Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

~ Arnold Lobel [1933-1987] author of many popular children's books.

Compiled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, the Birdbooker Report is a weekly report that has been published online for years, listing the wide variety of nature, natural history, ecology, animal behaviour, science and history books that have been newly released or republished in North America and in the UK. The books listed here were received by Ian during the previous week, courtesy of various publishing houses.

Featured Titles:

• Niles, Lawrence, Joanna Burger and Amanda Dey. Life Along the Delaware Bay: Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds. 2012. Rutgers University Press. Hardbound: 154 pages. Price: $32.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
  SUMMARY: The Delaware Bay is the second largest and most diverse bay on the East Coast. It has a rich cultural history, has played an important role in the region's commerce and tourism, and has spectacular and vital natural resources. Birdwatchers gather along its shores to watch the spectacle of thousands of spawning horseshoe crabs, the dense flocks of migrant shorebirds, the fall hawk migration, and the huge migration of monarch butterflies.
  Life Along the Delaware Bay focuses on the area as an ecosystem, the horseshoe crab as a keystone species within that system, and the crucial role that the bay plays in the migratory ecology of shorebirds. An overabundance of horseshoe crabs spawning on the Delaware Bay beaches results in an abundance of eggs brought to the surface, providing a source of high-quality food and bringing hundreds of thousands of shorebirds to the bay to forage in late May and early June. A slight decline in horseshoe crabs has resulted in a rapid and dramatic decline in birds, particularly the red knot. This decline has sounded an alarm throughout the world, prompting a host of biologists to converge on the bay each spring, to understand the biology and conservation of red knots and other shorebirds.
  The book examines current efforts to protect the bay and identifies new efforts that must take place to ensure it remains an intact ecological system. Over three hundred stunning color photographs and maps capture the beauty and majesty of this unique treasure -- one that must be protected today and for generations to come.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: The photography by Jan van de Kam highlights this book! Shorebird fans and birders with an interest in the region will want this book!
  
• Phillipps, Quentin and Karen Phillipps. Phillipps' Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Kalimantan (Second Edition, Fully Revised). 2011. John Beaufoy. Paperback: 372 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
  SUMMARY: Published to great critical acclaim in 2009, this is a fully revised and updated edition of the most user-friendly field guide to the birds of Borneo, covering Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and the Indonesian states of Kalimantan. The book gives descriptions of 669 species living or reported on the island, including all 52 endemic species. These are superbly illustrated in 141 colour plates with more than 2,000 full colour bird images, including most of the sexual variants and immature forms of polymorphic species.
  Each plate is accompanied by species descriptions covering taxonomy, size, call, range, distribution, habits and status. Distribution is shown by detailed thumbnail maps. There are 7 habitat plates, 12 regional maps showing Borneo's top 130 birdwatching sites, fast-find graphic indexes to the birds of Kinabalu, and a full overview of vegetation, climate and ecology.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: I prefer this book over Birds of Borneo by Susan Myers.
  

New and Recent Titles:

• Marzluff, John and Tony Angell. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans. 2012. Free Press. Hardbound: 289 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S. [Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: Crows are mischevious, playful, social, and passionate. They have brains that are huge for their body size and exhibit an avian kind of eloquence. They mate for life and associate with relatives and neighbors for years. And because they often live near people -- in our gardens, parks, and cities -- they are also keenly aware of our peculiarities, staying away from and even scolding anyone who threatens or harms them and quickly learning to recognize and approach those who care for and feed them, even giving them numerous, oddly touching gifts in return.
  With his extraordinary research on the intelligence and startling abilities of corvids -- crows, ravens, and jays -- scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell amazing stories of these brilliant birds in Gifts of the Crow. With narrative, diagrams, and gorgeous line drawings, they offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and our shared behaviors. The ongoing connection between humans and crows -- a cultural coevolution -- has shaped both species for millions of years. And the characteristics of crows that allow this symbiotic relationship are language, delinquency, frolic, passion, wrath, risk-taking, and awareness -- seven traits that humans find strangely familiar. Crows gather around their dead, warn of impending doom, recognize people, commit murder of other crows, lure fish and birds to their death, swill coffee, drink beer, turn on lights to stay warm, design and use tools, use cars as nutcrackers, windsurf and sled to play, and work in tandem to spray soft cheese out of a can. Their marvelous brains allow them to think, plan, and reconsider their actions.
  With its abundance of funny, awe-inspiring, and poignant stories, Gifts of the Crow portrays creatures who are nothing short of amazing. A testament to years of painstaking research and careful observation, this fully illustrated, riveting work is a thrilling look at one of nature's most wondrous creatures.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: If you enjoyed the authors other works on corvids, you will enjoy this book!
  
