From Ways of Going for Steve Will it be like paragliding— gossamer takeoff, seedlike drifting down into a sunlit, unexpected grove? Or ski-jumping—headlong soaring, ski-tips piercing clouds, crystal revelations astonishing my goggles? . . . . Skittery flicker of a glare-weary lizard startled into the sheltering wings of a leaf, rusting freighter with a brimming hold shimmering onto a crimson edge. . . . Sad rower pushed from shore, I'll disappear like circles summoned by an oar's dip. However I burn through to the next atmosphere, let your dear face be the last thing I see. Whether writing poems about North American life and landscape; or love poems; or elegies for family and friends; or poems on serious, debilitating illness and the transformations it can effect—Elise Partridge offers in Chameleon Hours words forged by suffering and courage. Full of wit and empathy, Partridge’s poems draw inspiration from sources as whimsical as tortoises and pontoons, as poignant as a homeless woman taking shelter inside a post office on a winter night, and as deeply personal as her own cancer diagnosis at a young age. Chameleon Hours is a book about the rewards of being reminded of one’s own mortality and the lyric expression of life in all its intensity. “In their ample, embracing, nuanced appetite for sensory experience, [Partridge’s] poems achieve an ardent, compassionate and unsentimental vision.”—Robert Pinsky, Washington Post “Partridge’s impressive poems pursue a careful thinker’s yearning for abandon, a loyal friend and partner’s wish for change. Attentive to fact, to what she sees and knows, Partridge nonetheless makes space for what is wild, outside and within us—for the fears and the blanks of chemotherapy, for sharp variations within (and without) frames of metre and rhyme, and for the welcome consistencies of married love. She has learned detail-work, and patience, from Elizabeth Bishop, but she has made other virtues her own: riffs on familiar phrases open startling vistas and even her love poems get attractively practical. Hers is a welcome invitation: let’s listen in.”—Stephen Burt “Reading Chameleon Hours, I find myself marveling at the luck of each heron, mosquito, field of Queen Anne’s Lace, each person, place, thing or circumstance in this beautiful book, to have Elise Partridge’s exquisite and precise attention. And how lucky we are to get to listen in as she offers each of them her flawless ear; the book is full of understated sonic gems like ‘a kickball straight into pink lilac.’ In ‘Chemo Side Effects: Memory,’ after describing ‘groping in the thicket’ for ‘the word I want . . . scrabbling like a squirrel on the oak’s far side,’ she tells us ‘I could always pull the gift / from the lucky-dip barrel; scoop the right jewel / from my dragon’s trove. . . .’ We of course already know this. It’s evident in every one of these poems.”—Jacqueline Osherow Praise for Fielder’s Choice “Partridge is a technical wizard for whom thinking and feeling are not separate activities. She is a hawk-like observer of the particular . . . many times ascending to pitch-perfect verse.”—Ken Babstock, Globe and Mail (Canada)

The one and only chameleon is world renowned for its ability to change its skin color rapidly (throughout movement of pigment cells) and for the outrageous length of its tongue (more than one and a half times its body length!). Relatives of agamids and iguanas, chameleons are insect-eating, tree climbing reptiles that have highly specialized needs. Written by a team of experienced herp experts, Chameleons intends to instruct keepers on how to best care for their chameleons and covers the four most commonly kept species: Jackson’s chameleon with its prized triceratops horns on its head, panther chameleon with its spectacular coloration, veiled chameleon with its unusual casque on its head, and the rather large Parson’s chameleon. The book subsequently is divided into four parts, each including an introduction and natural history, captive care, and reproduction of the species. Part I, Jackson’s Chameleon was written by Sean McKeown; Part II, Panther Chameleon by Gary Ferguson, James B. Murphy, Achille Raselimanana, and Jean-Baptiste Ramanamanjato; Part III, Veiled Chameleon and Part IV, Parson’s Chameleon by Kenneth Kalisch. References and index included.

Vivid, up-close photographs and lively, informative text brilliantly capture the many moods and colors of chameleons as they hunt for food, search for a new home, brave dangerous strangers, and even make friends.

