"From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity's creation and evolution--a #1 international bestseller--that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human." One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one--homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us? Most...

Explores the question of what in the less than two percent of genes has made humans different from apes.

First published in 1882 and revised in 1887, "The Gay Science" was written at the peak of Nietzsche's intellectual abilities. It includes a large number of poems and an appendix of songs, all written with the intent of encouraging freedom of the mind. With praise for the benefits of science, intellectual discipline, and skepticism, "The Gay Science" also exhibits an enthusiastic affirmation of life, drawing from the influence of the Provencal tradition....

A novella and two stories. The title novella, set on a ranch in Texas, is on a woman's love of the land, Where the Sea Used to Be is on the rivalry of two oil men, while in The Myth of the Bears a mountain man tracks a runaway wife who seems to leave an unusual number of helpful clues

A Dartmouth anthropologist whose team discovered two ancient human species explores how our evolution toward bipedalism rendered us dominant, innovative, more compassionate, and more susceptible to health problems. Human are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs, a locomotion known as bipedalism. This has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult; our running speed is much slower than that of other animals; and we suffer ailments...

"One of the most stunning achievements of moral philosophy is something we take for granted: moral universalism, or the idea that every human has equal moral worth. In What We Owe the Future, Oxford philosopher William MacAskill demands that we go a step further, arguing that people not only have equal moral worth no matter where or how they live, but also no matter when they live. This idea has implications beyond the obvious (climate change) - including...

"On the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses' by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped for the...

"Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style--thorough, yet riveting--famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old...

America's favorite home humorist, Erma Bombeck, has the uncanny ability to transform the trivialities of everyday American life into rich, witty stories that capture the imagination and tickle the funnybone. In this best-selling collection of hilarious tidbits, she turns her talents to the animal kingdom: the behavioral patterns of the creatures in the wild and the couple in the duplex next door.

In an otherworldly story set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America, an amphibious man is discovered in the Amazon--and subsequently finds love within the human race. In 1962, Elisa Esposito-- mute her whole life-- works as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore's Occam Aerospace Research Center. Only Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, help her make it through her day. Then she sees something she was never...