Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF FALL: WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE & MORE • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world

"Extraordinary...For anyone whose capacity for wonder could use a jumpstart, Rundell's essays are essential reading."—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

 
"In times like these, terror and rage will carry us only so far. We will also need unstinting, unceasing love. For the hard work that lies ahead, Ms. Rundell writes, 'Our competent and furious love will have to be what fuels us.' This is a book to help you fall in love." —Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.

Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it’s not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what’s known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.

But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.

Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
1144883865
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF FALL: WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE & MORE • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world

"Extraordinary...For anyone whose capacity for wonder could use a jumpstart, Rundell's essays are essential reading."—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

 
"In times like these, terror and rage will carry us only so far. We will also need unstinting, unceasing love. For the hard work that lies ahead, Ms. Rundell writes, 'Our competent and furious love will have to be what fuels us.' This is a book to help you fall in love." —Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.

Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it’s not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what’s known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.

But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.

Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
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Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

by Katherine Rundell
Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

by Katherine Rundell

Hardcover

$26.00 
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Overview

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A sweeping survey of tragically endangered creatures, from wombats to wolves, seals to storks and beyond. Rundell explores their role in our world and our role in their collapse in this moving collection, complemented by gorgeous illustrations.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF FALL: WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE & MORE • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world

"Extraordinary...For anyone whose capacity for wonder could use a jumpstart, Rundell's essays are essential reading."—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air

 
"In times like these, terror and rage will carry us only so far. We will also need unstinting, unceasing love. For the hard work that lies ahead, Ms. Rundell writes, 'Our competent and furious love will have to be what fuels us.' This is a book to help you fall in love." —Margaret Renkl, The New York Times

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.

Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it’s not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what’s known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.

But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.

Beautifully illustrated, and full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780385550826
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/12/2024
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 2,310
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

About The Author
KATHERINE RUNDELL is a Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. She is the author of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and the recipient of the British Book Award for Book of the Year and Author of the Year. Her multi-award-winning novels for children have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She has written for, among others, the New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books.

Table of Contents

Introduction 
The Wombat
The Greenland Shark 
The Raccoon 
The Giraffe 
The Swift 
The Lemur 
The Hermit Crab 
The Seal 
The Bear 
The Narwhal 
The Crow 
The Hare 
The Wolf
The Hedgehog
The Elephant 
The Seahorse 
The Pangolin 
The Stork 
The Spider 
The Bat 
The Tuna 
The Golden Mole 
The Human 
Author’s Note 
About This Book 
Acknowledgments 
Further Reading 
About the Author
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