Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska, an area known as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention, including memories of his grandmother's cooking. And Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view.

What makes life meaningful

From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning historian, the colorful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man

When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by ship's

"The irresistible enthusiasm of Great Adaptations couldn't come at a better time."—David P. Barash, Wall Street Journal
"Be very amazed."—Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild
How one scientist unlocked the secrets behind some of nature's most astounding animals
From star-nosed moles that have super-sensing snouts to electric eels that paralyze their prey, animals possess unique