You are here: Home / Archives for Ann Ambrose

This Week’s Book Giveaway

June 13, 2011 by

Got bugs? This week’s book giveaway is Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs by Whitney Cranshaw. Garden Insects of North America

This popular book is the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to the common insects and mites affecting yard and garden plants in North America. In a manner no previous book has come close to achieving, through full-color photos and concise, clear, scientifically accurate text, it describes the vast majority of species associated with shade trees and shrubs, turfgrass, flowers and ornamental plants, vegetables, and fruits–1,420 of them, including crickets, katydids, fruit flies, mealybugs, moths, maggots, borers, aphids, ants, bees, and many, many more. For particularly abundant bugs adept at damaging garden plants, management tips are also included. Covering all of the continental United States and Canada, this is the definitive one-volume resource for amateur gardeners, insect lovers, and professional entomologists alike.

“Know thine enemy,’ a time-worn caveat lifted from Sun-tzu’s treatise, The Art of War, is sage advice for the organic gardener hoping to emerge victorious in the battle of the bugs. Acquiring such knowledge has just become easier with the release of Garden Insects of North America. . . . [Cranshaw] has packed his book with concise, organized information on all the common and not-so-common insect Larva of great ash sphinxpests of turf, orchards and gardens in North America. The overwhelming emphasis is on recognizing and categorizing the insects themselves, using appearance, type of destructive damage encountered and target food hosts as clues. . . . With detailed, high-quality photographic plates conveniently adjacent to the standardized insect descriptions, identification of suspected insect enemies is straightforward.”–Jack Aldridge, San Francisco Chronicle

To be a part of this week’s draw and/or all our weekly Princeton Facebook book giveaways, LIKE US on Facebook. When you LIKE US you are automatically entered in each Friday’s  random draw.

Take note, from now until September the draw time on Fridays has changed to 11 a.m. EST–the Summer Hours Random Draw time.

Happy Gardening.

Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs by Whitney Cranshaw

Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Birds and Natural History, Book Giveaway, Reference

This Week’s Book Giveaway

June 6, 2011 by

This week’s book giveaway is in response to our Facebook query last Friday where we asked what books to give away in June. Thanks to Hugo, this week is for our bird lovers: Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build by Peter Goodfellow. Avian Architecture

Birds are the most consistently inventive builders, and their nests set the bar for functional design in nature. Avian Architecture describes how birds design, engineer, and build their nests, deconstructing all types of nests found around the world using architectural blueprints and detailed descriptions of the construction processes and engineering techniques birds use. This spectacularly illustrated book features 300 full-color images and more than 35 case studies that profile key species worldwide. Each chapter covers a different type of nest, from tunnel nests and mound nests to floating nests, hanging nests, woven nests, and even multiple-nest avian cities.

To be in our weekly random draw for our book giveaways, LIKE US on Facebook.

Avian Architecture: How Birds Design, Engineer, and Build by Peter Goodfellow

Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Birds and Natural History, Book Giveaway

This Week’s Book Giveaway

May 23, 2011 by

This week’s book giveaway is To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism To Die For by Cecilia Elizabeth O’Leary.

July Fourth, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Memorial Day, and the pledge of allegiance are typically thought of as timeless and consensual representations of a national, American culture. In fact, as Cecilia O’Leary shows, most trappings of the nation’s icons were modern inventions that were deeply and bitterly contested. While the Civil War determined the survival of the Union, what it meant to be a loyal American remained an open question as the struggle to make a nation moved off of the battlefields and into cultural and political terrain.

The most thought-provoking question of this complex book is, Who gets to claim the American flag and determine the meanings of the republic for which it stands?

“This study is not only well researched but also a sprightly written account of the development of modern American patriotism. . . . This is truly a work ‘to die for.’”–Choice

“Well written . . . O’Leary makes an important contribution to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to understand the vital role that rituals and symbols have played in the development of American nationalism.”–Journal of Military History

Check back Friday on our Facebook page when we make the draw for “To Die For.” If you have LIKED US on Facebook, you may be the winner. If you don’t win this week, you have plenty of other chances to win a PUP book in our weekly random draws. Thanks for taking the time to follow us.

To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism by Cecilia Elizabeth O’Leary

Filed Under: American History, American Literature, Book Giveaway

This Week’s Book Giveaway

May 16, 2011 by

To help celebrate Zombie Awareness Month, this week’s book giveaway is Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin.  In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land.Zombie Economics

The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism–the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many–members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us–and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future.

