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Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey
by Jane Goodall, Phillip Berman (Contributor)

As a young woman, Jane Goodall was best known for her groundbreaking fieldwork with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Africa. Goodall's work has always been controversial, mostly because she broke the mold of research scientist by developing meaningful relationships with her "specimens" and honoring their lives as she would other humans. Now at the age of 60, she continues to break the mold of scientist by revealing how her research and worldwide conservation institutes spring from her childhood callings and adult spiritual convictions. Reason for Hope is a smoothly written memoir that does not shy away from facing the realities of environmental destruction, animal abuse, and genocide. But Goodall shares her antidote to the poison of despair with specific examples of why she has not lost faith. For instance, she shares her spiritual epiphany during a visit to Auschwitz; her bravery in the face of chimpanzee imprisonment in medical laboratories; and devotes a whole chapter to individuals, corporations, and countries that are doing the right thing. But most of all Goodall provides a beautifully written plea for why everyone can and must find a reason for hope.

Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science
by Connie Barlow

We enter our houses of worship in search of meaning and understanding, but can we include the halls of academe and scientific laboratories as additional sources of inspiration? Science writer Barlow gives us an enthusiastic Yes! She builds her book on conversations with biologists, ecologists, and religious scholars, who argue in groups and individually for the appreciation of what leading socibiologist E.O. Wilson has coined as the "epic of evolution": the reading of creation and evolution as a spiritual text that calls us to care for our world and each other. Scientists are increasingly working with environmentalists, mainline Christian denominations, and others to call us to protect our planet. This book has the potential to be a key work for environmentalists and those interested in the relationship between science and religion. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.

Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

Here's your surprise! Some of the world's most unusual animals: (more to come)

Capybara - Found in South America
Is it a four-foot-long guinea pig? No, this short-tailed, sleepy-eyed beast is a capybara—the world's largest rodent. Its semi-webbed feet help make it a good swimmer, and it spends much of its time around water or wallowing in mud with other capybaras.

Chinese Crested
There are two distinct varieties of this unusual dog: one is hairless except for its feet, head and tail, and called, nor surpisingly, the Hairless; the other is called the Powder Puff. It has a coat of long soft hair. Both come in numerous colors, eithe solid, mixed or spotted all over. It has a broad skull and a long muzzle. Eyes are dark, and ears are erect. Strangely the two types often come in the same litter.

Echidna
The spiny echidna is one of only two monotremes—egg-laying mammals. It spends most of its time alone, burrowing in the ground and catching insects with its long sticky tongue. Echidnas grow about 18 inches long and have a simple oblong shape.

Okapi
The okapi looks like it might be part zebra and part giraffe. In fact, it is related to the giraffe, though it is only about five feet high at the shoulder and has a much shorter neck. A mammal, it has a red-brown body and dazzling white stripes on its legs and bottom.

Unisexual Whiptail Lizards
The New Mexico Whiptail, pictured here, is an all-female species that is actually a mixture of the Western Whiptail, which lives in the desert, and the Little Striped Whiptail, a denizen of grasslands. Most products of crossbreeding, such as the mule, are sterile. But the New Mexico Whiptail, as well as several other all-female species of whiptail lizard, does reproduce, and all of its offspring are female. Moreover, it reproduces by parthenogenesis -- its eggs require no fertilization, and its offspring are exact and complete genetic duplicates of the mother. Scientists understand only partially how this reproductive mode developed, and it raises many questions. One of the most intriguing is how this cloning affects the lizard's ability to adapt to environmental changes. Since there is no genetic variation except that which occurs through mutation, the New Mexico Whiptail cannot evolve as other species do. The New Mexico Whiptail Lizard also offers an extraordinary opportunity to learn more about the role of sperm in fertilization, as well as about cloning. Through this anomaly, scientists may learn more about the norm.

4-month old Wombat