“Dr. McAlister has captured her affection for the Diptera in The Secret Life of Flies, a short, rich book by turns informative and humorous, both a hymn of praise to her favourite creatures and a gleeful attempt to give readers the willies.”
—   New York Times

2019 has been named the International Year of the Fly, so we thought it only fitting to make The Secret Life of Flies by Erica McAlister our first Book of the Month of the new year.

In The Secret Life of Flies, entomology expert McAlister draws readers into the hidden world of pollinators, devious predators, and champions of dung, using a unique blend of playful humour, deft storytelling, and rigorous science to explore one of nature’s most complex and highly adaptive insects.

Much like the band that adopted their name, beetles are everywhere.

Aside from Antarctica, where there are no extant beetle species, it is possible to find these insects across every continent. At least 4 out of every 5 animal species alive today belong to the winged insect class known as Coleoptera, and there are around 400,000 named beetle species

The name Coleoptera comes from the Greek words for sheath (coleo) and wing (ptera), while “beetle” comes from the Old English word for “biter” and refers to the well-developed mandibles of most Coleoptera.

In his new book Beetles: The Natural History & Diversity of Coleoptera, Stephen A. Marshall doesn’t just discuss the linguistic history of these interesting insects, he also delves deep into their natural history, evolution, and behaviour in a must-have addition to any entomology library.

Outer space: it’s “the final frontier.” It’s “vastly, hugely, mind bogglingly big”, and apparently, it is so boundless that “it squashes a man’s ego.”

Outer space and all the planets, stars, galaxies, and other forms of matter and energy contained within our universe have all been extensively studied since each of these famous quotes was first uttered. Scientists now know quite a lot about outer space, with new discoveries being made regularly.

But how can cosmically curious common folk keep up with all this knowledge? With our new astronomy book, of course.

The Universe Explained: A Cosmic Q&A brings together the most popular — and perplexing — questions people ask about the universe, with answers provided by expert astronomers Heather Couper, former President of the British Astronomical Association, and Nigel Henbest, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.