“Erroneous economic ideas resemble the living dead, writes John Quiggin in his smart new book Zombie Economics. They are dangerous yet impossible to kill. Even after a financial crisis buries them, they survive in our minds and can rise unbidden from the necropolis of ideology.”–James Pressley, Bloomberg News

“As well as exposing how these flawed ideas brought on the global crisis and how they live on, Quiggin offers his view on a new way forward in economic theory. It’s time to bury the zombie.”–Fiona Capp, The Age

For those of you who walk amongst us and have LIKED US on our Facebook Page, you are automatically entered in this week’s draw.  If not and you want to be a part of our weekly draws, LIKE US.

Want to lurk more in Zombie Economics, then go to the Zombie Economics Facebook page.

Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin.

Filed Under: Book Giveaway, Economics, Finance, Political Philosophy

This Week’s Book Giveaway

May 10, 2011 by

This week’s book giveaway is The Silicon Jungle by Shumeet Baluja. A timely thriller, The Silicon Jungle raises serious ethical questions about today’s technological The Silicon Jungleinnovations and how our most confidential activities and minute details can be routinely pieced together into rich profiles that reveal our habits, goals, and secret desires–all ready to be exploited in ways beyond our wildest imaginations. Set in today’s cutting-edge data mining industry, The Silicon Jungle is a cautionary tale of data mining’s promise and peril, and how others can use our online activities for political and personal gain just as easily as for marketing and humanitarian purposes.

“[F]righteningly convincing. . . . The read is quick, the questions will linger, and the ideas are so intriguing. . . . Baluja simplifies the abstract world of tech-speak for the rest of us while aiming to do for the Internet what Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle did for the meat industry: make readers reconsider its safety. For fans of intelligent thrillers.”–Stephen Morrow, Library Journal

“A cerebral, cautionary tale. Credible and scary.”–Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist and one of the “Fathers of the Internet”

To be in our weekly book giveaway draws, LIKE US on Facebook. Each Friday we randomly pick the winner who is then notified that she/he has won the book of the week. Thanks to everyone who follows us on Facebook.

Check out the Facebook page for The Silicon Jungle.

The Silicon Jungle by Shumeet Baluja

Filed Under: Applied Science and Engineering, Book Giveaway, Economics, Finance, history of science, Law, Mathematics, Political Science

This Week’s Book Giveaway

May 2, 2011 by

Did you know May is Hummingbird Month? To help celebrate, this week’s book giveaway is Hummingbirds of North America: The Photographic Guide by Steve Howell.  For all their startling colors, the speed of hummingbird flight and the often drab coloration of females and immatures make this group especially difficult to deal with in the field. The simple field marks are often poorly lit, hard to spot, or simply not shown by any particular individual under observation. But accurate identification of these popular and beautiful birds brings both real satisfaction and a welcome challenge to most birders.

    Key Features:

  • Contains up to 14 full-color photos for each species, with detailed photo captions
  • Detailed introduction covers fundamentals of hummingbird identification, including discussions of anatomy, plumage variation, and molt
  • Comprehensive species accounts describe all plumages, compare similar species in depth, and discuss voice, displays, behavior, geographic range, and seasonal distribution
  • Emphasizes difficult to identify plumages, such as females and immatures
  • Features 200 stunning photos picked specifically to show identification criteria

“The Photographic Guide. . . unites scholarship with unity, and it is outstanding for its photo art, which is both useful and an aesthetic triumph.”–Birding

How do you enter to win this book? To be a part of each Friday’s random drawing for our book giveaways,  LIKE US on our Facebook Page.

Hummingbirds of North America: The Photographic Guide by Steve Howell

Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Birds and Natural History, Book Giveaway

This Week’s Book Giveaway

April 25, 2011 by

This week’s book giveaway is The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress by Peter Singer. What is ethics? Where do moral standards come from? The Expanding CircleIn his classic study The Expanding Circle, Peter Singer argues that altruism began as a genetically based drive to protect one’s kin and community members but has developed into a consciously chosen ethic with an expanding circle of moral concern. Drawing on philosophy and evolutionary psychology, he demonstrates that human ethics cannot be explained by biology alone. Rather, it is our capacity for reasoning that makes moral progress possible. In a new afterword, Singer takes stock of his argument in light of recent research on the evolution of morality.

“Singer’s theory of the expanding circle remains an enormously insightful concept, which reconciles the existence of human nature with political and moral progress. It was also way ahead of its time. . . . It’s wonderful to see this insightful book made available to a new generation of readers and scholars.”–Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and The Stuff of Thought

If you’ve LIKED US on our Facebook Page you are automatically entered in this Friday’s random draw.

