The Norte Grande of Chile, the world's driest desert, had ''engendered contemporary Chile, everything that was good about it, everything that was dreadful,'' writes Ariel Dorfman in his brilliant exploration of one of the least known and most exotic corners of the globe. For 10,000 years the desert had been mined for silver, iron, and copper, but it was the 19th-century discovery of nitrate that transformed the country into a modern state and forced the desert's colonization. The mines' riches generated mansions and oligarchs in Chile's more temperate region—and terrible inequalities throughout the country. The Norte Grande also gave birth to the first Chilean democratic and socialist movements, nurturing every major political figure of modern Chile from Salvador Allende to Augusto Pinochet. In this richly layered personal memoir, illustrated with the author's own photographs, Dorfman sets out to explore the origins of contemporary Chile—and, along the way, seek out his wife's European ancestors who came years ago to Chile as part of the nitrate rush. And, most poignantly, he looks for traces of his friend and fellow 1960s activist, Freddy Taberna, executed by a firing squad in a remote Pinochet death camp.

The acclaimed author and biologist shares “a superb personal account [of Antarctica] . . . a remarkable evocation of a land at the bottom of the world” (Boston Globe). During the 1980s, biologist David Campbell spent three summers in Antarctica, researching its surprisingly plentiful wildlife. In The Crystal Desert, he combines travelogue, nature writing and science history to tell the story of life's tenacity on the coldest of Earth's continents. Between scuba expeditions in Admiralty Bay, Campbell remembers the explorers who discovered Antarctica, the whalers and sealers who despoiled it, and the scientists who laid the groundwork to decipher its mysteries. Chronicling the desperately short summers in beautiful, lucid prose, he presents a fascinating portrait of the evolution of life in Antarctica and of the continent itself. Winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Natural History Writing and a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship

The Review Guide for NLN-RN Pre-Entrance Exam, Third Edition provides an overview of the math, science, and reading comprehension skills necessary for admission to AD and BS programs in nursing. This best-selling study guide includes review questions and practice exams in each of the three test areas: math, science, and reading comprehension. Also includes helpful tips for test preparation and for becoming a more effective learner and test taker.

Pinner mixes her family's down-home maxims with recipes for magical concoctions in this collection of soul food desserts and memories. The book shares more than 100 desserts, from bourbon balls to sweet potato pone and down-home banana ice cream.

The acclaimed author of Blue Desert explores life on the arid borderlands of southern Arizona in this “compelling and wonderfully poetic” essay collection (Ron Hansen, New York Times Book Review). In Desierto, Charles Bowden brings his signature eye for vivid detail and penetrating insight to the Sonoran Desert. Travelling across this unforgiving terrain, he explores struggling desert villages, bitter Indian feuds, and a rich history that transcends borders. He profiles notorious predators from mountain lions to drug lords and land barons. Through it all, Bowden offers prescient visions of a future in which the region’s age-old dramas replay themselves long into the future. “In these powerful epic tales of the Sonora Desert, Bowden peoples the harsh land on both sides of the US-Mexican border with saints and sinners, but his enduring hero is the desert itself.” —Kirkus Reviews

For poet Ray Gonzalez, growing up in El Paso during the 1960s was a time of loneliness and vulnerability. He encountered discrimination in high school not only for being Latino but also for being a non-athlete in a school where sports were important. Like many young people, he found diversion in music; unlike most, he found solace in the desert. In these vignettes, Gonzalez shares memories of boyhood that tell how he discovered the natural world and his creative spirit. Through 29 storylike essays, he takes readers into the heart of the desert and the soul of a developing poet. Gonzalez introduces us to the people who shaped his life. We learn of his father's difficulties with running a pool hall and of his grandmother's steadfast religious faith. We meet sinister Texas Rangers, hallucinatory poets, illegal aliens, and racist high school jocks. His vivid recollections embrace lizard hunts and rattlesnake dreams, rock music and menudo making—all in stories that convey the pains and joys of growing up on the border. As Gonzalez leads us through his desert of hope and vision, we come to recognize the humor and sadness that permeate this special place.