Note: This eBook file contains many richly detailed full-color images and makes use of unconventional page layouts. Because of this, readers will be required to zoom in on each page to read the text and see the finer detail of the artwork. [It has not been optimized for devices that display only in black and white.] From the National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive, comes a dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means. WINNER OF THE PEN/E. O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND SHELF AWARENESS Weather is the very air we breathe—it shapes our daily lives and alters the course of history. In Thunder & Lightning, Lauren Redniss tells the story of weather and humankind through the ages. This wide-ranging work roams from the driest desert on earth to a frigid island in the Arctic, from the Biblical flood to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Redniss visits the headquarters of the National Weather Service, recounts top-secret rainmaking operations during the Vietnam War, and examines the economic impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on extensive research and countless interviews, she examines our own day and age, from our most personal decisions—Do I need an umbrella today?—to the awesome challenges we face with global climate change. Redniss produced each element of Thunder & Lightning: the text, the artwork, the covers, and every page in between. She created many of the images using the antiquated printmaking technique copper plate photogravure etching. She even designed the book’s typeface. The result is a book unlike any other: a spellbinding combination of storytelling, art, and science. Praise for Thunder & Lightning “[An] aesthetically charged and deeply researched account . . . a wild rainstorm of a book, pelting the reader with ideas and inspiration.”—Nature “A gorgeous and illuminating illustrated study of weather in all its tempestuous variety . . . Redniss’s combo of fact, folklore, and vibrant etched copperplate prints enthralls.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Eerily beautiful . . . Contains plenty of scientific explanation (including more than a few nods toward global warming), but also far-flung personal stories that illuminate the beauty, wonder and chaos inherent in the elements.”—The New York Times “Magical . . . Redniss has . . . shown us how human beings live with nature—fighting, coexisting, taming, predicting via leech barometer and radar and intuition.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] twenty-first-century genius . . . The reader willing to put herself fully in Redniss’s hands will be rewarded with a delicious feeling of being enveloped by a phenomenon that eclipses the chiming trivialities of daily life.”—Elle “Redniss is one of the most creative science writers of our time—her combination of beautiful artwork, reporting, and poetic prose brings science to life in ways that words alone simply cannot.”—Rebecca Skloot “Redniss combines her own dual punch of expressive art and impressive erudition to give an entirely new take on all that happens above our heads.”—Adam Gopnik “A strange and wonderful thing, the work of a first-class mind that refuses to submit to any categories or precedent.”—Dave Eggers

In this collection of poems that's a science, poetry, and adventure story all rolled into one, noted children's poet Jane Yolen takes readers on an expedition underground. This thought-provoking collection will evoke a sense of wonder and awe in readers, as they discover the mysterious world underneath us. Kids will explore everything from animal burrows, to human creations -- like subways -- to ancient cities and fossils. Even deeper down, there are caves, magma, and Earth's tectonic plates. The illustrations show how girl and boy, accompanied by several animals, go on a fantastic underground journey. In these poems, young readers will see that beneath us are the past, the present, and the future.

Ezra Taft Benson's ultra-conservative vision made him one of the most polarizing leaders in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His willingness to mix religion with extreme right-wing politics troubled many. Yet his fierce defense of the traditional family, unabashed love of country, and deep knowledge of the faith endeared him to millions. In Thunder from the Right, a group of veteran Mormon scholars probe aspects of Benson's extraordinary life. Topics include: how Benson's views influenced his actions as Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower Administration; his dedication to the conservative movement, from alliances with Barry Goldwater and the John Birch Society to his condemnation of the civil rights movement as a communist front; how his concept of the principal of free agency became central to Mormon theology; his advocacy of traditional gender roles as a counterbalance to liberalism; and the events and implications of Benson's term as Church president. Contributors: Gary James Bergera, Matthew Bowman, Newell G. Bringhurst, Brian Q. Cannon, Robert A. Goldberg, Matthew L. Harris, J. B. Haws, and Andrea G. Radke-Moss

