Cranston Public Library

"Earth's rising oceans contain enormous islands of refuse, the Amazon rainforest is all-but destroyed, and countless species edge towards extinction. Humanity's last hope to save the planet lies with The Virgin Zones, thirteen vast areas of land off-limits to people and given back to nature. Dylan leads a clandestine team of adventure racers, including his daughter Jenn, into Eden, the oldest of the Zones. Jenn carries a secret--Kat, Dylan's wife...

"A writer and mom with decades of experience working in Silicon Valley, Jessica Carew Kraft grew fed up with her life filled with digital screens and deep anxieties about the future of humanity and nature. She quit her job and set out to learn about "rewilding" from people who reject the comforts and convenience of civilization to live in nature using Stone Age tools and skills. A suburbanite with a husband, kids, and a mortgage, she learned to turn...

It explores the most extraordinary places on the planet and how their environments shape the lives of those who live there. From Mount Everest's Khumbu Icefall to the Amazon to the Grand Canyon, visit six continents to learn how these natural wonders evolved and hear the rarely told stories about the challenges their inhabitants face.

"Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial agriculture, relishing the pleasure of eating food produced locally by people you know, or giving voice to a righteous contempt for hollow innovation. He is our most important writer on the cultural crisis posed by industrialization and mass consumerism,...

"A collection of weekly letters about a small and decidedly ordinary back yard that reveals the simple pleasures of paying attention to the natural world through a full year"--

What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared? This isn't the story of how we might vanish, it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind. Examine how the very landscape of planet Earth would change in our absence. A stunningly graphic journey to a world wiped clean of humanity.

"From the fog shrouded redwoods of the northern coast to the sun drenched deserts of the south, Becoming California is the story of natural change across deep time - how colliding land forms interact with the ocean and atmosphere to create one of the most beautiful, diverse and biologically rich places on earth. It is also the modern, cautionary tale of human transformation, in which California's natural wealth is mined with textbook abandon. But...

"Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the most influential scientists and thinkers of his age. A Prussian-born geographer, naturalist, explorer, and illustrator, he was a prolific writer whose books graced the shelves of American artists, scientists, philosophers, and politicians. Humboldt visited the United States for six weeks in 1804, engaging in a lively exchange of ideas with such figures as Thomas Jefferson and the painter Charles Willson...

A vacation of sorts, that takes us away from the hectic "world" we live in and transports us to some of the most fascinating, exotic and remote sites on Earth. Gives new insight into her diverse landscapes, peoples, and animals. This magical, around-the-world odyssey is an awe-inspiring wonder the entire family will enjoy.