NONFICTION
THE HUMAN AGE
New York Times Bestseller
P.E.N. Henry David Thoreau Award
"Diane Ackerman's vivid writing, inexhaustible stock of insights, and unquenchable optimism have established her as a national treasure, and as one of our great authors. If you've read any of her previous books, you already know why you'll love this latest one. If you haven't read her previous books, you're now about to become addicted to Diane Ackerman." — Jared Diamond
The Human Age is a beguiling, optimistic engagement with the earth-shaking changes now affecting every part of our lives and those of our fellow creatures — a wise book that will astound, delight, and inform intelligent life for a long time to come.
ONE HUNDRED NAMES FOR LOVE: A Memoir
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
Finalist for the National Book Circle Critics Award
"This book has done what no other has for me in recent years: it has renewed my faith in the redemptive power of love, the need to give and get it unstintingly, to hold nothing back, settle for nothing less, because when flesh and being and even life fall away, love endures. This book is proof." — Abraham Verghese, New York Times Book Review
Everyone who cherishes the gift of language will cherish Diane Ackerman's narrative masterpiece,
One Hundred Names for Love. It is an exquisitely written love story and medical miracle story, one that combines science, inspiration, wisdom, and heart.
DAWN LIGHT: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways To Greet the Day
"It's easy to live in the moment when you're immersed in Ackerman's glorious prose." — Washington Post
Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being “in” nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature — for “no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams.” Joining science’s devotion to detail with religion’s appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution — especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.
THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE, a War Story
New York Times Bestseller
2008 Orion Book Award
“I can't imagine a better story or storyteller. The Zookeeper's Wife will touch every nerve you have.” —
Jonathan Safran Foer
Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life story of Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who manage to save over three hundred people from the Nazis during WWII. With animal names for these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.
AN ALCHEMY OF MIND: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain
"Ackerman fans know what to expect: the meeting of science and sensuality, of nature and art, seen through the prism of personal experience and expression..." — San Francisco Chronicle
An Alchemy of Mind, through its beautiful and electric prose, takes its readers on a journey to understanding the mysteries of the brain and the marvel of the mind. "It distills the hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily anecdotal responses to a range of existential questions regarding consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of identity."
THE RAREST OF THE RARE: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds
"A life-changing excursion, pleasing, and provocative to mind, body and soul... Ackerman is a mesmerizing writer." — San Francisco Chronicle
In Rarest of the Rare, Ackerman journeys in search of monarch butterflies and short-tailed albatrosses, monk seals and golden lion tamarin monkeys: the world's rarest creatures and their vanishing habitats.
CULTIVATING DELIGHT
“Diane Ackerman takes us down the garden path with a renewed sense of awe and enlightened eyes.” — Los Angeles Times
A poetic book about gardens, growth, our relationship with nature, the intimate lives of animal neighbors, the zaniness of some famous gardeners; questions of mortality, garden etiquette, curiosity and wonder; how a garden becomes an extension of the self and can give an important shape to one’s life.
DEEP PLAY
"A fascinating subject, written in a swiftly moving and sensuous prose." — Washington Post Book World
A closer look at the human saga, and how much of it revolves around play. Deep play awakens the most creative, sentient, and joyful aspects of our inner selves. More than anything else, our passion for deep play has made us the puzzling and resplendent beings we are.
A SLENDER THREAD: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of Crisis
"Lyrical and cosmic... her most personal and affecting book." — Chicago Tribune
An intimate and compassionate record of Diane's service as a counselor on a suicide and crisis hotline, where she turns her attention to the troubled lives of those suffering from what she calls the “small demonology of our age” — anxiety, depression, and all the trials, uncertainties, and conflicts of love.
A NATURAL HISTORY OF LOVE
"Beguiling... seductive... word for word, a Natural History of Love is a pleasure." — Los Angeles Times Book Review
Exploring the allure of adultery, the appeal of aphrodisiacs, and the cult of the kiss. Enchantingly written and stunningly informed, this "audaciously brilliant romp through the world of romantic love" (Washington Post Book World) is the next best thing to love itself.
THE MOON BY WHALE LIGHT
"Ms. Ackerman has a gift for sparkling, resonant language, and her descriptions of various animals and habitats are alive with verbal energy and delight... fascinating." — New York Times
In a rare blend of scientific fact and poetic truth, the acclaimed author explores the activities of whales, penguins, bats, and crocodilians, plunging headlong into nature and coming up with highly entertaining treasures.
A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES
"Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in." —
The New York Times (Literature—Classics & Contemporary)
In celebration of our ability to smell, taste, touch, hear, and see, Ackerman weaves together scientific facts with lore, history, and description to create an enchanting account of how humans experience the world.
ON EXTENDED WINGS
"An exhilarating book in the tradition of St. Exupéry in which the rigorous geometry of flying is beautifully wedded to a human spirit." — Walter Abish
A lyric and gripping record of Ackerman's relentless touch-and-go hours in pursuit of a private pilot's license and of her first solo and cross-country tours.
TWILIGHT OF THE TENDERFOOT
"When Diane Ackerman wonders, her eyes go wide as chuckwagon chow plates; when she thinks, her brain flashes like a panhandle sky in storm. Because she knows the land of the heart, she's exquisitely rendred the heart of this land." — Albert Goldbarth
Twilight of the Tenderfoot is a book rendering the experience of nature and place into an intimate and magical affair.