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The birds that Audubon missed : discovery and desire in the American wilderness / by Kaufman, Kenn,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers to show how what they saw (and what they missed) reflects how we perceive and understand the natural world"--
Subjects: Birds; Ornithology;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The comfort of crows : a backyard year / by Renkl, Margaret,author.; Renkl, Billy,illustrator.;
"In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons-from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring-what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer. Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author-and from us."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Essays.; Personal narratives.; Renkl, Margaret.; Animals.; Backyard gardens.; Natural history.; Nature observation.; Nature.; Seasons.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Spirit Bear : honouring memories, planting dreams : based on a true story / by Blackstock, Cindy.; Strong, Amanda,1984-;
Spirit Bear learns about residential schools and their impact on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and its 94 calls to action, and the paper hearts planted after the report's release to honour the children who went to residential schools.LSC
Subjects: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada; Native peoples; Native peoples; Native peoples; Native peoples; Indians, Treatment of;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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This is your mind on plants / by Pollan, Michael,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: people around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. We don't usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So then what is a "drug?" And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime? In THIS IS YOUR MIND ON PLANTS, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs -- opium, caffeine, and mescaline -- and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and such fraught feelings? A unique blend of history, science, memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively -- as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that's one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay written more than 25 years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world"--
Subjects: Psychotropic plants.; Opium.; Mescaline.; Caffeine.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Seed to dust : life, nature, and a country garden / by Hamer, Marc,author.;
"For readers of Late Migrations and Vesper Flights From the acclaimed author of How to Catch a Mole, this meditative memoir explores the wisdom of plants, the joys of manual labor, and the natural cycle of growth and decay that runs through both the garden's life and our own. Marc Hamer has nurtured the same 12-acre garden in the Welsh countryside for over two decades. The garden is vast and intricate. It's rarely visited, and only Hamer knows of its secrets. But it's not his garden. It belongs to his wealthy and elegant employer, Miss Cashmere. But the garden does not really belong to her, either. As Hamer writes, 'Like a book, a garden belongs to everyone who sees it.' In Seed to Dust, Marc Hamer paints a beautiful portrait of the garden that 'belongs to everyone.' He describes a year in his life as a country gardener, with each chapter named for the month he's in. As he works, he muses on the unusual folklores of his beloved plants. He observes the creatures who scurry and hide from his blade or rake. And he reflects on his own life: living homeless as a young man, his loving relationship with his wife and children, and--now--feeling the effects of old age on body and mind. As the seasons change, Hamer also reflects on the changes he has observed in Miss Cashmere's life from afar: the death of her husband and the departure of her children from the stately home where she now lives alone. At the book's end, Hamer's connection to Miss Cashmere changes shape, and new insights into relationships and the beauty and brutality of nature emerge. Just like all good books and gardens, Seed to Dust is filled with equal parts life and death, beauty and decay, and every reader will find something different to admire."-- Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Hamer, Marc.; Gardening; Gardens; Natural history;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Indigenous peoples and the Second World War : the politics, experiences and legacies of war in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand / by Sheffield, R. Scott,author.; Riseman, Noah J.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."During the Second World War, Indigenous people in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada mobilised en masse to support the war effort, despite withstanding centuries of colonialism. Their roles ranged from ordinary soldiers fighting on distant shores, to soldiers capturing Japanese prisoners on their own territory, to women working in munitions plants on the home front. R. Scott Sheffield and Noah Riseman examine Indigenous experiences of the Second World War across these four settler societies. Informed by theories of settler colonialism, martial race theory and military sociology, they show how Indigenous people and their communities both shaped and were shaped by the Second World War. Particular attention is paid to the policies in place before, during and after the war, highlighting the ways that Indigenous people negotiated their own roles within the war effort at home and abroad"--
