The Dragon Behind the Glass

The Dragon Behind the Glass
Author: Emily Voigt
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-05-24
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1451678967

WINNER OF THE 2017 NASW SCIENCE IN SOCIETY JOURNALISM AWARD A FINALIST FOR THE 2017 PEN/E. O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR “[A] curiously edifying book.” —The New York Times Book Review “With the taut suspense of a spy novel, Voigt paints a vivid world of murder, black market deals, and habitat destruction surrounding a fish that's considered, ironically, to be a good-luck charm.” —Discover “[An] immensely satisfying story, full of surprises and suspense....Things get weird fast.” —The Wall Street Journal An intrepid journalist’s quest to find a wild Asian arowana—the world’s most expensive aquarium fish—takes her on a global tour in this “engaging tale of obsession and perseverance…and an enthralling look at the intersection of science, commercialism, and conservationism” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). A young man is murdered for his pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. With “the taut suspense of a spy novel” (Discover) The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other. Treasured as a status symbol believed to bring good luck, the Asian arowana, or “dragon fish,” is a dramatic example of a modern paradox: the mass-produced endangered species. While hundreds of thousands are bred in captivity, the wild fish as become a near-mythical creature. From the South Bronx to Borneo and beyond, journalist Emily Voigt follows the trail of the arowana to learn its fate in nature. “A fresh, lively look at an obsessive desire to own a piece of the wild” (Kirkus Reviews), The Dragon Behind the Glass traces our fascination with aquarium fish back to the era of exploration when naturalists stood on the cutting edge of modern science. In an age when freshwater fish now comprise one of the most rapidly vanishing groups of animals, Voigt unearths a surprising truth behind the arowana’s rise to fame—one that calls into question how we protect the world’s rarest species. “Not since Candace Millard published The River of Doubt has the world of the Amazon, Borneo, Myanmar, and other exotic locations been so colorfully portrayed as it is now in Emily Voigt’s The Dragon Behind the Glass…a must-read” (Library Journal, starred review).

Dragonfish: A Novel

Dragonfish: A Novel
Author: Vu Tran
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2015-08-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0393248429

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year "Note-perfect. Heartbreaking. Profound…[A] polished dagger of a novel that will cut out your heart." —Charles Bock, New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Children Robert, an Oakland cop, still can’t let go of Suzy, the mysterious Vietnamese wife who left him. Now she’s disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent smuggler who blackmails Robert into finding her. Searching for Suzy in the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, Robert finds himself also chasing the past that haunts her—one that extends back to Vietnam and a refugee camp in Malaysia, and forward to Suzy’s estranged daughter, a poker shark now taking the future into her own hands.

The Case of the London Dragonfish

The Case of the London Dragonfish
Author: Joan Lennon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2010
Genre: Children's stories
ISBN: 9781846470981

Slightly Jones has red hair, too many freckles, and a flyaway temper, but she's not going to let that stop her becoming the next Sherlock Holmes.

Life in the Dark

Life in the Dark
Author: Danté Fenolio
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2016-05-15
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1421418649

An extreme wildlife photographer explores the bizarre species that thrive in complete darkness with more than 200mesmerizing color photos. Deep inside caves, at the bottoms of oceans and lakes, beneath the ground: these concealed habitats are absent of sunlight, and yet full of life. This strange world of complete darkness is inhabited by millions of life forms that most humans have never seen. Now Danté Fenolio brings the denizens of these shadowy haunts into focus. Life in the Dark shows us the many ways in which life forms have adapted to lightless environments, including refinements of senses, evolution of unique body parts, and illumination using “biological flashlights.” Discover fascinating creatures like the firefly squid, the giant Amazonian catfish, the Chinese cavefish, and even the human bot fly, which lives in the darkness beneath its host’s skin. Fenolio’s rich and vibrant images shed new light on the world’s fascinating creatures of darkness.

Beyond the Dragon's Gate

Beyond the Dragon's Gate
Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Publisher: Tor Books
Total Pages: 20
Release: 2020-05-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250621607

Former Academician Anna Kim’s research into AI cost her everything. Now, years later, the military has need of her expertise in order to prevent the destruction of their AI-powered fleet. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Polly and the Pirates Vol. 1

Polly and the Pirates Vol. 1
Author: Ted Naifeh
Publisher: Oni Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2006-08-21
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 9781932664461

Polly is caught between the prim-and-proper boarding school set she’s grown-up with and the legendary legacy of the Pirate Queen that she never knew she was a part of! But which is the cruel, cold world and which is the care-free paradise? And does it even matter when there's a dashing pirate prince involved? Hoist the sails and batten the hatches on this brand new adventure!