When his father is killed fighting for the Union in the War Between the States, thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll must take a job to help support his family. He manages to find work at a bustling ironworks in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where dozens of men are frantically pounding together the strangest ship Tom has ever seen. A ship made of iron. Tom becomes assistant to the ship's inventor, a gruff, boastful man named Captain John Ericsson. He soon learns that the Union army has very important plans for this iron ship called the Monitor. It is supposed to fight the Confederate "sea monster"--another ironclad--the Merrimac. But Ericsson is practically the only person who believes the Monitor will float. Everyone else calls it "Ericsson's Folly" or "the iron coffin." Meanwhile, Tom's position as Ericsson's assistant has made him a target of Confederate spies, who offer him money for information about the ship. Tom finds himself caught between two certain dangers: an encounter with murderous spies and a battle at sea in an iron coffin

An autobiography of the well-known author and illustrator.

Seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out of old tanker cars. The plan is to beat the Chinese to Mars--in under four days at three million miles an hour. It would be history in the making if it didn't sound so insane.

DigiCat presents to you this unique SF collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. H. G. Wells: The Time Machine The War of the Worlds The Island of Doctor Moreau The Invisible Man... Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth 20.000 Leagues under the Sea The Mysterious Island... Mary Shelley: Frankenstein The Last Man Edgar Wallace: Planetoid 127 The Green Rust... Otis Adelbert Kline: The Venus Trilogy The Mars Series Malcolm Jameson: Captain Bullard Series Garrett P. Serviss: Edison's Conquest of Mars A Columbus of Space The Sky Pirate... Arthur Conan Doyle: The Professor Challenger Series Francis Bacon: New Atlantis Edwin A. Abbott: Flatland Jack London: Iron Heel The Scarlet Plague The Star Rover... Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde George MacDonald: Lilith H. Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines She William H. Hodgson: The House on the Borderland The Night Land... Edgar Allan Poe: Some Words with a Mummy Mellonta Tauta... H. P. Lovecraft: Beyond the Wall of Sleep The Cats of Ulthar Celephaïs Edward Bellamy: Looking Backward: 2000–1887 Equality... Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Owen Gregory: Meccania the Super-State Margaret Cavendish: The Blazing World Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels William Morris: News from Nowhere Samuel Butler: Erewhon Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race James Fenimore Cooper: The Monikins Hugh Benson: Lord of the World Fred M. White: The Doom of London Ernest Bramah: The Secret of the League Arthur D. Vinton: Looking Further Backward Robert Cromie: The Crack of Doom Anthony Trollope: The Fixed Period Cleveland Moffett: Richard Jefferies: After London Francis Stevens: The Heads of Cerberus Percy Greg: Across the Zodiac David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus Stanley G. Weinbaum: Stories from the Solar System Abraham Merritt: The Moon Pool The Metal Monster... Hyne: The Lost Continent

A farm family scurries for shelter from a violent thunderstorm that brings welcome relief from the heat and also an unexpected surprise.

The sequel to Red Thunder is “a cosmic coming-of-age novel . . . [with] enthralling everyday heroics” from a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author (Paul Di Filippo, SciFi.com). It doesn’t matter that Ray Garcia-Strickland’s father was one of the first men on Mars. The now overdeveloped planet has lost its hip factor, its luxurious hotels—like the one Ray’s father manages—overrun with gravity-dependent tourists from Earth. Ray is over the Red Planet. Soon he gets his own chance at interplanetary adventure, when an unknown object hits Earth and causes a massive tsunami. Ray heads back to Florida to help family and friends who’ve survived the devastation—and soon learns the so-called natural disaster could have unnatural consequences . . . “The book Robert A. Heinlein would have written if he lived in George Bush’s America.” —Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing “A highly satisfying sequel to Red Thunder . . . Much more than a simple adventure story, full of poignant moments and relevant social commentary.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Drawing unabashedly on current events from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, the author mixes space opera–esque adventure and merriment with uncensored images of disaster areas and teenage sex. At his Heinlein-channeling best, Varley preaches the gospel of individual responsibility with all the fervor of a space-age libertarian revival preacher.” —Publishers Weekly “John Varley blends past fiction, current events and future tech to create a story all his own, but with classic roots in at least a half dozen of Heinlein's juveniles.” —SF Site