What could a pampered house cat possibly have to complain about? Just like most cats, this cat lives an extremely comfortable life. But he has his problems, too... The sun spot he's trying to bathe in just won't stop moving. The nosy neighbour squirrel just can't seem to mind its own business. And don't even get him started on the hoover! It's an absolute menace! Will this cat ever find the silver lining? From picture book superstars Jory John and Lane Smith, the creators of Penguin Problems and Giraffe Problems, comes a brand-new, hilarious collaboration sure to tickle every feline fan and owner!

While scouting sites for geology field trips, poet and naturalist John Lane encountered deep gullies created between the Civil War and the 1930s contributed to by his mother’s tenant farming family and their rural neighbors in Piedmont South Carolina. This brush with the poor farming practices of the past leads Lane into an exploration of his own family’s complicated history and of the larger environmental forces that have shaped the region where he chooses to live. With his sister as guide, Lane descends into the gully of his own childhood to uncover memories of a loving but alcoholic mother and a suicidal father. Back and forth, the narrative progresses from depictions of the land—particularly the overgrown and neglected places that hold stories and mysteries of the region—to Lane’s ever-deepening search.He wonders how he, a college professor and husband settled into middle-class life, has emerged from the chaos of his family’s past. Along the way, we meet heroic Depression-era geologists, fascinating colleagues, and troubled ancestors. Lane’s extraordinary ability to weave personal history together with explorations of the natural world will remind readers of the works of Loren Eiseley and Terry Tempest Williams.

First published in 1992. Aluminium is a relatively new material, first used on a commercial basis just over 100 years ago. Today it has taken its place alongside other traditional materials as an established building element. In this variable reference source, John Lane discusses the history and development of aluminium usage in the building industry. Its characteristics of strength, lightness and durability, coupled with easy formability, make it and ideal medium for this market. The first section of this book is a general discussion of the metal, covering such areas as its properties, alloys, fabrication, joining and finishing. The second part details the aspects of aluminium which are of particular importance in construction, while the final section highlights some of its major uses in architecture and building. The text is amply illustrated with diagrams and photographs, and the appendices provide the reader with comprehensive details of relevant standards and contact addresses.

Penguins aren’t the only animal out there with problems, oh no…

Praise for Penguin Problems: "A small philosophy manual for readers of all ages ... wonderfully original" Observer

From Jory John and Lane Smith, the winner of the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal, comes a laugh-out-loud companion to the acclaimed Penguin Problems. Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and ridiculous as it is. No other animal has a neck this absurd. He's tried disguising it, dressing it up, strategically hiding it behind bushes ... anything he can think of. But just when he's exhausted his neck-hiding options, a turtle ambles in and tries to help him understand that his neck has a purpose ... and looks excellent in a bow tie.

Penguins aren’t the only animal out there with problems, oh no…

Praise for Penguin Problems: "A small philosophy manual for readers of all ages ... wonderfully original" Observer

From Jory John and Lane Smith, the winner of the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal, comes a laugh-out-loud companion to the acclaimed Penguin Problems. Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and ridiculous as it is. No other animal has a neck this absurd. He's tried disguising it, dressing it up, strategically hiding it behind bushes ... anything he can think of. But just when he's exhausted his neck-hiding options, a turtle ambles in and tries to help him understand that his neck has a purpose ... and looks excellent in a bow tie.

First published in 1992. Aluminium is a relatively new material, first used on a commercial basis just over 100 years ago. Today it has taken its place alongside other traditional materials as an established building element. In this variable reference source, John Lane discusses the history and development of aluminium usage in the building industry. Its characteristics of strength, lightness and durability, coupled with easy formability, make it and ideal medium for this market. The first section of this book is a general discussion of the metal, covering such areas as its properties, alloys, fabrication, joining and finishing. The second part details the aspects of aluminium which are of particular importance in construction, while the final section highlights some of its major uses in architecture and building. The text is amply illustrated with diagrams and photographs, and the appendices provide the reader with comprehensive details of relevant standards and contact addresses.

One night, poet and environmental writer John Lane tuned in to a sound from behind his house that he had never heard before: the nearby eerie and captivating howls of coyote. Since this was Spartanburg, South Carolina, and not Missoula, Montana, Lane set out to discover all he could about his new and unexpected neighbors. Coyote Settles the South is the story of his journey through the Southeast, where he visits coyote territories: swamps, nature preserves, old farm fields, suburbs, a tannery, and even city streets. On his travels he meets, interrogates, and observes those who interact with the animals-trappers, wildlife researchers, hunters, rattled pet owners, and even one devoted coyote hugger. Along the way, he encounters sensible, yet sometimes perplexing, insight concerning the migration into the Southeast of the American coyote, an animal that, in the end, surprises him with its intelligence, resilience, and amazing adaptability.

Penguins aren't the only animal out there with problems, oh no…

Praise for Penguin Problems: "A small philosophy manual for readers of all ages ... wonderfully original" Observer

From Jory John and Lane Smith, the winner of the 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal, comes a laugh-out-loud companion to the acclaimed Penguin Problems. Edward the giraffe can't understand why his neck is as long and bendy and ridiculous as it is. No other animal has a neck this absurd. He's tried disguising it, dressing it up, strategically hiding it behind bushes ... anything he can think of. But just when he's exhausted his neck-hiding options, a turtle ambles in and tries to help him understand that his neck has a purpose ... and looks excellent in a bow tie.

