Books about Tropical from Amazon.com

Delicious, lethal, hallucinogenic and medicinal, fruits have led nations to war, fueled dictatorships and lured people into new worlds. An expedition through the fascinating world of fruit, The Fruit Hunters is the engrossing story of some of Earth's most desired foods.

In lustrous prose, Adam Leith Gollner draws readers into a Willy Wonka-like world with mangoes that taste like piña coladas, orange cloudberries, peanut butter fruits and the miracle fruit that turns everything sour to sweet, making lemons taste like lemonade. Peopled with a cast of characters as varied and bizarre as the fruit -- smugglers, inventors, explorers and epicures -- this extraordinary book unveils the mysterious universe of fruit, from the jungles of Borneo to the prized orchards of Florida's fruit hunters to American supermarkets.

Gollner examines the fruits we eat and explains why we eat them (the scientific, economic and aesthetic reasons); traces the life of mass-produced fruits (how they are created, grown and marketed) and explores the underworld of fruits that are inaccessible, ignored and even forbidden in the Western world.

An intrepid journalist and keen observer of nature -- both human and botanical -- Adam Leith Gollner has written a vivid tale of horticultural obsession..
Price: $8.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

When Big B is dragged from his comfortable life and close friends in Chicago by his grandfather s mysterious affliction, he s sure he s going to have the worst summer ever. But soon after arriving in the tropical paradise of Nui Island, he is caught in a web of danger and intrigue.

The Ma'ema'e reef is dying, his grandfather s brilliant mind has been infected, and creepy Island legends are coming to life. Big B and his new friends, Sam and Nalu, rely on logic, intuition, courage, and strength to unravel Nui's ancient mysteries. What they uncover will help them save the island, restore his grandfather's soul, and break the curse of the Bone Pirates.

With a captivating plot, fascinating characters, and an important ecological message, Curse of the Bone Pirates will haunt and delight young readers.

If you or someone you know likes action, adventure, pirates, girls with purple hair, surfing, bats and bacteria, then this book series is definitely the one for you! Curse of the Bone Pirates, the first book of the Nui Island Eco-logical Adventure Series, is like taking a virtual summer vacation on a tropical island, daring you to get caught up in its fun-filled pages. It will haunt you with the past, thrill you with the present and inspire you with your future.

Cool stuff hidden between the covers of this book include: poisonous sea snakes, black gold, biomimetics, Sirius, seagull poop, how to say paradise in Polynesian, hidden volcanic caves, Shakespearean verse, the Cliff Hanger, a shell phone, bioluminescence, names to call your friends in Spanish, dinoflagellates, waste water webs, carrot toothbrushes, drinking green slime, rainbow salsa, getting worked by a wave, the Bloodlust, archeology, screm do kafle, vaporous cannonballs, katuk, an anamorphoscope, eating ants, banana-mobiles and much, mucho, more.

Read it. Life may depend on it..
Price: $7.76 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Out with the cool, in with the hot. These houses by such luminaries as Oscar Niemeyer, Gio Ponti, Geoffrey Bawa, and Isay Weinfeld are a perfectly seamless continuum of indoor-outdoor space. The author has traveled the globe to bring together a collection of luxurious modern homes that combine modern technology with local, often exotic materials to produce rich designs of wood, metal, stucco, and glass. Water and breezeways figure prominently, and "green" eco-conscious features emerge naturally from the tropical design environment.

This is a sophisticated survey of modern houses with open floor plans, exterior courtyards, sunny patios, and cool stucco surfaces all touched by the exotic flavors of their tropical locales. The combination of modern architectural form and tropical settings is extending and revitalizing modernism as never before.
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Price: $19.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Completely revised and updated, the new edition of this portable guide offers fast-access solutions to all of the medical situations that can occur in non-traditional settings. Based on Dr. Auerbach's critically acclaimed text Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition, this handbook is packed with how-to step-by-step explanations and the latest practical advice on diagnosis and treatment-emphasizing ways of improvising care with whatever materials you have available. It's small enough to be carried in a car's glove compartment or in your backpack-yet detailed enough to cover the clinical presentation and treatment of a full range of emergencies!

• Offers appendices that address everything from environment-specific situations to lists of essential supplies, medicines, and many additional topics of care, enabling you to meet a full-range of emergency situations with the utmost effectiveness.
  
• Includes line drawings-along with a section of color plates-that aid in the identification of skin rashes, plants, snakes, insects, and more.
  
• Provides Signs and Symptoms and Treatment sections in most chapters-combined with bulleted lists and text boxes-that facilitate quick and easy retrieval of information.
  
• Presents full chapter coverage of both animal attacks and zoonoses for handling life-threatening situations.
  
• Features peerless guidance in a portable format for consultation anywhere from the office setting to the open outdoors.

• Features a new appendix on jungle travel and survival, and new chapters on forest fires, bandaging and taping techniques, mental health, hydration and dehydration, malaria-and more-equipping you to handle any emergency you might encounter in the wilderness.
  
• Includes more tips for improvisational care (eg, how to make a rigid litter using skis, poles, snowshoes, canoe paddles, or tree branches) to help you respond to wilderness and nontraditional emergencies with the materials that you have on hand.
  
• Presents thorough revisions to all previously existing chapters-ensuring that you have the latest knowledge at your fingertips.

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Price: $34.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Bats and big cats. Armies of ants. Squawking parrots. Strangling figs. From the ground up to the tree tops, the tropical rainforest teems with life. Stunning drawings, step-by-step experiments, fun-to-do activities, and fascinating facts abound in this magical exploration of an essential ecosystem, in danger of disappearing forever. Tropical Rain Forest is a new edition to the One Samll Square Series not previously published in hardcover..
Price: $4.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this richly-illustrated tour of modern tropical gardens, Made Wijaya takes novice gardeners and professionals around the world in search of innovative designs. From South America to the tropical states of the U.S. including Florida, California and Hawaii to tropical Asia and tropical Australia, Modern Tropical Garden Design covers a profusion of different environments. The styles of garden design are as various as the terrain covered, and includes gardens by Wijaya and numerous other talented designers.

Modern Tropical Garden Design also explores the myriad of different elements that can be found in the modern tropical garden, including courtyards and patios; pavilions, pergolas and verandas; pavings; water features; pools; walls; plants; colors; furniture; lighting; tropical flower arrangements and art. Incorporating a lively discussion of the work of ten exciting garden visionaries, as well as the work of some early modern masters of garden design, Modern Tropical Garden Design will prove an inspiration for gardeners everywhere..
Price: $28.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]