For fans of Sapiens, Your Inner Fish, The Sixth Extinction, and I Contain Multitudes, a sweeping narrative scientific history—the only one of its kind—that tells the epic story of the dinosaurs, examining their origins, their habitats, their extinction, and their living legacy, from one of the most accomplished young paleontologists in the world today. In this ambitious and engrossing narrative history that spans nearly 200 million years, Stephen Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field—discovering ten new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies—tells the complete story of the life and death of the dinosaurs. Brusatte follows these magnificent creatures from the Early Triassic period at the start of their evolution, roughly 250 million years ago, through the Jurassic period to the end of the Cretaceous period (66 million years ago), when a giant meteor struck the earth and all non-bird species went extinct. Brusatte traces their evolution from small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the long-necked, armored carnivores we are familiar with today. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ heyday, when thousands of species—including fearsome predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex—thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of more than 10,000 modern bird species, emerged. Brusatte recalls compelling stories from his decade-long journey studying these legendary beasts during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research, and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable discoveries he has made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs, monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex, and raptor dinosaurs from China. An electrifying scientific history and biography that unearths the dinosaurs’ epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be the definitive narrative history of the subject for years to come.

An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of everyday consumers to protect their health and the environment. By the author of The Botany of Desire. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

Traces the author's pop-science investigation into the sources and manufacture of processed food ingredients, in an account that uses the Twinkie label as a guide and reveals the unexpected ways in which chemicals and other non-food raw materials are turned into common brand consumables.

A provocative, witty celebration of carnivorous consumption shares the pleasures of eating meat while covering the ethical issues of being a carnivore, the art of picking the right butcher, the painful experience of spending a week as a vegetarian, and the dietary, anthropological, and medical findings about meat consumption. 25,000 first printing.

An ecological and anthropological study of eating offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of everyday consumers to protect their health and the environment. By the author of The Botany of Desire. 125,000 first printing.

Traces the author's pop-science investigation into the sources and manufacture of processed food ingredients, in an account that uses the Twinkie label as a guide and reveals the unexpected ways in which chemicals and other non-food raw materials are turned into common brand consumables. Reprint.

A history of the role of food in World War II and its aftermath reveals how more than 20 million people died from starvation, malnutrition and related diseases during the war and traces the interaction between food and strategy on military and home fronts and how period practices continue to influence today's world. 25,000 first printing.

New Yorker staff writer Paige Williams delves into the riveting and sometimes perilous world of the international fossil trade through the true story of one man's devastating attempt to sell a Gobi Desert dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia, a nation that forbids trafficking in natural history. The first time Eric Prokopi saw T. bataar bones he was impressed. The enormous skull and teeth betrayed the apex predator's close relation to the storied Tyrannosaurus rex, the most famous animal that ever lived. Prokopi's obsession with fossils had begun decades earlier, when he was a Florida boy scouring for shark teeth and Ice Age remnants, and it had continued as he built a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens to avid collectors and private museums around the world. To scientists' fury and dismay, there was big money to be made in certain corners of the fossil trade. Prokopi didn't consider himself merely a businessman, though. He also thought of himself as a vital part of paleontology--as one of the lesser-known artistic links in bringing prehistoric creatures back to life--and saw nothing wrong with turning a profit in the process. Bone hunting was expensive, risky, controversial work, and he increasingly needed bigger "scores." By the time he acquired a largely complete skeleton of T. bataar and restored it in his workshop, he was highly leveraged and drawing quiet scorn from peers who worried that by bringing such a big, beautiful Mongolian dinosaur to market he would tarnish the entire trade. Presenting the skeleton for sale at a major auction house in New York City, he was relieved to see the bidding start at nearly $1 million--only to fall apart when the president of Mongolia unexpectedly stepped in to question the specimen's origins and demand its return. An international custody battle ensued, shining new light on the black market for dinosaur fossils, the angst of scientists who fear for their field, and the precarious political tensions in post-Communist Mongolia. The Prokopi case, unprecedented in American jurisprudence, continues to reverberate throughout the intersecting worlds of paleontology, museums, art, and geopolitics. In this gorgeous nonfiction debut, Williams uncovers an untold story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she grapples with the questions of who we are, how we got here, and who, ultimately, owns the past.

The award-winning author of Everything Is Illuminated exposes common misconceptions about how animals are slaughtered and processed for food, drawing on sources from popular culture to national tradition to reveal how the meat industry misrepresents its practices. Reprint. A best-selling book.