John Lane continues his exploration of the intersection of the human imagination with the world of other animals in a companion volume to Coyote Settles the South (2016) and Neighbourhood Hawks (2019). Each of these fifteen pieces--some more formal essays, some journalism, and some stories of Lane's encounters with wild animals in wild places--explores the diversity and the mystery of what's often been called ""the more than human world."" In each piece there is always animal presence, sometimes central and sometimes peripheral. In one piece the Columbian mammoth comes back to trouble the contemporary political landscape of South Carolina. In another, he ponders the fate of a wing-shot goose finding a last refuge in the Lane family's tiny frog pond. In another, Lane ventures into an abandoned Zimbabwean gold mine alone to check on the status of a common genet, a shy carnivore.

Have you ever thought: I have so many problems and nobody even cares? Well, penguins have problems too! Discover them in this hilarious collaboration from Jory John (All my friends are dead. and Quit Calling Me a Monster!) and Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales). This penguin has come to tell you that life in Antarctica is no paradise. For starters, it is FREEZING. Also, penguins have a ton of natural predators. Plus, can you imagine trying to find your mom in a big ol' crowd of identical penguins? No, thank you. It seems there is no escaping the drudgery of your daily grind, whatever it might be. Or perhaps we've just learned that grumps are everywhere. . . . This book is sure to tickle kids' funny bones and will elicit appreciative sighs from the adults reading it aloud. "We are all Mortimer [the main character in Penguin Problems]." -The New York Times "Bursting with humor." -Kirkus Reviews "The snark level is cranked up high." -The Horn Book, Starred "Will be right at home with fans of Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat." -Booklist "Classic comedy." -Publishers Weekly "Rib-tickling." -School Library Journal

What could a pampered house cat possibly have to complain about? Just like most cats, this cat lives an extremely comfortable life. But he has his problems, too... The sun spot he's trying to bathe in just won't stop moving. The nosy neighbour squirrel just can't seem to mind its own business. And don't even get him started on the hoover! It's an absolute menace! Will this cat ever find the silver lining? From picture book superstars Jory John and Lane Smith, the creators of Penguin Problems and Giraffe Problems, comes a brand-new, hilarious collaboration sure to tickle every feline fan and owner!

Max Beerbohm's erudite wit and playful conceits represent the pinnacle of the Aesthetic period's capacity to laugh at itself whilst celebrating itself. This book was the author's first, and was presented by him (with tongue lodged firmly in cheek) as a 'collected works', an august memorial to a brilliant career. Included are all seven of his major early essays: Dandies and Dandies on the important distinction between true Regency foppery and its cruder modern notion; A Good Prince portraying the future Edward VIII as an already demanding baby monarch; 1880 and its very recent but already intriguingly faded charms; King George the Fourth rigorously reappraising the Regent; The Pervasion of Rouge celebrating the return of artifice after far too long a naturalcy; Poor Romeo imagining the story behind a laughing-stock of the Regency stage; and Diminuendo charting the author's own course, firstly to disillusion, and then to retirement in outmoded greatness at the age of 23 Though these essays were justly acclaimed in their time, their magnificence is such that they also demand the highest accolades in ours, replete as they are with undiminished colour and spectacle, humour and barbed excellence. MAX BEERBOHM was born in 1872. He attended Merton College in Oxford, but left without completing his degree. He was a regular contributor to magazines (where these essays originally appeared) and a caricaturist of world renown. He married Florence Kahn in 1910. They moved to Rapallo in Italy and stayed there, apart from the period of the two world wars, for the rest of their lives. Knighted in 1939, Sir Max died in 1956.

This is a book about simplicity - not destitution, not parsimoniousness, not self-denial - but the restoration of wealth in the midst of an affluence in which the author believes we are starving the spirit. It has to do with having less and enjoying more - enjoying time to do the work you love, enjoying time to spend with your family, enjoying time to pursue creative projects, enjoying time for good eating, enjoying time just to be. Another theme of the book concerns the future of our home, the Earth. Our grandchildren will inherit an Earth with less than 20 per cent of its original forests still intact, with most of the readily available freshwater already spoken for, with most of the wetlands and reef systems either destroyed or degraded. Sooner or later, the author believes, a more frugal lifestyle will not only be desirable - it will become an imperative.

Whose Woods These Are takes place on Thanksgiving Day in a deep river bottom in a mythical Piedmont county, Morgan, South Carolina, a creation carried over from John Lane's first novel, the award-winning Fate Moreland's Widow. The story is told in four perspectives on the possible death and certain disappearance of Old Doc, an 85-year-old land owner/deer hunter and centers on a contested property boundary shared with the resident Mitchell family who have lived on the land since colonial times. Four intricately layered stories spool out as Thanksgiving Day progresses: that of Jae Mitchell, the young hunter with deep connections to the land; deputy sheriff Caddy Galligher, Jae's former girlfriend and mother of his young child; Daren Pagano, Old Doc's scheming real estate agent step son; and Sheriff Howard, near retirement, a hunting buddy of Old Doc who believes what his deputy Caddy tells him, that Jae Mitchell wouldn't kill anybody. All have their stakes in what happened in the river bottom and as the day unfolds, nobody can locate the suspect or the victim, so the four stories turn into a search for the truth in the deep woods.