New Titles

 

1) Sinclair, Ian, Phil Hockey et al.. Birds of Southern Africa: Fifth Revised Edition. 2023. Princeton University Press. Paperback: 488 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Now in its fifth edition, Birds of Southern Africa has been brought fully up to date by its expert authors and greatly enhanced with a wide range of new information and features. Providing comprehensive coverage of the bird life of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and southern Mozambique, this comprehensive book is sure to maintain its place as one of Africa’s most trusted field guides.

     This fifth edition offers:

• New “bird-call” feature―access calls by scanning QR codes in the guide with a free downloadable app
• More than 800 new illustrations, including all-new plates for raptors and seabirds
• Comprehensive coverage of southern Africa’s birds, including the latest species records
• Redesigned plates noting identification features
• Calendar bars depicting species’ occurrence and breeding periods
• Fully updated species accounts and distribution maps
• Fresh contributions from new authors and illustrators
• Alphabetical and illustrated quick references to bird groups                                                                                                             

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in birding Southern Africa!

 

2) Davies, Jeff et al.. Pocket Guide to Birds of Australia. 2023. Princeton University Press. Flexibound: 252 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: This book is an easy-to-use and beautifully illustrated quick identification guide to all regularly occurring bird species in Australia. Carefully designed to provide key information at your fingertips to enable rapid identification, it covers more than 700 bird species that are resident or regular visitors to the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and surrounding waters accessible in a day trip by boat. Based on the award-winning Australian Bird Guide, this convenient pocket guide features stunning images, up-to-date species descriptions, distribution maps, and quick guide comparison pages for all major groups.

• Covers more than 700 species, including regular visitors
• Features a wealth of breathtaking color images by leading Australian artists
• Provides incisive species descriptions that make identification easy
• Includes quick guide comparison pages and the most up-to-date distribution maps
• Its compact size makes it the perfect travel companion

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in birding Australia!

 

 

 

3) Hong Kong Birdwatching Society (HKBWS). HKBWS Field Guide to the Birds of Hong Kong and South China (Ninth Edition). 2022. Hong Kong Birdwatching Society. Paperback: 372 pages. Price: about $43.00 U.S. (plus postage).

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: The HKBWS Field Guide to the Birds of Hong Kong and South China, previously published in eight editions simply as The Birds of Hong Kong and South China, is a birding guidebook which records the bird species in Hong Kong and the South China region and describes in great detail their appearance, behaviours, distributions and migratory patterns. The book contains careful bird drawings which are instrumental for birders to identify birds in the field.

     This field guide was first published in 1977 and ever since then, it has become one of the most important guidebooks for birders regionally. In the early years, the book was available in English only. In 1994, the first Chinese version of the book was translated and edited by Mr Chiu-ying Lam, Honorary President of The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. The year 2022 does not only celebrate the 65th anniversary of The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, but it also marks the 45th year since the first edition of The Birds of Hong Kong and South China was published. After almost a half century, the book remains to be one of the most comprehensive reference book of birding.

      Highlights of the 9th edition:

- The most comprehensive guidebook of birds in Hong Kong and South China
- A complete update since the last edition 16 years ago
- Covers 784 bird species and 78 newly added escaped and introduced species
- Include drawings of newly added birds
- Bilingual content in English and Chinese

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in birding this region of China! You can order the book here.

 

4) Lausen, Cori et al.. Bats of British Columbia (Second Edition). 2022. The Royal British Columbia Museum. Paperback: 375 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: With more than 1,400 species worldwide, bats live on every continent except Antarctica and in virtually every type of habitat, from desert to forest. Around the globe, bats fill important ecological roles by controlling insect populations, pollinating plants, dispersing seeds, and even providing humans with medicines—the saliva of the famous vampire bat can be used to treat strokes! Yet despite their importance to the planet’s ecosystems, there remains more misinformation than fact and more fear than respect for these diminutive guardians of the night.

      Since the first edition of Bats of British Columbia was published in 1993, an explosion in field studies of the province’s bat fauna, applying new tools such as genetic techniques and acoustic bat detectors, has added a wealth of new knowledge. This fully updated second edition includes new colour photographs throughout, with new material on acoustic identification. With in-depth information on biology, conservation, ecology, and identification of the 18 species found in the province, the new Bats of British Columbia will help create an appreciation of this fascinating group of mammals.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in the bats of British Columbia!

