{"title":"Maria Mudd Ruth","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"sideways-look-at-clouds-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9781680511185","title":"A Sideways Look at Clouds","description":"\u003cb\u003e2017 Silver Nautilus Book Award in Science and Cosmology\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eWritten by a critically-acclaimed natural-history author\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eShares author's fun journey to understanding clouds\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eWritten for the curious--but non-science--minded\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e Author Maria Mudd Ruth fell in love with clouds the same way she stumbles into most passions: madly and unexpectedly. \u003ci\u003eA Sideways Look at Clouds\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of her quite accidental infatuation with and education about the clouds above. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e When she moved to the soggy Northwest a decade ago, Maria assumed that locals would know everything there was to know about clouds, in the same way they talk about salmon, tides, and the Seahawks. Yet in her first two years of living in Olympia, Washington, she never heard anyone talk about clouds--only the rain. Puzzled by this lack of cloud savvy, she decided to create a 10-question online survey and sent it to everyone she knew. Her sample size of 67 people included men and women, new friends in Olympia, family on the East Coast, outdoorsy and indoorsy types, professional scientists, and liberal arts majors like herself. The results showed that while people knew a little bit about clouds, most were like her--they had a hard time identifying clouds or remembering their names. As adults, they had lost their curiosity and sense of wonder about clouds and were, essentially, not in the habit of looking up. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Sideways Look at Clouds\u003c\/i\u003e acknowledges the challenges of understanding clouds and so uses a very steep and bumpy learning curve--the author's--as its plot line. The book is structured around the ten words used in most definitions of a cloud: a visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the earth. A captivating story teller, Maria blends science, wonder, and humor to take the scenic route through the clouds and encourages readers to chart their own rambling, idiosyncratic course. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Whether you are outside under the clouds, inside planning your next adventure, or curled up anywhere with a good book, \u003ci\u003eA Sideways Look at Clouds\u003c\/i\u003e will engage, inform, and inspire.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49999322939665,"sku":"CIN1680511181G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51417752469777,"sku":"CIN1680511181VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51798349480209,"sku":"GOR014406738","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1680511181.jpg?v=1750897155"},{"product_id":"beetle-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9781556702556","title":"The Beetle","description":"Features the beetle in huge, three-dimensional form. 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Mudd has worked as a writer and editor for \"The National Geographic Society\" and \"The Washington Post\".","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50305292861713,"sku":"CIN1556702558A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51307900698897,"sku":"CIN1556702558VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51707010351377,"sku":"CIN1556702558G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1556702558.jpg?v=1750991106"},{"product_id":"mississippi-river-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9780761409342","title":"The Mississippi River","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50361636290833,"sku":"CIN0761409343G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0761409343.jpg?v=1750817574"},{"product_id":"snakes-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9780761412625","title":"Snakes","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362759414033,"sku":"CIN076141262XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/076141262X.jpg?v=1751395092"},{"product_id":"rare-bird-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9781594860904","title":"Rare Bird","description":"\u003cp\u003ePart naturalist detective story, part environmental inquiry, this vibrant narrative celebrates the fascinating world of an endangered seabird that depends on the contested old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest for its survival.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis chunky little seabird stole my heart. So confesses Maria Mudd Ruth, a veteran nature writer perfectly happy to be a generalist before getting swept up in the strange story of the marbled murrelet. This curiosity of nature, who flies like a little brown bullet at up to 100 miles an hour and lives most of its life offshore, is seen around land only during breeding season, when the female lays a single egg high on a mossy tree limb in the ancient coastal forest.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRuth traces reports of the bird back to Captain Cook's ill-fated voyage of discovery on the Pacific Ocean in 1778, and explores the mind-set of 19th- and 20th-century naturalists who--despite their best efforts--failed to piece together clues about the whereabouts of the bird's nest. She takes the reader along on adventurous outings to coastal meadows before dawn, and onto the ocean at midnight to learn firsthand how scientists observe nature. She interviews all the major players in the drama: timber company executives and fishing fleet operators whose businesses are threatened by conservation measures, as well as the so-called cowboy scientists who are devoted to saving the marbled murrelet from extinction. And, ultimately, Ruth conveys her curiosity and passion for this rare bird onto the page for readers to savor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50491830599953,"sku":"CIN1594860904G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51134394761489,"sku":"CIN1594860904VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1594860904.jpg?v=1751119373"},{"product_id":"firefighting-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9780395701294","title":"Firefighting","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50580146749713,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50580147274001,"sku":"CIN0395701295VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51726223343889,"sku":"CIN0395701295G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53443108634897,"sku":"CIN0395701295A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0395701295.jpg?v=1750974786"},{"product_id":"bird-with-flaming-red-feet-book-maria-mudd-ruth-9781680517255","title":"The Bird with Flaming Red Feet","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53262159610129,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53262159675665,"sku":"NIN9781680517255","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781680517255.jpg?v=1773796510"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-maria-mudd-ruth.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}