Made For Each Other

Nothing turns a baby's head more quickly than the sight or sound of an animal. This fascination is driven by the ancient chemical forces that first drew humans and animals together. It is also the same biology that transformed wolves into dogs and skittish horses into valiant comrades that would carry us into battle. Made for Each Other is the first book to explain how this chemistry of attraction and attachment flows through -- and between -- all mammals to create the profound emotional bonds humans and animals still feel today. Drawing on recent discoveries from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, behavioral psychology, archeology, as well as her own investigations, Meg Daley Olmert explains why the brain chemistry humans and animals trigger in each other also has a profound effect on our mental and physical well being. This lively and original investigation asks what happens when the bond is severed. If thousands of years of caring for animals infused us with a biology that shaped our hearts and minds, do we dare turn our back on it? Daley Olmert makes a compelling and scientific case for what our hearts have always known, that we were, and always will be, made for each other.

Some trees and birds are made for each other. Take, for example, the whitebark pine, a timberline tree that graces the moraines and ridgetops of the northern Rockies and the Sierra Nevada-Cascades system. This lovely five-needled pine, long-lived and rugged though it is, cannot reproduce without the help of Clark's nutcracker. And the nutcracker, though it captures insects in the summer and steals a bit of carrion, cannot raise its young in these alpine habitats without feeding them the nutritious seeds of the whitebark pine. Between them, these dwellers of the high mountains provide for each others' posterity, which leads biologists to label their relationship symbiotic, or mutualistic. But there is more to it than that, because in playing out their roles these partners change the landscape. The environment they create provides life's necessities to many other plants and animals. Working in concert, Clark's nutcracker and the whitebark pine build ecosystems. In Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines, Ronald M. Lanner details for the first time this fascinating relationship between pine trees and Corvids (nutcrackers and jays), showing how mutualism can drive not only each others' evolution, but affect the ecology of many other members of the surrounding ecosystem as well. Lanner explains that many of the world's pines have seeds not adapted to wind dispersal. Fortunately, their seeds are harvested from the cone and scattered over many miles by seed-eating jays and nutcrackers who bury millions of seeds in the soil as a winter food source. Remarkably, these "pine nut" dependent birds can find their caches even through deep snow. Seeds left in the soil germinate, perpetuating the pines and guarantee future seeds for future birds. Moreover, the newly "planted" whitebark pine groves encourage further tree growth, such as Engelmann spruce, and eventually the patches of open-grown woodland coalesce, forming a continuous forest. Large forest stands offer cover for large animals like bear, elk, and moose, and provide territories for Red Squirrels. These squirrels also depend on pine seeds as a food source, storing large quantities of seeds on the ground, piled up against fallen logs or stumps, or buried in the forest litter. In the fall both black and grizzly bears are preparing to hibernate and must increase their stores of body fat. The seeds of whitebark pine are large and very rich, containing sixty to seventy percent fat, and are an ideal food for this purpose. The large seed reserves created by the squirrels become a feasting ground for these bears. Meanwhile, the sun-loving trees shaded out by the maturing decay offer housing for cavity-nesters like woodpeckers and nuthatches, as well as a breeding ground for fungi which are eagerly devoured by mule deer and red squirrels in search of protein. Eventually, when the forest is ignited in one of the thunderstorms so common and so violent in the high country, an open area is created, attracting nutcrackers in need of a new cache site, and the cycle begins again. Focusing on the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, and ranging as far afield as the Alps, Finland, Siberia, and China, this beautifully illustrated and gracefully written work illuminates the phenomenon of co-evolution.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting to engage reluctant readers! Tom Stone stepped into Seward High and into Maria McBride's life like a bolt of lightning. He's the perfect guy for Maria—nice, smart, and well-built. There's just one problem: his family. Tom's father is the town's new funeral director, and business is booming. The bodies are piling up thick and fast in Persephone Falls, Alaska, so Dr. Stone keeps Tom up late at night working in the funeral home. And it's clear that Dr. Stone and his creepy assistant, Graves, don't want Maria around. Maria knows Tom was made for her. She's determined to find out what Dr. Stone has against her. When Tom refuses to stand up to his father, Maria begins to stitch together the clues...and finds out that the Stones are into recycling in ways she never could have imagined.

In Made for Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines, Ronald M. Lanner details for the first time this fascinating relationship between wingless-seeded pine trees and seed-dispersing Corvids (nutcrackers and jays), showing how mutualism can drive not only each others' evolution, but affect the ecology of many other members of the surrounding ecosystem as well. In a complex process of mutual dependency, myriad species of both plants and animals - from Engelmann spruce, elk, and moose to red squirrels, bear, and fungi - advance the overall life cycle by taking advantage of the ecological terrain that precedes them. Focusing on the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, and ranging as far afield as the Alps, Finland, Siberia, and China, this beautifully illustrated and gracefully written work illuminates the phenomenon of co-evolution.

At the Academy Awards, the answer to who wore what matters just as much as who won what. Focusing on the actresses nominated for Oscars and a few seminal presenters, Made for Each Other traces the fashion trends of the widely watched Oscar ceremony. From the splendor of Vivien Leigh to the spare war-era chic of Ingrid Bergman, from the arresting glamor of Marlene Dietrich to Barbra Streisand's daring sequined Arnold Scaasi pantsuit, Bronwyn Cosgrave delivers a revealing account of the entertainers who have helped shape the look of the Academy Awards and the international couturiers and behind-the-scenes fashion players on whom they've relied. Delving deep into the partnerships that have defined Oscar fashion-Claudette Colbert and Travis Banton; Grace Kelly and Edith Head; Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy; Elizabeth Taylor and Helen Rose; Liza Minelli and Halston; Cher and Bob Mackie; Jodie Foster and Georgio Armani; Nicole Kidman and John Galliano; Hilary Swank and Randolph Duke-Cosgrave demonstrates that from the beginning fashion was as integral to Oscar night as the films it celebrated. In a package befitting the glamorous subject, Made for Each Other includes previously unseen sketches of Oscar dresses by legendary couturiers, rare vintage photographs, and fashion illustrations of key dresses created especially for this book. For fashionistas and film buffs alike, Made for Each Other is a must have for anyone interested in this perfect pairing.

Raising a teenager kept widow Aimee Blake too busy for a relationship. Or so she said. Her daughter was trying—with all her rebellious might—to cut the apron strings. So Aimee took some "me time." She attended a singles group and met a handsome counselor as not interested in romance as she was. With his painful family past and a failed engagement, Jacob Mallory was a one-date kind of man. These days he committed only to his work. Problem was, Aimee had discovered that she and Jacob were made for each other…

When Devendre went to visit his uncle’s house in the hills, he had no idea that he would meet a girl who would make him forget all his principles and blow apart his peace of mind. All Geetanjali wanted from life was to study science and cycle up and down the hills and valleys with her new friends. Then she met Devendre. Follow their journey from a small town called Bhadeshwar to Muzaffarpur to Delhi and Bombay in this historical novel set in 1968 India. Did Devendre overcome his demons? Did Geetanjali become the person she wanted to be?

Put your partner to the test and find out just how well you know one another. After more than thirty years of research into how relationships work and where they often go wrong, Allan and Barbara Pease devised this clever quiz book to help you determine how compatible you and your partner are. The special quizzes, to be taken by yourself and with your partner, will help you clear up common misunderstandings and communicate better. A unique blend of in-depth research, witty insight into human nature, and humor, Are You Made For Each Other? will help your relationship--and make you laugh as you learn.