long-term relationship with Ben, a nice, successful but all-too-practical businessman, finally accepting that he is not “the one.” Deciding to put distance between her and Ben after the breakup, Kate heads north to Carmel-by-the-Sea for a vacation that will change her life. Sam Chandler is a professor of marine biology at the University Of Maryland on sabbatical conducting research in Monterey. Part-time, he leads whale watch excursions out of Monterey Bay. Sam is a spiritual being and a lover of all nature, especially the sea, but he has led a loveless life. Kate meets Sam on one of his whale excursions, and there is an instant attraction, an indescribable magnetism, that is cemented when they share a magical moment at the sea. Despite their mutual captivation, Sam is reluctant to begin something he cannot finish; Sam has a secret. They meet again by chance the next day during a rainstorm in Carmel. It is the beginning of a course that neither can change—the beginning of a love affair that most people only dream about, filled with romance, deep love, and sexual passion. It is then surprising when, suddenly, Sam secretly flies home, leaving Kate only a note reassuring her that he loves her but cannot and will not provide a reason for his departure. Devastated and filled with doubts and unanswered questions, Kate returns home to pick up the pieces of her life. After several months and an unexpected turn of events, Kate finds her way to Sam’s doorstep determined to get answers. This is a story that will make you long for true love, cry over life’s ironies, but leave you hopeful for the future. It shows us how one insignificant decision can change lives forever and begs the question, what difference does a life make, and how much can you endure for love?