The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress by Peter Singer

Filed Under: Book Giveaway, Cognitive Science, Philosophy

This Week’s Book Giveaway

April 18, 2011 by

To help celebrate this year’s National Poetry Month in the United States, The Eternal City: Poemsthis week’s book giveaway is The Eternal City:  Poems by Kathleen Graber.

A 2010 National Book Award Finalist, The Eternal City offers eloquent testimony to the struggle to make sense of the present through conversation with the past. Questioning what it means to possess and to be possessed by objects and technologies, Kathleen Graber’s collection brings together the elevated and the quotidian to make neighbors of Marcus Aurelius, Klaus Kinski, Walter Benjamin, and Johnny Depp.

Chosen by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon to relaunch the prestigious Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets under his editorship, The Eternal City revives Princeton’s tradition of publishing some of today’s best poetry.

“[N]othing short of a revelation. Graber is a new poet that we should have always had but didn’t until just now. Graber is the kind of poet who thinks out loud, though not in the tricky, needley way of John Ashbery, but like someone very smart and very well-read trying to get to the bottom of every troubling and exciting thought. She thinks about her day to day life, family and friends, their every day goings on, their deaths and big tragedies, and she thinks about big ideas–life, death, meaning–mostly in the same poem. She name-checks some of the big figures of Western thought–Marcus Aurelius and Walter Benjamin, for instance–but does so as if she were talking to or about friends. She manages to do a scholar’s work in these poems without the alienating haughtiness of many scholars. And despite their learned-ness, these are poems anyone could love. . . . If you only read one book of poetry this year, that’s not enough, but start with this one.”–Craig Teicher, Publishers Weekly

Here’s an Authors on Camera feature with Kathleen Graber reading from her book:

Can’t get enough? Then view this interview with the author at Virginia Commonwealth University and/or check out the book’s Facebook page.

To be a part of our weekly book giveaways, LIKE US on Facebook. Once you’ve LIKED US, you are automatically entered for our weekly random draw.

The Eternal City: Poems by Kathleen Graber.

Filed Under: Book Giveaway, Poetry

This Week’s Book Giveaway

April 11, 2011 by

This week’s book giveaway is the 10th Anniversary Edition of “Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire” by Tui de Roy. Ever since Charles Darwin visited there in 1835, the Galapagos have fascinated us like no other spot on Earth.  Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire (10th Anniversary Edition)This richly illustrated book captures the ethereal, haunting quality of the Galapagos and of the birds and animals that make these islands their home.

This updated tenth-anniversary edition of De Roy’s celebrated book offers an unforgettable photographic tour of the Galapagos. Explore with her the incredible diversity of wildlife and habitats that rank these islands among the most fascinating and exotically beautiful places in the world.

  • Features 245 stunning full-color photographs
  • Includes De Roy’s insightful commentary
  • Showcases some of the award-winning photographer’s finest work
  • Brings the natural wonders of the Galapagos to life

    •  

    “[E]ngaging and inspirational. . . . The author makes one appreciate the fragile beauty of the fiery isles.”–The Press

    Have you LIKE(d) Princeton University Press on Facebook? Yes? Then you’re in this Friday’s book giveaway random draw. If not,  go to our FACEBOOK page and click on LIKE. Each week you will be entered in our book-of-the-week giveaway.

    Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire by Tui de Roy

    Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Birds and Natural History, Book Giveaway, Photography

    This Week’s Book Giveaway

    April 4, 2011 by

    Like birds? This week’s book giveaway is The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley.

    This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes field guide design by providing the first real-life approach to identification. The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern BirdsWhether you are a beginner, expert, or anywhere in between, The Crossley ID Guide will vastly improve your ability to identify birds.

    • Revolutionary. This book changes field guide design to make you a better birder
    • A picture says a thousand words. The most comprehensive guide: 640 stunning scenes created from 10,000 of the author’s photographs
    • Reality birding. Lifelike in-focus scenes show birds in their habitats, from near and far, and in all plumages and behaviors
    • Teaching and reference. The first book to accurately portray all the key identification characteristics: size, shape, behavior, probability, and color
    • Practice makes perfect. An interactive learning experience to sharpen and test field identification skills
    • Bird like the experts. The first book to simplify birding and help you understand how to bird like the best

    “What’s so different about the Crossley ID Guide? Everything. Crossley has designed his guide to reflect the way we see and identify birds. We identify birds by their size, shape, structure, behavior, habitat, and field marks. We [see] birds at close range, at middle and long distances, on the ground, in flight, in trees, and on the water. . . . If you want to be a better birder you will find the new Crossley ID Guide to be [a] major innovation and a valuable tool.”–Wayne Mones, Audubon.org

    Like videos? Check out our Crossley Media Room where you will find the Crossley ID Tips featured video, “Don’t be Afraid to Make Mistakes” and also view the other Crossley videos.  There are still more to come.

