Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever". The evening's host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old tech magnate whose dazzling inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he...

The author dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors he feels are responsible for history's broadest patterns.

Enna hopes that her new knowledge of how to wield fire will help protect her good friend Isi--the Princess Anidori--and all of Bayern against their enemies, but the need to burn is uncontrollable and puts Enna and her loved ones in grave danger. Enna and Princess Isi became fast friends in The Goose Girl, but after Isi married Prince Geric, Enna returned to the forest. Enna's simple life changes forever when she learns to wield fire and burn anything...

First published in 1882 and revised in 1887, "The Gay Science" was written at the peak of Nietzsche's intellectual abilities. It includes a large number of poems and an appendix of songs, all written with the intent of encouraging freedom of the mind. With praise for the benefits of science, intellectual discipline, and skepticism, "The Gay Science" also exhibits an enthusiastic affirmation of life, drawing from the influence of the Provencal tradition....

A novella and two stories. The title novella, set on a ranch in Texas, is on a woman's love of the land, Where the Sea Used to Be is on the rivalry of two oil men, while in The Myth of the Bears a mountain man tracks a runaway wife who seems to leave an unusual number of helpful clues

A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems. Human are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs, a locomotion known as bipedalism. This has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult; our running speed is much slower than that of other animals; and we suffer ailments...

"One of the most stunning achievements of moral philosophy is something we take for granted: moral universalism, or the idea that every human has equal moral worth. In What We Owe the Future, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill demands that we go a step further, arguing that people not only have equal moral worth no matter where or how they live, but also no matter when they live. This idea has implications beyond the obvious (climate change) - including...

"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old...

America's favorite home humorist, Erma Bombeck, has the uncanny ability to transform the trivialities of everyday American life into rich, witty stories that capture the imagination and tickle the funnybone. In this best-selling collection of hilarious tidbits, she turns her talents to the animal kingdom: the behavioral patterns of the creatures in the wild and the couple in the duplex next door.