What is Life? Decades of research have resulted in the full mapping of the human genome - three billion pairs of code whose functions are only now being understood. The gene's eye view of life, advocated by evolutionary biology, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of the geneti[...]

In this second volume of the unparalleled exposition of Rousseau's life and works, Cranston completes and corrects the story told in Rousseau's Confessions, and offers a vivid history of his most eventful and productive years.[...]

"This highly-readable work traces a set of beliefs about the nature of woman that have informed, and in turn have been reinforced by, science, religion, and philosophy from the classical period to the nineteenth century...[T]his book's analysis lends support to claims that the gender system affected[...]

This superb book, with its unique focus on the entire marine coastal environment, is the most comprehensive and up-to-date field guide available on the southeastern Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast. Not just for beachgoers, the book is essential for birders, whale watchers, fishers, boaters, scuba [...]

The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophesfire, flood, landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kongthe h[...]

Over one hundred years have passed since Dirk Struan founded Hong Kong's oldest trading company. But now, the Noble House is in danger. As Hong Kong itself becomes the deadly playground of the CIA, the KGB and the People's Republic of China, rival tai-pans, seeking revenge for blood feuds over a cen[...]

"A major contribution." Washington Post
The authoritative single-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most significant figure in American history. He was a complex and compelling man: a fervent advocate of democracy who enjoyed the life of a southern aristocrat and owned slaves, a re[...]

The book horse-lovers have been waiting forHorses have a story to tell, one of resilience, sociability, and intelligence, and of partnership with human beings. In "The Horse," the journalist and equestrienne Wendy Williams brings that story brilliantly to life.Williams chronicles the 56-million-year[...]

In his classic text, two-time Pulitzer Prize—winner John Noble Wilford recounts the history of cartography from antiquity to the space age. With this revised edition, Wilford brings the story up to the present day, as he shows the impact of new technologies that make it possible for cartographe[...]

"The Noble Hustle "is Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead's hilarious memoir of his search for meaning at high stakes poker tables, which the author describes as ""Eat, Pray, Love" for depressed shut-ins."

On one level, "The Noble Hustle" is a familiar species of participatory journalism--a [...]