Piers Anthony’s bestselling Xanth series is one of the cornerstones of fantasy, a lively and whimsical interpretation of a genre often criticized for taking itself too seriously. Anthony’s first Xanth novel, A Spell for Chameleon, was initially edited to target a more traditional audience. Now, in an eBook exclusive, A Spell for Chameleon has been reworked line by line—its language matching the simpler, playful way with words that made Piers Anthony an enduring fan favorite. Xanth is an enchanted land where magic rules, a land of centaurs and dragons and basilisks where every citizen has a unique spell to call their own. For Bink of North Village, however, Xanth is no fairy tale. He alone has no magic. And unless he gets some—and fast!—he will be exiled. Forever. But the Good Magician Humfrey is convinced that Bink does indeed have magic. In fact, both Beauregard the genie and the magic wall chart insist that Bink has magic as powerful as any possessed by the King, the Good Magician Humfrey, or even the Evil Magician Trent. Be that as it may, no one can fathom the nature of Bink’s very special magic. This is even worse than having no magic at all . . . and he still faces exile!

Enjoy this fast-paced, action-packed urban fantasy thriller with a strong female lead and a good dose of humor by fantasy author Anna McCluskey… Special agents, a secret bunker, and ancient magic that nobody was prepared for…. Recovering from injuries, Mattie is chomping at the bit to go and rescue her sister, Tillie, and her friend, Trevor. Especially after a new ally reveals that they’re most likely being held in the same super secret underground headquarters where the leader of the entire organization is holing up. Meanwhile, inside the bunker, Tillie and Trevor are trapped in cells with no doors or windows, and their mage powers aren’t working. Escape seems impossible, but then again . . . impossible has never stopped them before. Will Mattie, Tillie, Trevor, and their friends be able to defeat the Auditors once and for all, or will they be crushed under the relentless heels of an ancient power? Find out in the final installment of the Mathilda Holiday series. Great for readers who love books with diverse casts – including lgbt+, disabled, neurodivergent, and older characters – plus plenty of intrigue and humor. If you enjoy books by Nicholas Woode-Smith, Emma Shelford, Kim Richardson, and Lisa Edmonds, you’ll love this suspenseful, supernatural series.

Colorful chameleon book with holes and touches to explore.

Aurelia of Rasil'yon, a young elfin sorceress, is poised to discover herself and her world. She embarks upon an epic journey that will take her to many countries, through many bodies and forms, and to dealings with many gods and goddesses, of foreign peoples for whom she once had naught but enmity. This odyssey shall not end until she herself ends--coming to the precipice of goddesshood, and to the end of her mortality. She must confront her elfin racism, the haughty curse of her people, and make common cause with orcs and dwarves and gnomes and humans of various nations. Only then is she able to catch a glimpse of the Codex--that tome of truth, inscrutable, that her Uncle Aurel died attempting to recover. Along the way, she meets and touches many beautiful souls, fights many more evil ones, and begins to learn the measure of her destiny. Will she learn the beauty of revolt and liberation, and win her fight against tyranny? Or will she succumb to the force of Madness in the cosmos, and become a God?

"An invaluable portrait of the evolution of international health in recent decades." —William Bynum, Wall Street Journal When Peter Piot was in medical school, a professor warned, “There’s no future in infectious diseases. They’ve all been solved.” Fortunately, Piot ignored him, and the result has been an exceptional, adventure-filled career. In the 1970s, as a young man, Piot was sent to Central Africa as part of a team tasked with identifying a grisly new virus. Crossing into the quarantine zone on the most dangerous missions, he studied local customs to determine how this disease—the Ebola virus—was spreading. Later, Piot found himself in the field again when another mysterious epidemic broke out: AIDS. He traveled throughout Africa, leading the first international AIDS initiatives there. Then, as founder and director of UNAIDS, he negotiated policies with leaders from Fidel Castro to Thabo Mbeki and helped turn the tide of the epidemic. Candid and engrossing, No Time to Lose captures the urgency and excitement of being on the front lines in the fight against today’s deadliest diseases.

This novel, The Chameleons Bite is about an attempt by a secret hit squad under the guise of a legitimate military operation to do international crimes to increase hatred for the United States because of unauthorized assassinations in various corners of the globe. When Thomas Bernardo finds out that his patriotism and special training is being misused. Tomas joined the military because he believed it was a way to escape his crime ridden neighborhood in New York. He wanted to make something positive of his life. Tomas had an unusual ability to learn languages and accents. He became a superior sniper and able to blend into many cultures. His missions were to infiltrate countries for the purpose of neutralizing a supposed threat to strategic interests of the United States. By eliminating a targeted bad guy Tomas believed he was serving his country, until during captivity in Afghanistan he became aware of information that led him to believe there was a terrorist mole, named Kareem Karab, high up in the U. S. government and associated with his operations. Tomas knew too much and attempts were made to kill him on several missions. Bernardos disgust for being duped into committing capital crimes compelled him to exact revenge against Colonel Tag Taggart, the officer who recruited him to the unit. A squad of assassins chases Tomas across international borders until there was a final resolution in Haiti.