[PDF] Odd Birds Fat Cats eBook

Author : Peter Wortsman
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 11,79 MB
Release : 2024-10-22
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781885983596

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Ravens in Berlin . . . Parakeets in Brooklyn . . . Chickens in Tel Aviv . . . Spiders in Cognac. City creatures spark the imagination and intellect in words and art by this father-daughter team. Odd Birds & Fat Cats (An Urban Bestiary) is an illustrated collection of brief observations on city creatures. Inspired by the tradition of the medieval bestiary, bestiarum vocabulum, a 12th-century bestselling genre that chronicled animals and beings both real and fantastical, the book features pithy impressions of birds and animals that delight, confound, and edify, written by Peter Wortsman, coupled with detailed four-color naturalist artwork by his daughter, Aurélie Bernard Wortsman. Featured creatures include: Pigeons: "When, finally, it takes flight . . . this asphalt-colored bird is like a piece of the pavement which by some fluke of gravity broke loose and is foolishly falling upward by mistake." Seagulls: "Fallen splinters of eternity, they hang overhead with the equanimity and mild disdain of angels in a medieval altarpiece, and unlike pigeons, refuse any direct contact with man." Ants: "Micro-managers in three-piece bodies, ants parody human antics to a tee. Or is it the other way around?" Dust mites: "Every time you scratch yourself or comb your hair, you are feeding the tiny intruders with the detritus of self." With four-color images throughout, printed in a beautiful hardbound edition, this one-of-a-kind volume will please the discerning animal lover, traveler, art lover, iconoclast, and literati on your gift list--and, of course, also you!

Author : Elizabeth Gehrman
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 11,15 MB
Release : 2015-07-14
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0807010782

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The inspiring story of David Wingate, a living legend among birders, who brought the Bermuda petrel back from presumed extinction Rare Birds is a tale of obsession, of hope, of fighting for redemption against incredible odds. It is the story of how Bermuda’s David Wingate changed the world—or at least a little slice of it—despite the many voices telling him he was crazy to try. This tiny island in the middle of the North Atlantic was once the breeding ground for millions of Bermuda petrels. Also known as cahows, the graceful and acrobatic birds fly almost nonstop most of their lives, drinking seawater and sleeping on the wing. But shortly after humans arrived here, more than three centuries ago, the cahows had vanished, eaten into extinction by the country’s first settlers. Then, in the early 1900s, tantalizing hints of the cahows’ continued existence began to emerge. In 1951, an American ornithologist and a Bermudian naturalist mounted a last-ditch effort to find the birds that had come to seem little more than a legend, bringing a teenage Wingate—already a noted birder—along for the ride. When the stunned scientists pulled a blinking, docile cahow from deep within a rocky cliffside, it made headlines around the world—and told Wingate what he was put on this earth to do. Starting with just seven nesting pairs of the birds, Wingate would devote his life to giving the cahows the chance they needed in their centuries-long struggle for survival — battling hurricanes, invasive species, DDT, the American military, and personal tragedy along the way. It took six decades of obsessive dedication, but the cahow, still among the rarest of seabirds, has reached the hundred-pair mark and continues its nail-biting climb to repopulation. And Wingate has seen his dream fulfilled as the birds returned to Nonsuch, an island habitat he hand-restored for them plant-by-plant in anticipation of this day. His passion for resuscitating this “Lazarus species” has made him an icon among birders, and his story is an inspiring celebration of the resilience of nature, the power of persistence, and the value of going your own way.

Author : Joshua Garmond
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 33,97 MB
Release : 2012-12-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1312115203

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One hundred years have passed since an epidemic almost wiped out humanity. The descendants of the survivors live in a small town. The town is controlled by Socialists. Tom Kelly belongs to a dying breed: private businessmen. Follow his struggles as he tries to keep his small business afloat. Feel his pain as he fights the city government and the powerful union. Cheer him on as he plots escape and dreams of revenge. Author contact e-mail: [email protected]

Author : Anita Albus
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 45,14 MB
Release : 2013-09-03
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0762774835

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A passionate natural history of extinct and endangered bird species from around the world.