 

5) Carrano, Matthew T. et al.. Visions of Lost Worlds: The Paleoart of Jay Matternes. 2019. Smithsonian Books. Hardbound: 230 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: For half a century, the artwork of Jay Matternes adorned the fossil halls of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. These treasured Matternes murals documenting mammal evolution over the past 56 million years and dioramas showing dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era are significant works of one of the most influential paleoartists in history. Simultaneously epic in size and scope and minutely detailed, they also provide a window into the study and interpretation of vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology.

     Visions of Lost Worlds presents these unparalleled works of art, and also includes the sketches and drawings Matternes prepared as he planned the murals. Known for his technical genius and eye for detail, Matternes sketched from skeletons in museum collections and added muscle, skin, and fur to bring mammals and dinosaurs from prehistory to vivid life. This book offers a close look at these works of art, a peek inside the artist's process, and an examination of the works' impact and legacy.

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in paleoart!

 

6-7) Stinchcomb, Bruce L.. World's Oldest Fossils and Cenozoic Fossils 1: Paleogene. 2007 and 2010 respectively. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. Paperbacks: 160 pages each. Prices: $29.95 and $29.99 U.S. respectively.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARIES: World's Oldest Fossils: This valuable book provides information on fossils, fossil collecting, and price ranges for most specimens illustrated. The comprehensive text begins with the earliest fossil record of life from strata representative of deep time, called the Precambrian by geologists. Foremost in this early record of life are stromatolites, structures formed by very primitive photosynthetic life forms. Attractive, color photographs illustrate this highly informative section of the book. Also discussed and illustrated are various problematic fossil-like objects found in very ancient rock strata and the different ways in which they have been interpreted. Paleontological puzzles, such as latest Precambrian vendozoans, are covered as well. Other chapters feature fossils of the Cambrian Period, when animal life became obvious. Fascinating color photographs show trilobites (prehistoric creatures second only to dinosaurs in popularity), plus other Cambrian fossils. Includes helpful glossary of terms.  

Cenozoic Fossils 1: Paleogene: Over 370 color photos detail the fossil record of the early Cenozoic Era--the Age of Mammals--from small sea creatures to the lumbering rhinoceros and rare fossilized bats. Included are fossils from famous sites including Florissant, Colorado; Grube Messel, Germany; the Green River Formation; and the Oligocene White River Group.

RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed the author's other books, you will enjoy these two books.

 

 

  

8) Raff, Jennifer. Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas. 2023. Twelve. Paperback: 328 pages. Price: $19.99 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes. ORIGIN provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution.

     20,000 years ago, people crossed a great land bridge from Siberia into Western Alaska and then dispersed southward into what is now called the Americas. Until we venture out to other worlds, this remains the last time our species has populated an entirely new place, and this event has been a subject of deep fascination and controversy. No written records—and scant archaeological evidence—exist to tell us what happened or how it took place. Many different models have been proposed to explain how the Americas were peopled and what happened in the thousands of years that followed.
 
     A study of both past and present, ORIGIN explores how genetics is currently being used to construct narratives that profoundly impact Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a must read for anyone with an interest in the origins of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas!

 

9) Holmes, Rupert. Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide. 2023. Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster. Hardbound: 388 pages. Price: $28.00 U.S.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim.

     Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

     Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read.

     Rupert Holmes’s much celebrated career ranges from chart-topping story songs with surprising twists—“Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”—to Tony Award–winning whodunit musicals—The Mystery of Edwin Drood—Edgar Award–winning comedy-thrillers—Accomplice—and the Nero Wolfe Best American Mystery Novel nominated Where the Truth Lies, made into an Atom Egoyan motion picture starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. Called “an American treasure” (Los Angeles Times), “a true Renaissance man” by Newsweek, “a comic genius” (Kirkus Reviews) and simply “a genius” (The Times, London), Rupert Holmes brings his wickedly clever storytelling talents to this outrageous and darkly comic mystery set in a secret, idyllic campus where students learn how to “do in others as you would have others do you in.”

RECOMMENDATION: This book is a hybrid between Harry Potter's Hogwarts and Discworld's Assassins' Guild. If you enjoy dark humored thrillers, you should enjoy this book!