• Paul, Ellen (editor). Emerging Avian Disease (Studies in Avian Biology, 42). 2012. University of California Press. Hardbound: 108 pages. Price: $39.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: In this volume, new human disease pandemics, arising from animals stimulated by ongoing environmental change, demonstrate the value of ornithological research into avian diseases. A group of 29 researchers addresses a diverse set of topics, including the evolutionary and ecological aspects of the host-vector systems, the effects of genetic variation, introduction success and vector ecology, evolution of resistance and virulence of pathogens, and the effects of changing geographic distributions. In addition to empirical studies under field conditions, the authors present predictive models to assess the movement and potential impact of these diseases. Other chapters delve into the potential impacts of pathogens and the key role of biosurveillance and documenting impacts of disease on bird populations.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For those with a technical interest in avian disease.
  
• Glynn, Jenifer. My Sister Rosalind Franklin. 2012. Oxford University Press. Hardbound: 172 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: Rosalind Franklin is famous in the history of science for her contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA, the start of the greatest biological revolution of the twentieth century. Much has been written about the importance of her part, and about how her work was affected by her position as a woman scientist. Above all she was a distinguished scientist, not only in her work on DNA, but also in her earlier work on coals and carbons and in her later work on viruses.
  In this family memoir her sister, the writer and historian Jenifer Glynn, paints a full picture of Rosalind's life. Looking at Rosalind's background; her early education, her time as a science student at Cambridge, and her relations with her family, to her life as an adult and her time in Paris and at King's, Glynn shows how much her sister achieved and how she was influenced by the social and intellectual climate of the period she worked in.
  This book features:
  
• Compelling family memoir written by Franklin's own sister
• A personal view of Rosalind Franklin's life -- of her personality, her family and background, and the authors own recollections
• Explores not only Franklin's work on DNA, but also draws out her work on coals, carbon, and viruses
• Includes quotes from many of Franklin's letters to her family and is illustrated with a number of family photographs, and friends including Quentin Blake
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For those wanting the "backstory" on Rosalind Franklin's life, this book is for you!

• Sykes, Bryan. DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America. 2012. Liveright. Hardbound: 369 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: Crisscrossing the continent, a renowned geneticist provides a groundbreaking examination of America through its DNA.
  The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve now turns his sights on the United States, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world. From the blue-blooded pockets of old-WASP New England to the vast tribal lands of the Navajo, Bryan Sykes takes us on a historical genetic tour, interviewing genealogists, geneticists, anthropologists, and everyday Americans with compelling ancestral stories. His findings suggest:
  • Of Americans whose ancestors came as slaves, virtually all have some European DNA.
  • Racial intermixing appears least common among descendants of early New England colonists.
  • There is clear evidence of Jewish genes among descendants of southwestern Spanish Catholics.
  • Among white Americans, evidence of African DNA is most common in the South.
  • European genes appeared among Native Americans as early as ten thousand years ago.
  An unprecedented look into America's genetic mosaic and how we perceive race, DNA USA challenges the very notion of what we think it means to be American.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: If you think you know what it means to be an American, think again!
  
• Williams, Florence. Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History. 2012. Norton. Hardbound: 338 pages. Price: $25.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: An engaging narrative about an incredible, life-giving organ and its imperiled modern fate.
  Did you know that breast milk contains substances similar to cannabis? Or that it's sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil? Feted and fetishized, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece. But in the modern world, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier, and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer, even among men. What makes breasts so mercurial -- and so vulnerable?
  In this informative and highly entertaining account, intrepid science reporter Florence Williams sets out to uncover the latest scientific findings from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine. Her investigation follows the life cycle of the breast from puberty to pregnancy to menopause, taking her from a plastic surgeon's office where she learns about the importance of cup size in Texas to the laboratory where she discovers the presence of environmental toxins in her own breast milk. The result is a fascinating exploration of where breasts came from, where they have ended up, and what we can do to save them.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: Every woman (and men too!) should read this book!
  
• Burt, Marissa. Storybound. 2012. Harper. Hardbound: 406 pages. Price: $16.99 U.S. [Amazon UK/kindle; Amazon US/kindle].
  SUMMARY: When Una Fairchild stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, she thinks nothing of opening the cover and diving in. But instead of paging through a regular novel, Una suddenly finds herself Written In to the land of Story -- a world filled with Heroes and Villains and fairy-tale characters.
  But not everything in Story is as magical as it seems. Una must figure out why she has been Written In -- and fast -- before anyone else discovers her secret. Together with her new friend Peter and a talking cat named Sam, Una digs deep into Story's shadowy past. She quickly realizes that she is tied to the world in ways she never could have imagined -- and it might be up to her to save it.
  IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For ages 8-12. Think of this book as a hybrid between Harry Potter and InkHeart.
  

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Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen is an avid and well-known book collector, especially to the publishing world. Mr Paulsen collects newly-published books about nature, animals and birds, science, and history, and he also collects children's books on these topics. Mr Paulsen writes brief synopses about these books on his website, The Birdbooker Report.

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