Lisa Margonelli's Books

Underbug

An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Underbug

An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

By: Lisa Margonelli

The award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli, national bestselling author of Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank, investigates the environmental and economic impact termites inflict on human societies in this fascinating examination of one of nature’s most misunderstood insects. Are we more like termites than we ever imagined? In Underbug, the award-winning journalist Lisa Margonelli introduces us to the enigmatic creatures that collectively outweigh human beings ten to one and consume $40 billion worth of valuable stuff annually—and yet, in Margonelli’s telling, seem weirdly familiar. Over the course of a decade-long obsession with the little bugs, Margonelli pokes around termite mounds and high-tech research facilities, closely watching biologists, roboticists, and geneticists. Her globe-trotting journey veers into uncharted territory, from evolutionary theory to Edwardian science literature to the military industrial complex. What begins as a natural history of the termite becomes a personal exploration of the unnatural future we’re building, with darker observations on power, technology, historical trauma, and the limits of human cognition. Whether in Namibia or Cambridge, Arizona or Australia, Margonelli turns up astounding facts and raises provocative questions. Is a termite an individual or a unit of a superorganism? Can we harness the termite’s properties to change the world? If we build termite-like swarming robots, will they inevitably destroy us? Is it possible to think without having a mind? Underbug burrows into these questions and many others—unearthing disquieting answers about the world’s most underrated insect and what it means to be human.

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374712387

ISBN 13

9780374712389

Oil on the Brain

Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Oil on the Brain

Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank

By: Lisa Margonelli

Oil on the Brain is a smart, surprisingly funny account of the oil industry—the people, economies, and pipelines that bring us petroleum, brilliantly illuminating a world we encounter every day. Americans buy ten thousand gallons of gasoline a second, without giving it much of a thought. Where does all this gas come from? Lisa Margonelli’s desire to learn took her on a one-hundred thousand mile journey from her local gas station to oil fields half a world away. In search of the truth behind the myths, she wriggled her way into some of the most off-limits places on earth: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s crude oil market, oil fields from Venezuela, to Texas, to Chad, and even an Iranian oil platform where the United States fought a forgotten one-day battle. In a story by turns surreal and alarming, Margonelli meets lonely workers on a Texas drilling rig, an oil analyst who almost gave birth on the NYMEX trading floor, Chadian villagers who are said to wander the oil fields in the guise of lions, a Nigerian warlord who changed the world price of oil with a single cell phone call, and Shanghai bureaucrats who dream of creating a new Detroit. Deftly piecing together the mammoth economy of oil, Margonelli finds a series of stark warning signs for American drivers.

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Page Count

351

Publisher

Crown

Published Date

ISBN 10

0767916972

ISBN 13

9780767916974

Oil on the Brain

Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Oil on the Brain

Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Page Count

351

Publisher

Crown

Published Date

ISBN 10

0767916972

ISBN 13

9780767916974

Underbug

An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Underbug

An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374712387

ISBN 13

9780374712389

Oil on the Brain

Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Oil on the Brain

Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline

By: Lisa Margonelli

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Page Count

338

Publisher

Nan A. Talese

Published Date

ISBN 10

0385520050

ISBN 13

9780385520058

Sleeping Spaces

By: Lisa Skolnik

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Sleeping Spaces

By: Lisa Skolnik

Finally, a book devoted to the place where we spend one third of our life: sleeping spaces. This book offers a collection of interiors designed for retreats conducive to sleep, rest, meditation, relaxation, and peace. Photos of bedrooms, living rooms, studios, lofts, family rooms, porches, decks, and gazebos illustrate how designers and homeowners create interior and exterior sleeping spaces.-- Beautiful designs for naps and siestas, dreams, relaxation, and nighttime sleep-- Sleep secrets on using color, texture, lighting, and furnishings to create a restful space.

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Page Count

166

Publisher

Quarry Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1610594614

ISBN 13

9781610594615

House Beautiful Style 101

400 Designer Secrets to a Beautiful Home

By: Lisa Cregan

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House Beautiful Style 101

400 Designer Secrets to a Beautiful Home

By: Lisa Cregan

Want to change your home? Baffled by all the available design choices? House Beautiful helps you define your style--and get the look you love in every room. With advice and insider tips from dozens of designers, this entry in the magazines popular pocket guide series (which includes Colors for Your Home and Fabrics for Your Home) simplifies all your decorating decisions. A fun visual quiz helps you get started. Then an overview of hallmark elements and designers for five distinct decorating styles leads into room-by-room insider advice on selecting everything from furnishings and colors to carpets, window treatments, and lighting. Its a fresh approach to decorating!

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Page Count

466

Publisher

Union Square & Co.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1588169200

ISBN 13

9781588169204

Book's by Lisa Margonelli

Underbug

Underbug

Oil on the Brain

Oil on the Brain

Oil on the Brain

Oil on the Brain

Underbug

Underbug

Oil on the Brain

Oil on the Brain

Sleeping Spaces

Sleeping Spaces

House Beautiful Style 101

House Beautiful Style 101

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