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Dear [fname],

The book "Bulu, the African dog" has been delayed by the shipping strike problems, so if you did order it, please accept our apologies, we will send it to you as soon as we get it. Michael Poliza, the man responsible for 'Africa', 'Eyes over Africa' & 'Antarctica' has done it again, this time with his friends in a new book titled 'South Africa'.
Another repeat performance is due, this one from Heinrich van der Berg. Most will remember his excellent and popular 'Art of Nature' and his new book 'Shades of Nature' is set to raise the bar.
Do yourself a favour and click through to Netbooks, then watch the preview. 'Art of Nature' is also being reprinted, so there is an opportunity to get your name in both books if you order before 15 June.
Also have a look at the review on 'Bird Watching' it looks fascinating.

See the latest Birding and Fly Fishing books
 

New  Books

Hyena Nights and Kalahari Days Gus and Margie Mills
Trade Paperback 260 x 210mm 256pp April 2010
R199.00
In 1972 Gus and Margie Mills, newly married, trekked to the Kalahari to spend two years studying the little-known brown hyena. They were so enchanted by these captivating animals that they ended up stayed for 12 years and uncovered a treasure trove of facts about the lives of both brown and spotted hyenas. They found them to be highly intelligent and interesting animals that can easily hold their own with the large cats. Their studies allowed them to get to know the hyena clans and their hierarchies intimately and became privy to events which only a handful of people have ever had the privilege to witness. While Gus tells the story of their endlessly fascinating research in the first half of the book, Margie fills in the details of the daily challenges of living in this remote area in the second half. Not only did they have to contend with the isolation of their Kalahari camp, 420 kilometres from the nearest town, but also with the challenges of raising their children in this semi-desert thirstland. Unencumbered by modern conveniences like air conditioners during the searing heat of summer, and heaters during the bitter chill of winter, Margie lays out both the problems and the pleasures of a life lived in this stark wilderness. Buy Online
 

Okavango Delta: Floods of Life John Mendelsohn
Softcover with end flaps 215 x 280 mm, 145 pages
R399.00
Describes the origins, functioning, life and people of this remarkable wetland. In combination, no other body of water in Africa is so large, well protected, pristine, economically valuable, and well-known internationally. This blend of values could be unique worldwide. Buy Online
The Delta brings to mind wildlife and water. But there is much more: it is an interface between wetland and dryland and a rich reservoir of nutrients. It runs on internal processes that shift water from one area to another and keep the water fresh. Pulses of water retreat and then inundate the following season to permit the recycling of nutrients and life to spring from sediments. Each square metre of sediment may contain fifty thousand crustacean eggs, for example, and countless other constituents of life. This is a patchwork of diversity of habitat and life forms; economic opportunities that enable people to move from subsistence to lifestyles that provide cash and food security; and good governance.
Permanent swamps at the head of the Delta filter out most sediments, clays and nutrients from the incoming water. Peat beneath these swamps stores large volumes of nutrients, while fish seek refuge in permanent waters when the flood waters are low.
The Delta's wealth of life is replenished each year downstream in the seasonal swamps when catalytic flood waters from Angola stir the dormant nutrients and eggs into regular production. Drier, occasional floodplains are the centres of biological diversity and provide settings for episodic booms of biological production.


South Africa Michael Poliza
Soft Cover * 240 Pages
R375.00
On the occasion of the FeeFA World Cup 2.010, best-selling author Michael Poliza returns to South Africa to capture this richly diverse land and its people. To create a fitting homage to his longtime adopted country, Poliza has invited some of South Africa's most famous photographers to contribute to this book.
As a result, South Africa combines the high-quality photography distinctive of Michael Poliza's award-winning books Africa, Eyes Over Africa and Antarctic with images by Vanessa Cowling, Chris Fallows, Justin Fox, Craig Fraser, Chris Kirchhoff, Mandla Mnyakama, Obie Oberholzer and Thomas P Peschak. South Africa is a breathtakingly beautiful coffee-table book, as awe-inspiring and diverse as the Rainbow Nation itself.  Buy Online  
Also available in  Hardcover  R895.00