    And for an informative and entertaining time, attend one of Richard’s upcoming appearances on his book tour:

  • 4/8/11 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, TX
  • 4/11/11 Audubon Wildlife Society, Collingswood, NJ
  • 4/12/11 Linnaean Society, New York, NY
  • 4/13/11 New York City Audubon Society, New York, NY
  • 5/6/11 Biggest Week in American Birding, Oak Harbor, OH
  • 5/21/11 Labyrinth Books, Princeton, NJ


    • The book giveaway takes place this Friday. To participate in our weekly draws, LIKE US on our FB page.

    The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley.

    Filed Under: Biological Sciences, Birds and Natural History, Book Giveaway, The Crossley ID Guide

    This Week’s Book Giveaway

    March 28, 2011 by

    Can’t get enough baseball? This week’s book giveaway,  Baseball on the Border:  A Tale of Two Laredos by Alan Klein, will help fill the gap.

    From 1985 to 1994 there existed a significant but unheralded experiment in professional baseball.Baseball on the Border For ten seasons, the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (The Owls of the Two Laredos) were the only team in professional sports to represent two nations. Playing in the storied Mexican League (an AAA affiliate of major league baseball), the “Tecos” had home parks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, in Laredo, Texas and in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. In true border fashion, Mexican and American national anthems were played before each game, and the Tecos were operated by interests in both cities. Baseball on the Border is the story of the rise and unexpected demise of this surprising team. Anyone with an interest in baseball will be enlightened & entertained by this informative book.

    “Read this book, enjoy the characterizations of the players, managers, and administrators … listen to the crowd cheer for their home town heroes, and pause to think, as Klein paints the picture with a masters stroke, of what this [book] can tell us about transnational relations and the impact of sport.”–Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, authors of Backboards and Blackboards

    “The book is very well written. . . . It contributes greatly to the literature on the cultural basis of sport, to our understanding of the manner in which cultural inventions reflect national identity and processes, and substantiates an important insight to the idea that sport may provide a window to ongoing social change.”–Carlos Velez-Ibañez, American Anthropologist

    Everyone who LIKES us on our Facebook Page is automatically entered in our weekly book giveaways.

    Baseball on the Border: A Tale of Two Laredos by Alan Klein

    Filed Under: Anthropology, Book Giveaway, Economics, Latin American Studies, Sociology, Sports

    This Week’s Book Giveaway

    March 21, 2011 by

    This week in history. Remember the catastrophe that happened on March 24, 1989?–the  Exxon Valdez ran aground.

    This week’s book giveaway is The Next Catastrophe by Charles Perrow.

    The Next Catastrophe is a penetrating reassessment of the very real
    dangers we face today and what we must do to confront them. Written in a highly accessible style by a renowned systems-behavior expert, this book is essential reading for the twenty-first century. The events of September 11 and Hurricane Katrina–and the devastating human toll they wrought–were only the beginning. When the next big disaster comes, will we be ready? In a new preface to the paperback edition, Perrow examines the recent (and ongoing) catastrophes of the financial crisis, the BP oil spill, and global warming.

    “From the opening pages, The Next Catastrophe is riveting, eye-opening, and haunting. The causes of disasters go far beyond random acts of nature or terrorism; they reflect underlying systemic and managerial issues that we must confront in order to ensure our safety. Luckily, Charles Perrow digs deeply to find some difficult but promising solutions. Concerned citizens must join the experts in reading this brilliant book.”–Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, best-selling author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End

    This book proposes a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness…Focusing on three causes of disaster–natural, organizational, and deliberate–he shows that our best hope lies in the deconcentration of high-risk populations, corporate power, and critical infrastructures. He also provides the first comprehensive history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and examines why these agencies are so ill equipped to protect U.S. citizens.”–Natural Hazards Observer

    Anyone who has LIKED us will be in our Facebook weekly book giveaway draw this Friday.

    The Next Catastrophe by Charles Perrow

    Filed Under: Book Giveaway, Political Science, Sociology
    «Older Posts