Archives par étiquette : The Martell Agency

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE de David George Haskell

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE takes you on a journey to connect with trees through the sense most aligned to our emotions and memories.

THIRTEEN WAYS TO SMELL A TREE
by David George Haskell
‎ Octopus UK/Viking US, October 2021
(via The Martell Agency)

Thirteen essays are included that explore the evocative scents of trees, from the smell of a book just printed as you first open its pages, to the calming scent of Linden blossom, to the ingredients of a particularly good gin & tonic. In your hand: a highball glass, beaded with cool moisture. In your nose: the aromatic embodiment of globalized trade. The spikey, herbal odour of European juniper berries. A tang of lime juice from a tree descended from wild progenitors in the foothills of the Himalayas. Bitter quinine, from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, spritzed into your nostrils by the pop of sparkling tonic water. Take a sip, feel the aroma and taste of three continents converge.
Each essay also contains a practice the reader is invited to experience. For example, taking a tree inventory of our own home, appreciating just how many things around us came from trees. And if you’ve ever hugged a tree when no one was looking, try breathing in the scents of different trees that live near you, the smell of pine after the rain, the refreshing, mind-clearing scent of a eucalyptus leaf crushed in your hand.

British-born biologist, award-winning author and celebrated academic David George Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary and contemplative studies of the natural world. Haskell holds degrees from the University of Oxford (BA) and from Cornell University (PhD). He is Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of the South, where he served as Chair of Biology. His scientific research on animal ecology, evolution and conservation has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the World Wildlife Fund among others. He serves on the boards and advisory committees of local and national land conservation groups. His previous books include The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors and The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature.

WATER ALWAYS WINS de Erica Gies

Told as an unfolding detective story, WATER ALWAYS WINS by award-winning science journalist Erica Gies follows experts who are obsessed with water as they use close observation, historical research, ancient animal and human expertise and cutting-edge science to understand how water really works, why efforts to control it are failing and how to create more resilient water systems in the urgent race to mitigate the catastrophic effects of climate change.

WATER ALWAYS WINS:
Collaborating with Nature for a More Resilient Future
by Erica Gies
University of Chicago Press, 2022

WATER ALWAYS WINS makes clear that we need to fundamentally rethink our relationship with water. We must embrace the reality that we are an integral part of nature and need learn to live in harmony with these forces that we cannot conquer. This requires humility, not arrogance; collaboration, not aggressive control and setting a goal, which is to determine what water wants and figure out a how to make way for it, while protecting and securing our lives. The overarching theme is that such a mindset is essential in all our dealings with every aspect of nature, if we want our planet to survive. As Erica Gies so beautifully states, water is life, it “flexes with the rhythms of the earth, expanding and retreating in an eternal dance upon the land.”
WATER ALWAYS WINS follows the scientists and engineers who are recovering this lost knowledge and also new understanding of water and then finding ways to let water be water, a kind of un-engineering that reclaims space for water to stall on the land for cleaning, capture, and storage – a “slow water” ethic with many of the same attributes as the slow food movement. WATER ALWAYS WINS takes us along on this great journey, from Peru, where scientists are restoring a 1,500-year-old aqueduct system created by a pre-Incan civilization to Chennai, India, where the technology of ancient Dravidian temple tanks is being introduced to control flooding to San Francisco, where urban planners are mapping the original “ghost” waterways under the city to find improved methods of water management. Animal researchers are studying the ways creatures from beavers (who built a continuous dam twice as long as the Hoover dam) to elephants naturally “engineer” water systems that renew and replenish the land.
This is a riveting and eye-opening “big idea” book that will do for water what The Hidden Life of Trees did for forests or what The Sixth Extinction did for animal genocide.

Erica Gies is the perfect person to write this book. She is an independent journalist who writes about water, climate policy, urban planning, plants and animals for Scientific American, Nature, The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, The Economist, with a proven track record of bringing science alive for the general public. Erica has appeared on NPR’s Science Friday and they are eager to have her on when the book comes out. She holds a master’s degree in literature with a focus in eco-criticism, which brings a wide-angle, narrative lens to her science reporting.

A KILLER BY DESIGN de Ann Wolbert Burgess & Steven Constantine

Criminal profiling pioneer Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess charts her journey from groundbreaking researcher of sexual violence to one of the first women on the elite FBI team, conducting forensic interviews of high profile serial killers, testifying at trials, and revolutionizing police and prosecutorial procedures in the process, offering readers a look into the inner workings of the FBI.

A KILLER BY DESIGN:
How the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit Learned To Hunt Serial Killers and Understand Criminal Minds
by Ann Wolbert Burgess & Steven Constantine
Hachette US, 2022

“In the early 1970’s, sexual assault wasn’t talked about. It was viewed as indecent or attributed to the fringes of society, dismissed as a women’s issue — as if men weren’t even involved. But this perception showed a stark disconnect from reality and facts. At the time, forcible rape was one of four major violent crimes in the United States. It was a large-scale problem that was further compounded by a lack of treatment options available for managing the emotional and traumatic effects that victims of rape struggled with most. Hospitals only treated a victim’s physical trauma, law enforcement hadn’t yet developed standards for processing their cases, and academics largely avoided the topic as too controversial for studies or research. But ignoring the problem wasn’t a solution. It was complicity. It added to the stigma and misperceptions that allowed rapists a sense of impunity and kept victims powerless to speak out. It made it worse.”