Pooley's Trees Of Eastern South Africa Richard Boon
Hardcover 2010
R220.00
This is a fully revised edition of the best selling Trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei (1993, 4th Edition).
It is a compact guide describing all the larger woody plants of the Eastern Region of South Africa, home to over 63% of all the tree species south of the Limpopo river. The full range covered will extend through KwaZulu-Natal; Eastern Cape, north of the Buffalo River; Lesotho; Eastern Free State; Swaziland and southern Mozambique. Due to its unique and comprehensive nature, the book may also be used as far north as Zambia.
With the invaluable assistance of Elsa Pooley, Richard Boon has been responsible for all improvements, (research, photography, mapping) and updating of this new revised edition which will contain: # 1100 species described, and 74 invasive alien species # Family and genus descriptions # Informative text facing the colour plates # Line drawings of the leaves; # Colour distribution maps # A new key and highlighting diagnostic features to aid identification # Ecological and gardening notes # Medicinal and other uses # Scientific, English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and Thonga names  Buy Online


Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound David Rothenberg
Softcover 304 pages, 60 b&w photos 2010
R199.00
 Masterfully weaving science, art, and adventure, David Rothenberg has given us a love song to whale song that is thought-provoking and moving. Before the 1960s, no one suspected the existence of whale song. Its discovery forced us to confront the possibility of alien intelligence - not in outer space but right here on earth.
Thoughtful, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining, "Thousand Mile Song" uses the enigma of whale sounds to examine the question of whether we can ever truly understand nonhuman minds - and how we should go about it. Through observing and talking with leading researchers around the world as they attempt to decipher underwater music, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg tells the story of scientists and musicians confronting an unknown as vast as the ocean. Along the way, he makes interspecies music the likes of which no one has ever heard before, by playing his clarinet with whales in their native habitats, from Russia to Canada to Hawaii. What goes on in the minds of animals - any animal - is a profound enigma.
In its combination of science, music, and narrative, "Thousand Mile Song" is an exceptionally insightful and imaginative attempt at understanding one of the most intriguing creatures with whom we share our planet.  Buy Online

Also available: Sounds of the Deep CD at a discounted price of R129.00
67 minutes British Library of Wild Sounds Tracks include: Haddock, Walrus, Leopard Seal, Harp Seal, Weddell Seal, Ringed Seal, Crabeater Seal, Dusky Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Fraser's Dolphin, Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Pilot Whale, Sperm Whale, Blue Whale, Humpback Whale  Buy Online  

A View of the River  Luna B. Leopold
Paperback: 312 pages
R249.00
The laws of physics that govern rivers allow for variations, many of them dictated by random chance. Thus, a river's adaptation, as Leopold describes it, tends toward the most probable form, the one with the least variance among hydraulic parameters. We see how this probabilistic tendency plays out as Leopold views the river as a whole from headwater to mouth, in the drainage net, in the behavior of meanders, and in aspects of sediment transport.
Grounded in hydraulics, geomorphology, and surveying, as well as in extensive fieldwork on rivers in the eastern and Rocky Mountain states, Leopold's view of a river is at once technical and personal, providing both a firm foundation for understanding the behavior of rivers--including instructions for getting started in backyard hydrology--and a wealth of firsthand observations by a thoughtful and experienced scientist. It will be of immediate interest and great use as we seek to develop, preserve, and appreciate our most fluid natural resource.
With the Midwest under water, America had a chance to see how effectively it had "improved" its rivers. We've straightened and dredged them, revetted and rerouted them, made massive efforts to control them, yet our actions have been less than successful. Too often, physical changes made to a river conflict with natural processes, resulting in--rather than alleviating--damage. Applying available knowledge on how rivers form and act could prevent such problems. In this book, Luna Leopold seeks to organize such knowledge. Widely regarded as the most creative scholar in the field of river morphology, Leopold presents a coherent description of the river, its shape, size, organization, and action, along with a consistent theory that explains much of the observed character of channels.  Buy Online
 