One Nighttime Sea

One Nighttime Sea
Author: Deborah Lee Rose
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2003
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780439339063

A counting book featuring nocturnal sea creatures, from one blue whale calf to ten turtle hatchlings, and back down to one seal pup, includes facts about each of the twenty featured animals.

The White Dragon

The White Dragon
Author: Laura Resnick
Publisher: Tor Books
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2003-06-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780312890568

By the author of In Legend Born It is a time of vast changes in the island nation of Sileria. Oppressed for centuries by one conqueror after another, this land of fierce pride and ancient rivalries awaited the prophesied Firebringer, who would free them. Josarian, a mountain peasant, survived his leap into the volcano to become the Firebringer. He united the impoverished shallaheen, the magical fire-wielding Guardians, and the vastly powerful mages known as Waterlords in an unprecedented alliance that defeated the foreign Valdani who had ruled Sileria for too long. But now Josarian is dead, betrayed by the alliance and slain by the ice-dragon of Kiloran, the most powerful Waterlord in Sileria. Tansen, Josarian’s second-in-command, has taken up the banner of independence, and leads the shallaheen and the Guardians against the Waterlords so that Sileria can be free of a tyranny far worse than Valdani rule. As the volcano goddess Dar rumbles her displeasure in earthquakes and lava flows, the forces of fate, prophecy, and magic combine to create new heroes--from the desolate mountains, from the water-starved cities, from the sea, and even from beneath the earth. Ancient forces join with unlikely allies to fulfill the prophecies that inspire revolt and excite religious fervor. But in Sileria, betrayal has long been a way of life, and it wears many faces as the ambitions of the high and the low ensnare the fates of people across the land, wreaking havoc among the faithful. With consummate narrative skill, Laura Resnick brings to life the excitement and adventure of this magical land in its epic struggle to find its true leaders, heal ancient wounds, and chart a path out of chaos to a new day of peace.

Love and Science

Love and Science
Author: Jan Vilcek
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2016-12-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1609806697

Long before he became one of the world's most celebrated immunologists, Jan Vilcek began life in Slovakia as the child of Jewish parents at a time when Jews were being exterminated all across Europe. He owes his and his mother’s survival to the courage of brave people and good luck. As a young man growing up in Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Second World War, Vilcek went to medical school and chose a career in virology and immunology at a time when these fields were still in their infancy. While still in his twenties he published a paper in the prestigious journal Nature, and he hosted the first international conference on interferon. Fleeing Communist Czechoslovakia with his wife Marica, Vilcek continued his research at NYU School of Medicine, going on to establish a highly successful career in biomedical research, and creating one of the most important and trailblazing medicines of our age. After his arrival in the US in 1965 as a penniless refugee, he soon went on to spearhead some of the key advances in the research of interferon that enabled its therapeutic application, and through his research into tumor necrosis factor (TNF) made advances that led to the discovery of new genes and proteins and signaling pathways, opening up previously uncharted areas of medical innovation that have led to important new treatments for a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Along the way Vilcek acquired material wealth he had never aspired to, catapulting him into the world of philanthropy. Love and Science shows how advances in science sometimes result from the greatest disappointments, and how achievement in medical research is usually a team effort, where ideas are shared, where friendship and love sometimes matter most and serendipity is as important as a will to succeed—and where, over time, the least expected thing sometimes becomes the most important. In Vilcek's case the vaunted cure for cancer that many saw in TNF never materialized. However, out of the ashes of that hope came many related treatments that have changed countless lives and alleviated much suffering.

Literature's Critique, Subversion, and Transformation of Justice

Literature's Critique, Subversion, and Transformation of Justice
Author: Ruben Moi
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1666952591

Literature is an institution per se, as is justice, and these two institutions enact each other in complex ways. Justice appears in many forms from divine right and religious ordainment to metaphysical imperative and natural law, to national jurisdiction, social order, human rights, and civil disobedience. What is just and right has varied in time and place, in war and peace. A sense of justice appears inextricable from human concerns of ethics and morals. Literature includes a vast range of writing from holy texts to banned books. Parts of literature, particularly in the past, have laid down the law. In more recent history, literature has gradually assumed radical roles of critique, subversion, and transformation of the existing law and order, in contents, themes, language, and form. Literature’s Critique, Subversion, and Transformation of Justice offers a selection of research that examines how various types of literature and arts give shape and significance to ideas of justice in various fields.