Culpeper County Library271 Southgate Shopping Center, Culpeper, Virginia 22701 | 540-825-8691https://www.cclva.org
Nature and Science
October 2025

Recent Releases
Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines
by Matthew Gavin Frank

Folded into author Matthew Gavin Frank’s thought-provoking survey of humankind’s urge to explore the ocean depths from deep-water submersibles lies a much darker obsession -- the “strong undercurrent of violence and misogyny” (Kirkus Reviews) running through the amateur sub community that arguably led to the 2017 murder of journalist Kim Wall. Readers who want more adventures beneath the waves can try The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey.
The ocean's menagerie : how earth's strangest creatures reshape the rules of life by C. Drew Harvell
The ocean's menagerie : how earth's strangest creatures reshape the rules of life
by C. Drew Harvell

Explores the remarkable biology of ocean invertebrates, highlighting their extraordinary adaptations and contributions to medicine, engineering, and ecological balance, while weaving the author's personal journey as a marine biologist with a call to protect these ancient and vital underwater ecosystems.
How To Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Fatal Quest for Answers
by Dom Phillips with contributors

In 2022, before finishing this book, British journalist Dom Phillips was murdered in Brazil’s Javari Valley by people acting on behalf of the illegal fishing industry. His work movingly brings to light the difficulty of reconciling concerns of ecology, economics, social class, and environmental justice. More stories about the dangerous cost of environmental protection can be found in Masters of the Lost Land by Heriberto Araujo and Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon.
The Genius of Trees : How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World by Harriet Rix
The Genius of Trees : How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World
by Harriet Rix

Challenges the notion of trees as passive organisms, exploring how trees actively shape their environments through complex biochemical and ecological interactions, and revealing their roles as inventive agents that influence ecosystems, microclimates and even climate change.
The Stronger Sex: What Science Tells Us About the Power of the Female Body
by Starre Vartan

Science writer Starre Vartan, like many women, grew up believing what she had always been told: that women were weaker than men. Not so, according to her book and a decade’s worth of research, which shows that women tend to outperform men in several areas, including endurance, flexibility, and longevity. The Stronger Sex is a valuable, corrective study that asks “why testosterone is considered an unfair advantage” (Publishers Weekly). For fans of: The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women by Sharon Moalem.
The genius bat : the secret life of the only flying mammal by Yossi Yovel
The genius bat : the secret life of the only flying mammal
by Yossi Yovel

"An awe-inspiring tour of bat world by the world's leading expert With nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of mammalian species. The most successful and most diverse group of mammals, bats come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, from the tiny bumblebee bat to the giant golden-crowned flying fox. Some bats eat fruit and nectar; others eat frogs, scorpions or fish. Vampire bats feed on blood. Bats are the only mammals that can fly; their fingers have elongated through evolution to become wings with a unique super-flexible skin membrane stretched between them. Their robust immune system is one of the reasons for their extreme longevity. A tiny bat can live for forty years. Yossi Yovel, an ecologist and a neurobiologist, is passionate about deciphering the secrets of bats, including using AI to decipher their communication. In The Genius Bat he brings to vivid life these amazing creatures as well as the obsessive and sometime eccentric people who study them-bat scientists. From muddy rainforests, to star-covered night deserts, from guest houses in Thailand, to museum drawers full of fossils in New York, this is an eye-opening and entertaining account of a might mammal"-- Provided by publisher
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Culpeper County Library271 Southgate Shopping Center, Culpeper, Virginia 22701 | 540-825-8691https://www.cclva.org