Jessica Almasy

From an Italian alchemist seeking to create gold from some strange stones to modern-day scientists cloning the genes that produce luciferin and luciferase, and the engineers trying to develop cheaper, whiter, more efficient LEDs, the text lays out the historical hows and whys of cold light, its success in the natural world, and its application in medicine and domestic/industrial illumination. Clear color photos and information boxes abound. A nifty...

Daddy has uprooted the family to move to Oregon-but not without his babies-apples, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and cherries! Will Daddy's precious plants persevere? This tall tale is loosely based on a real life fruit pioneer who brought his fruit trees along on the Oregon Trail.

Midlife is sheer madness, and the facts of midlife are not taught in school. Unfortunately, some lessons are hellishly hard to learn. I thought I had it figured out. I was wrong. Proving I'm the Angel of Mercy is turning into a sh*tshow of epic proportions. Not too long ago, I was a forty-year-old gal with a stable and boring life ahead of me. Now? Not so much. I have celestial siblings who are no walk in the park. Their decisions can destroy my...

During the long, cold winter of 1692, seven young ladies from Salem, Massachusetts, begin to display disturbing symptoms. They're convulsing, contorting, cowering, and croaking strange sounds. Finding no help from medical books, the village doctor declares them bewitched. Having already triggered more than 60,000 executions in Europe, the fear of witchcraft begins its work-even among sensible, down-to-earth New Englanders. And before it's all over,...