Subjects: Indigenous peoples; Indigenous peoples; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Away from the dead / by Bergen, David,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Away from the Dead is set in the chaotic times of the Russian revolution, and traces the lives of various characters connected through love and family and loyalty. The novel follows the lives of a bookseller south of Kiev who deserts the army and writes poetry to his lover back home; an adopted Mennonite/Ukrainian peasant who runs with the anarchists only to discover that love and the planting of crops is preferable to killing; and in which a Mennonite estate owner steals a young mother's child. Bookseller Julius Lehn is drawn by his first wife into the patriarchal world of a Mennonite colony beside the Dnieper River, where he learns that pacifists can be as vicious as those who fight. After his wife dies, he gains affection for Inna, who has been cast away from her adopted family's estate, and is the sister of Sablin, the peasant who fights with the anarchists and discovers that violence is the domain of both the rich and the poor. By late 1919, Lehn's bookshop in Ekaterinoslav (modern day Dnipro) has been destroyed, and he has returned to be with Inna, whose child is gone, and with the colony under attack. The anarchists, the Bolsheviks, the Whites -- all come and go, each claiming freedom and justice. In a violent world with no end, Sablin and Lehn and Inna choose love, hoping that one can, against all odds, turn away from the dead"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Anarchists; Booksellers and bookselling; Bookstore owners; Mennonites; War victims;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Miss World 1970 : how I entered a pageant and wound up making history / by Hosten-Craig, Jennifer,author.; Mbatha-Raw, Gugu,1983-writer of foreword.;
"1970 was the last year of the Beatles and the first year of the supersonic Concorde--a time of new possibilities and social upheaval, and Jennifer Hosten, a young airline hostess from the Caribbean island of Grenada, was as surprised as anyone to find herself in the midst of it. After winning a Miss Grenada contest, she travelled to London for the 1970 Miss World pageant and arrived at Royal Albert Hall determined to make her mark. So, too, did members of the fledgling Women's Liberation movement who chose that globally-televised moment to protest the sexual exploitation of women. They planted bombs, stormed the hall, and chased comedian Bob Hope from the stage. By the end of the night, the world had been introduced to both radical feminism and a new ideal of feminine beauty. Ms. Hosten was the first woman of color crowned Miss World. Miss World 1970 is the story of the craziest and most meaningful pageant ever, an inspiring account of Ms. Hosten's barrier-breaking win and her subsequent globe-trotting career as a development worker and diplomat. With historic photographs, movie stills, and a foreword by acclaimed actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Hosten-Craig, Jennifer.; Miss World Pageant.; Beauty contestants; Beauty contests; Diplomats;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Seed to plate, soil to sky : modern plant-based recipes using Native American ingredients / by Frank, Lois Ellen,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.Some food historians say that 1491 to 1493 are the years the world began--in terms of food. Prior to 1492, eight plants-corn, beans, squash, chile, tomato, potato, vanilla, and cacao-existed only in the Americas. Italy didn't have the tomato; Ireland didn't have the potato, nor Russia the vodka distilled from it; and there were no chiles in South Asia. When these ingredients crossed the ocean, they drastically transformed the way the Old World would eat and cook forever. Yet the average American, even those who cook with these foods regularly, doesn't know this history. Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky introduces the splendor and importance of Native culinary history and pairs it with delicious Native American-inspired dishes. Grounded in a primer on Native American cuisine and with a necessary discussion of food sovereignty and sustainability, Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky shares more than 100 nutritious, plant based recipes organized by each of the foundational ingredients. Grounded in Southwestern flavors, recipes like Blue Corn Hotcakes with Prickly Pear Syrup, Three Sisters Stew, and Green Chile Enchilada Lasagna, share the page-and plate-with essential basics like Corn Masa, Red and Green Chile Sauces, and Cacao Spice Rub for a thoughtful, delicious celebration of Native foods.
Subjects: Cookbooks.; Recipes.; Cooking, American; Indigenous peoples; Vegan cooking.; Indigenous cooking.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Most delicious poison : the story of nature's toxins-from spices to vices / by Whiteman, Noah,author.;
"Based on cutting-edge science in the fields of evolution, chemistry, and neuroscience, Most Delicious Poison reveals the origins of toxins produced by plants, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animals, the mechanisms that animals evolved to overcome them, and how a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience. This perpetual chemical war not only drove the diversification of life on Earth, but is also intimately tied to our own successes and failures. You will never look at a houseplant, mushroom, fruit, vegetable, or even the last 500 years of human history, the same way again"--
Subjects: Mushrooms, Poisonous.; Poisoning; Poisonous animals.; Poisonous plants.; Poisons.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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