Author : Dan Bessie
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 25,68 MB
Release : 2021-11-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0813153840

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What does a writer do when he has a family that includes a blacklisted member of the Hollywood Ten, the brains behind Tony the Tiger and the Marlboro Man, a trio of gay puppeteers, the world's leading birdwatcher, 1960s hippies, a Dutch stowaway who served in an all-black regiment during the American Civil War, and a convicted murderer? He tells their stories and secrets, illuminating 150 years of American life along the way. Dan Bessie begins the journey through his family history with his great-grandfather in the cargo hold of a ship bound for New York on the storm-tossed Atlantic. What follows are stories of his grandfather's various entrepreneurial schemes (including a folding butter box business), a grandmother who was voted "New York's prettiest shop girl" (and who resisted the recruitment efforts of various city madams), and his uncle Harry's Turnabout Theater in Los Angeles (a renowned puppet theater drawing patrons as diverse as Shirley Temple, Ray Bradbury, and Albert Einstein). An extraordinary strain of creativity runs through the Bessie and Burnett clans, and Rare Birds celebrates the colorful diversity of this remarkable and accomplished family. While their choices and professions run the gamut of the American experience in the twentieth century, the history of the nation can be traced in these people's lives. Bessie's passionate birds of a feather gather to sing their unique song across decades and generations.

Author : Celia C. Pérez
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 20,47 MB
Release : 2019-09-03
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 0425290433

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From the award-winning author of The First Rule of Punk comes the story of four kids who form an alternative Scout troop that shakes up their sleepy Florida town. * "Writing with wry restraint that's reminiscent of Kate DiCamillo... a beautiful tale." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review When three very different girls find a mysterious invitation to a lavish mansion, the promise of adventure and mischief is too intriguing to pass up. Ofelia Castillo (a budding journalist), Aster Douglas (a bookish foodie), and Cat Garcia (a rule-abiding birdwatcher) meet the kid behind the invite, Lane DiSanti, and it isn't love at first sight. But they soon bond over a shared mission to get the Floras, their local Scouts, to ditch an outdated tradition. In their quest for justice, independence, and an unforgettable summer, the girls form their own troop and find something they didn't know they needed: sisterhood.

Author : Anna Watz
Publisher : Manchester University Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 20,24 MB
Release : 2021-01-12
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1526132044

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Surrealist women’s writing: A critical exploration is the first sustained critical inquiry into the writing of women associated with surrealism. Featuring original essays by leading scholars of surrealism, the volume demonstrates the extent and the historical, linguistic, and culturally contextual breadth of this writing. It also highlights how the specifically surrealist poetics and politics of these writers’ work intersect with and contribute to contemporary debates on, for example, gender, sexuality, subjectivity, otherness, anthropocentrism, and the environment. Drawing on a variety of innovative theoretical approaches, the essays in the volume focus on the writing of numerous women surrealists, many of whom have hitherto mainly been known for their visual rather than their literary production. These include Claude Cahun, Leonora Carrington, Kay Sage, Colette Peignot, Suzanne Césaire, Unica Zürn, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, and Rikki Ducornet.

Author : Daryl Barnes
Publisher :
Page : 30 pages
File Size : 10,35 MB
Release : 2020-12-07
Category :
ISBN : 9781736228029

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Have you heard of the crazy bird known as the Charming Chat, who sat on a doormat with a fat cat in a hat? Crazy Bird Stories tells of the Charming Chat, along with eleven other native Australian birds that can be found around the Mackay district of North Central Queensland. These poems introduce the birds to children and use rhyming words in short stanzas to cell imaginary stories of very strange bird behavior. There's the Cranky Coot who plays the flute in a striped suit, and the Graffiti Goshawk, who attached chalk to a grass stalk and wrote on a sidewalk. With such a wide range of bizarre behaviors, these verses invite young readers to let their imaginations run free. Fanciful and informative, this collection of children's poetry depicts Australian birds involved in unusual and unbirdlike activities. Have you heard Of chis crazy bird? It's called the Charming Chat. It sat on a doorn1at with a fat cat in a hat When in for a chat, flew a furry fruit bat As the acrobat water rat performed on the back of the wombat