Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Last Chance to See

by Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine

"Very funny and moving...The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged <Adams'> thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Join bestselling author Douglas Adams and zooligist Mark Carwardine as they take off around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas Adams can... (more)

Spin: Book 1

Spin

by Robert Charles Wilson

One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk--a heat source,... (more)

The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity’s impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as... (more)

The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Awards))

The Race to Save the Lord God Bird (The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Awards))

by Phillip M. Hoose

The tragedy of extinction is explained through the dramatic story of a legendary bird, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and of those who tried to possess it, paint it, shoot it, sell it, and, in a last-ditch effort, save it. A powerful saga that sweeps through two hundred years of history, it introduces artists like John James Audubon, bird collectors like William Brewster, and finally a new breed of scientist in... (more)

Jurassic Park: Book 2

The Lost World

by Michael Crichton

In this sequel to Jurassic Park, Crichton delivers his trademark mix of speculative science and suspense.

Where Did Dinosaurs Go? (Usborne Starting Point Science)Unwin. M.

Where Did Dinosaurs Go? (Usborne Starting Point Science)

by Unwin. M.

This book takes a humorous look into the various theories about the decline of the dinosaur.

The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species

The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species

by Scott Weidensaul

“A thoughtful examination of the machinery of extinction . . . By turns harrowing and elegiac, thrilling and informative.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times Three or four times an hour, eighty or more times a day, a unique species of plant or animal vanishes forever. And yet, every so often one of these lost species resurfaces. “Having adventures most of us can only dream about” ( The Times-Picayune ),... (more)

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

by Peter Douglas Ward

By looking backward at the course of great extinctions, a paleontologist sees what the future holds. More than 200 million years ago, a cataclysmic event known as the Permian extinction destroyed more than 90 percent of all species and nearly 97 percent of all living things. Its origins have long been a puzzle for paleontologists. During the 1990s and the early part of this century, a great battle was fought... (more)

On the Beach

by Nevil Shute

"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off." THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds... (more)

The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind

The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind

by Roger Lewin

Chronicling five times in the history of the earth in which more than half of all living species disappeared in a geological instant, a geological study states that we are on the brink of a sixth mass extinction and presents supporting evidence. Reprint. NYT.

Song of the Dodo

by David Quammen

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo , is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo , we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas,... (more)

A Gap in Nature

by Tim F. Flannery

A lament for the lost animals of the world. In collaboration with Peter Schouten, a prominent wildlife artist, Flannery catalogues over 100 creatures that have vanished from the face of the earth.

Dodo: A Brief History

by Errol Fuller

Dodo: A Brief History is the most comprehensive illustrated guide to this intriguing bird, its history, natural history, and its literary and cultural legacy. The extinction of the dodo from the shores of Mauritius followed closely upon the arrival of Dutch and Portuguese sailors on the island in the sixteenth century. This sad tale is outlined in the first chapter which provides a brief history of the dodo.... (more)

Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger

Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger

by Margaret Mittelbach

Packing an off-kilter sense of humor and keen scientific minds, Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, along with renowned artist Alexis Rockman, take off on a postmodern safari. Their mission? Tracking down the elusive Tasmanian tiger. Tragically, this mysterious, striped predator was hunted into extinction in the early part of the twentieth century. Or was it? Journeying first to the Australian mainland and... (more)

King Of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run Of Salmon

King Of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run Of Salmon

by David R. Montgomery

A passionate recounting of the natural history of the rise and fall of salmon in England, New England, and the Pacific Northwest-with recommendations for bringing the salmon back. The salmon that symbolize the Pacific Northwest's natural splendor are now threatened with extinction across much of their ancestral range. In studying the natural and human forces that shape the rivers and mountains of that region,... (more)

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds

by Christopher Cokinos

The Labrador Duck, the Passenger Pigeon, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker are gone forever. Driven by a desire to understand how and why, an award-winning writer embarked on 10 years of extraordinary detective work to deliver a compelling blend of scientific heroism, astonishing personal devotion, political stupidity, and inconceivable apathy.

Extinct

by Anton Gill, Alex West

Combining the latest 3D computer graphics technology with animatronic models, Extinct brings to life, in unique detail, six now–vanished species.

No Turning Back : The Life and Death of Animal Species

No Turning Back : The Life and Death of Animal Species

by Richard Ellis

A noted naturalist's fascinating inquiry into the life and death of animal species Just about every species that has ever lived on earth is extinct. The trilobites, which dominated the ocean floors for 300 million years, are gone. The last of the dinosaurs was wiped out by a Mount Everest-sized meteorite that slammed into the earth 65 million years ago. The great flying reptiles are gone, and so are the marine... (more)

The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost And Left Behind

The Sixth Extinction: Journeys Among the Lost And Left Behind

by Terry Glavin

The Sixth Extinction is a haunting account of the age in which we live. Ecologists are calling it the Sixth Great Extinction, and the world isn’t losing just its ecological legacy; also vanishing is a vast human legacy of languages and our ways of living, seeing, and knowing. Terry Glavin confirms that we are in the midst of a nearly unprecedented, catastrophic vanishing of animals, plants, and human cultures.... (more)

The Footprints of God

by Greg Iles

From acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles comes a cutting-edge thriller in which the next phase of human evolution may not be human at all.... In a secret government lab, America's top scientists work on Trinity -- a supercomputer that could surpass the power of the human mind. As the project's ethicist, Dr. David Tennant works in a firestorm of limitless science and ruthless ambition. After... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: extinction