Nature

- Expert advice on choosing the right rose for your space and nurturing it for years of beauty.

- Detailed descriptions of more than 200 varieties of perennials in the illustrated plant encyclopedia.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

In Amity and Prosperity, the prizewinning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold tells the story of the energy boom's impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia and one woman's transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist.

Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking boom comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania. Intrigued by reports of lucrative natural gas leases in her neighbors' mailboxes, she strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company. Soon trucks begin rumbling past her small farm, a fenced-off drill site rises on an adjacent hilltop, and domestic animals and pets start to die. When mysterious sicknesses begin to afflict her children, she appeals to the company for help. Its representatives insist that nothing is wrong.

Alarmed by her children's illnesses, Haney joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate what's really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage that's being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for their fate, and for redressing it: The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values, and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice.

Scott Turner has brought to these pages his keen and nuanced sensitivity to the natural world that surrounds us. Turner's engaging prose reminds us how important it is to pay very close attention to nature and appreciate the lessons it can teach us -- over and over again -- about how to live meaningfully. Frederic Reamer, Host, This I Believe: New England, The Public's Radio and Professor, Rhode Island College

Scott Turner's essays display an extraordinarily wide range of knowledge and curiosity about the natural world -- the plants, wild animals (a few of them human), landscapes, weather and the seasons in the countryside, in cities and small towns, on the coasts and in the mountains and, sometimes with mordant humor, humans' reactions to them. We enjoy his take on the tough trees growing in gritty parts of New York City as well as his pleasure hiking in such bucolic settings as the Green Mountains. His observational intensity and precision energize us to appreciate the wonders all around us. Robert Whitcomb, President of The Boston Guardian, GoLocal24.com columnist, former editorial page editor of The Providence Journal and former senior editor at the International Herald Tribune

Over the years, butterflies' wings have brightened, dulled and transformed as they adapt to their ever-changing environments, helping them survive and thrive through everything from the industrial revolution to the climate crisis.
Colors help butterflies camouflage and stay safe in their surroundings, making them disappear among vibrant flower petals and invisible against bronze tree trunks. Intricate patterns on their wings confuse and scare away predators, but they can attract the perfect mate too. And then there are some butterflies who are not in fact the color the appear to be at all--instead they are iridescent and simply reflecting the light.

In this beautifully illustrated book, you'll discover hundreds of different colored and patterned butterflies from around the world and find out what makes them so special. You'll also learn about the butterfly life cycle, their sense of smell, taste and sight, flight and migration, as well as what butterflies have mean to us and why they're important players in our ecosystem.

CONTENTS INCLUDE
- Stunning gallery-style spreads grouping butterflies together by color
- Detailed examination of the four stages of the butterfly life cycle: Egg-larva-chrysalis-butterfly
- The amazing Monarch migration from North America to Mexico
- How color works in butterfly wings, and how butterflies use color to their advantage
- The threats to butterfly populations and things we can do to help
- The survival techniques of caterpillars

Author Jon Dunn is a natural history writer, photographer, and wildlife tour guide based in the Shetland Isles, Scotland, but with strong links in mainland Europe and North America that see him traveling widely in search of memorable wildlife encounters. Jon's words are accompanied by stunningly detailed watercolor illustrations by South African artist Georgina Taylor.