This was the grim reality that Ann Burgess, then a doctoral graduate with a degree in psychiatric nursing, found when she decided to get involved in the study of rape and sexual assault, choosing a topic that few others saw as worth the trouble. But what she called the complete “absence of understanding” surrounding this urgent issue left her no choice. Fortunately, she connected with a medical sociologist, Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, with whom Ann created the first ever formalized study of rape from the victim’s perspective, and through countless interviews with rape survivors ultimately proved that rape is more about dominance and control than sex. The impact of this early work was groundbreaking. It led to the development of the first rape crisis centers, created new police standards, and resulted in an increase in rape trials with outcomes that favored the victim. It also captured the attention of the FBI Academy, leading Burgess to become one of the first female consultants hired by the agency.
The book will include fascinating true accounts of high-profile serial killers to offer readers an unprecedented look into the inner workings of the FBI, where she was a colleague of John Douglas of Mindhunter fame. And it will engage readers through a vivid narrative that combines authentic criminal profiling sessions, interviews with serial sexual killers, courtroom trials, and firsthand accounts of victims to show how the rape movement began, how far it’s come, where it stands today and how this work is one of the cornerstones of today’s #MeToo Movement.

Ann Wolbert Burgess, D.N.Sc., APRN, FAAN, is a widely recognized pioneer in the treatment of victims of rape, trauma and abuse. She has received numerous honors including The Living Legend Award from the American Academy of Nursing, the American Nurses’ Association Hildegard Peplau Award, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Audrey Hepburn Award. She is the namesake of the Ann Burgess Forensic Nursing Award, presented annually by The International Association of Forensic Nurses. She regularly appears as an expert witness to offer courtroom testimony for high-profile cases involving violent serial offenders, child abuse, and sexual crime. Her courtroom testimony has been described as “groundbreaking.” Ann is a professor at Boston College Connell School of Nursing where she teaches graduate courses in forensic nursing. Before that she held faculty appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University.

THE GENIUS OF WOMEN de Janice Kaplan

We tell girls that they can be anything, so why do 90 percent of Americans believe that geniuses are almost always men? New York Times bestselling journalist and creator and host of the podcast The Gratitude Diaries Janice Kaplan explores the powerful forces that have rigged the system—and celebrates the women geniuses, past and present, who have triumphed anyway.

THE GENIUS OF WOMEN:
From Overlooked to Changing the World
by Janice Kaplan
Dutton, February 2020
(chez The Martell Agency – voir catalogue)

Even in this time of rethinking women’s roles, we define genius almost exclusively through male achievement. When asked to name a genius, people mention Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs. As for great women? In one survey, the only female genius anyone listed was Marie Curie. Janice Kaplan, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gratitude Diaries, set out to determine why the extraordinary work of so many women has been brushed aside. Using her unique mix of memoir, narrative, and inspiration, she makes surprising discoveries about women geniuses now and throughout history, in fields from music to robotics. Through interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists, and dozens of women geniuses at work in the world today—including Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold and AI expert Fei-Fei Li—she proves that genius isn’t just about talent. It’s about having that talent recognized, nurtured, and celebrated. Across the generations, even when they face less-than-perfect circumstances, women geniuses have created brilliant and original work. In THE GENIUS OF WOMEN, you’ll learn how they ignored obstacles and broke down seemingly unshakable barriers. The geniuses in this moving, powerful, and very entertaining book provide more than inspiration—they offer a clear blueprint to everyone who wants to find her own path and move forward with passion.

Janice Kaplan has enjoyed wide success as a magazine editor, television producer, writer, and journalist. The former editor in chief of Parade magazine, she is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Gratitude Diaries and I’ll See You Again. She lives in New York City and Kent, Connecticut.

PIPE DREAMS de Chelsea Wald

From an award-winning science journalist, a lively, informative, and humorous deep dive into the future of the toilet—from creative uses for harvested “biosolids,” to the bold engineers dedicated to bringing safe sanitation to the billions of people worldwide living without—for fans of popular science bestsellers by Mary Roach.

PIPE DREAMS: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet
by Chelsea Wald
Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster, April 2021
(chez The Martell Agency – voir catalogue)

Most of us do not give much thought to the centerpiece of our bathrooms, but the toilet is an unexpected paradox. On the one hand, it is a modern miracle: a ubiquitous fixture in a vast sanitation system that has helped add decades to human lifespan by reducing disease. On the other hand, the toilet is also a tragic failure: less than half of the world’s population can access a toilet that safely manages bodily waste, including many right here in the United States. And it is inefficient, squandering clean water as well as the nutrients and energy contained in the waste we flush away. While we see radical technological change in almost every other aspect of our lives, we remain stuck in a sanitation status quo—in part because the topic of toilets is taboo. Fortunately, there’s hope—and PIPE DREAMS daringly profiles the growing army of scientists, engineers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and activists worldwide who are overcoming their aversions and focusing their formidable skills on making toilets accessible and healthier for all. This potential revolution in sanitation has many benefits, including reducing inequalities, mitigating climate change and water scarcity, improving agriculture, and optimizing health. Author Chelsea Wald takes us on a wild world tour from a compost toilet project in Haiti, to a plant in the Netherlands that harvests used toilet paper from sewage, and shows us a bot that hangs out in manholes to estimate opioid use in a city, among many other fascinating developments. Much more than a glorified trash can, the toilet, Wald maintains, holds the power to help solve many of the world’s problems, if only we can harness it.

Chelsea Wald has repeatedly plunged into the topic of toilets since 2013, when editors first approached her to write about the latent potential in our stagnating infrastructure. Since then she has traveled to Italy, South Africa, Indonesia, and Haiti, as well as throughout the Netherlands and the United States, in search of the past and future of toilet systems. With a degree in astronomy from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Indiana University, Chelsea has fifteen years of experience of writing about science and the environment. She has won several awards and reporting grants, including from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the European Geosciences Union, and the European Journalism Centre. She cofounded and continues to help coordinate the DC Science Writers Association Newsbrief Awards for short science writing. She lives with her family in the Netherlands, in a region renowned for its water-related innovations. PIPE DREAMS is her first book.