"An astonishing memoir of twelve years as a contemplative nun in a silent monastery. Cloistered takes the reader deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, in Northumberland, Catherine trusts herself to a group of twenty...

"This book offers the first full account of Harriet Tubman's Civil War service and the Combahee River Raid. It details how Tubman commanded a ring of spies, scouts, and pilots and participated in military expeditions behind Confederate lines. It also recounts the story of enslaved families living in bondage and fighting for their freedom, using their own distinct and individual voices. The book uses more than 175 US Civil War pension files of the...

"A landmark new history of the peasant experience, exploring a now neglected way of life that once encompassed most of humanity but is vanishing in our time. For over the past century and a half, and still more rapidly in the last seventy years, the world has become increasingly urban, and the peasant way of life-the dominant way of life for humanity since agriculture began well over 6,000 years ago-is disappearing. In this new history of peasantry,...

"Utilizing her linguistic insights and sociological explorations, the best-selling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult delves into the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, including "magical thinking," offering a prevailing message of hope, empathy and forgiveness for our anxiety-riddled human selves."--

The ultimate guide to cats and kittens features beautifully photographed profiles of different breeds as well as offers information on the science and history of house cats; the prominence of cats in art, literature and superstition; feline biology and cat care.

An investigative researcher discusses how the optimism of the a lifesaving technique invented in the 1950s that made kidney failure manageable and not a death sentence has proliferated into a dystopia of skyrocketing costs and worsening care.

Fly! Learn how airplanes get the job done through narrative nonfiction, Fun Facts, infographics, a glossary, and more!

"There's a comet speeding in from the outer solar system, and it's about to slam into an asteroid. Who will be left standing after this interplanetary smackdown? The pockmarked asteroid, a veteran fighter who's already seen some action? Or the dazzling comet, with its incredible velocity and a tail that stretches millions of miles? Kicking off a dynamic series on cosmic collisions, Asteroid vs. Comet starts by comparing the two opponents, then offers...

This book is the guide to everything drones: their history, a drone’s main parts, learning how to control one, and more.

"The knobbiest town in the world"--so Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) described Jerusalem in The Innocents Abroad, a travelogue of his visit to the Holy Land in 1867 (Fig. 0.7). He was struck by the Old City's small size; the small white domes protruding like knobs from the flat roofs of the tightly-packed houses; the narrow, crooked, uneven stone-paved streets; the poverty and filth; and the throngs of beggars: "To see the numbers of maimed, malformed...