Gulf Stream  Stan Ulanski
Hardcover: 232 pages 2008
R280.00
Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the Powerful River in the Atlantic Ulanski takes readers on a dizzying trip within, afloat and around the Gulf Stream, the mighty oceanic river, powerful enough to be readily seen from space, containing mysterious, scary and tasty creatures: the reclusive, 2,000-pound giant squid; swarms of tentacled, stinging Portuguese man-of-wars and a complex food chain, with tiny drifting phytoplankton (the grasses of the sea) at the bottom and the almost mythic bluefin tuna at the top. The book also depicts human life along the Gulf Stream: Columbus following the trade winds and the North Atlantic gyre to reach the New World; buccaneers and pirates of the Caribbean; Benjamin Franklin, intrigued by the idea of a 'stream' flowing through... the Atlantic Ocean and hoping to speed up mail delivery, measuring and meticulously recording water temperatures on trips back and forth to Europe. Although the potentially urgent issue of the Gulf Stream in relation to climate change is given short shrift, this multifaceted treatment of the blue god offers something for almost every kind of ocean lover. Publishers Weekly  Buy Online

Bird Watching Paula McCartney
Hardcover 26x21cm 119pp March 2010
R500.00
You have now before you a representation of one of the most richly coloured of birds, and one whose history is in some degree peculiar. John James Audubon, The Birds of America
A spotted wren perches on the limb of a pine tree in a field of daisies. A song sparrow stands ready to take flight from a snow-covered limb against a winter landscape. For many, these descriptions depict quintessential experiences of nature. As photographs in a bird-watcher s field journal they become something else entirely. Precious and desirable for being so rare, they transform into a kind of trophy that rewards the birdwatcher for his or her skill, tireless patience, and mastery over nature. At first glance, conceptual artist Paula McCartney's Bird Watching seems to be a most exemplary specimen of a birdwatching journal. Handwritten notations recording species, location, size, and markings describe well-rendered and flawlessly composed photographs of a wide variety of passerines, or perching birds, in their natural settings in locations across the United States.
Page after page of the most wonderfully diverse species of birds are perfectly posed in picturesque natural settings a bird-watcher's dream. On second glance, however, the birds appear a bit too carefully arranged amid the tangle of brush and branches. An even closer look reveals stiff wire protrusions mounting each bird to its perch, matted tufts of overdyed faux feathers forming wings and splashes of paint creating eyes and beaks. McCartney has activated her atmospheric landscapes by adding synthetic decorative birds purchased at craft stores. This startling revelation has you wondering if the artificial might ultimately be more satisfying than the natural.
Part document and part fiction, Paula McCartney's Bird Watching is a fanciful, homespun field guide to a woodland twilight zone where our unconscious need to control nature is indulged and our search for an unattainable ideal natural experience is fulfilled. Featuring a design that mimics the tactility of a real bird-watching journal and including essays by Darius Himes and Karen Irvine, this book will appeal to the dreamy naturalist in all of us.  Buy Online

A Once-off offer to Netbooks clients from HPH publishing

Subscribe to Heinrich van der Berg's Shades of Nature, the ultimate black and white book, before 15th of June 2010 and have your name as a subscriber inside the book, and have a personalised message inserted in the front of the book.
Shades of Nature is the brand new black and white sequel to Art of Nature. Printed in dramatic duotone, this book succeeds in peeling away assumptions about colour photography, and reveals a fascinating, emotional world. By subtracting colour from the photographs, Van den Berg urges the viewer to add his own subjective opinion to the viewing experience, and to look at the wild from an empathetic viewpoint.
As in Art of Nature, the photo captions are surprising and extraordinary, and enhance the images in unexpected ways. Shades of Nature is a truly original work of art. Prepare to be astounded.
Subscribe to Shades of Nature for R390 Online

Collectors and Sponsors editions of Shades of Nature are also available at R3000 and R5000 respectively
(Click on the underlined links)


You can also buy the Second Edition of Art of Nature for R390 Online (order before 15 June 2010) and
get the revised edition of this book in time for Christmas, and get a personalized bookplate signed by the author with a message of your choice to attach in the front of your book.
Publishing date October 2010.