Tigers Without Teeth

This compelling book analyzes the rise of civil society and legal contentiousness in contemporary China. Scott Wilson examines how Chinese AIDS carriers and pollution victims, relying on weak laws and judicial institutions, pursue justice and protection of their rights in Chinese courts and civil society. In exploring the “politics of justice” in China, the author contends that civil society and legal rights advance when their organizers have support from pockets of the Chinese Communist Party, resources from international groups, and the backing of protesters. Even lawsuits that fail in the courts can raise societal consciousness of social issues and can lead to revised state policies to address the substantive claims of disadvantaged citizens. Underlying the politics of justice is the regime’s attempt to balance commitments to legal development and its interest in regime stability. Wilson argues that the Chinese state has looked more favorably upon pollution victims’ civil-society organizations and lawsuits than those of AIDS carriers. Going beyond the standard overviews of China’s legal system, Tigers without Teeth is unique in its close comparison of legal activism on two sensitive and politically relevant social issues. It provides important insights into the development of civil society, as well as highlighting limitations to the pursuit of justice as the system balances between the development of rule of law and regime stability.

A preeminent historian’s memoir of the first peasant rebellion in postcolonial Nigeria

"An interactive tooth-brushing book"--Cover.

A National Geographic photographer embarks on a one-man mission to address the plight of the tiger before it's too late.

There is a proverb in China, hu kou ba ya, literally "pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth," used to describe any extremely difficult task. When Shao Wei first arrived in the United States at age thirty-one, her desire to write poems in English seemed almost impossible. Pulling a Dragon's Teeth, a first stop on the successful journey toward that goal, is filled with the rhythms and visions of this exciting young poet.Shuttling between her childhood in a small mountain city on the shores of the Yangtze River (soon to be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam Project) and adulthood in Manhattan, Shao Weicaptures the pains and joys of tradition and displacement familiar to any immigrant. Blending fairy tales, New York images, family stories, and the universal rites of passage associated with growing up, she paints a vibrant canvas of passion and imagination.

Animals do not brush their teeth, but they still have ways to keep their teeth clean. Read to find out how. Paired to the fiction title Going to the Zoo.

In the 1910s and 1920s, when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America, Mabel Stark made her name in a man’s world as the greatest female tiger trainer in history, the centre-ring finale act for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus. Brazen, courageous, obsessed with tigers and sexually eccentric, Stark survived a dozen severe maulings — and five husbands. Now, at age 80 and about to lose her job, she decides that there is one last thing she needs to do: Mabel Stark wants to confess.

Summer seemed to arrive at that moment, with its mysterious mixture of salt, cold flesh and fuel. Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summer heat, sunbleached boat docks, and midnight gin parties on Martha's Vineyard in a glorious old family estate known as Tiger House. In the days following the end of the Second World War, the world seems to offer itself up, and the two women are on the cusp of their 'real lives': Helena is off to Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is heading for a reunion with her own young husband, Hughes, about to return from the war. Soon the gilt begins to crack. Helena's husband is not the man he seemed to be, and Hughes has returned from the war distant, his inner light curtained over. On the brink of the 1960s, back at Tiger House, Nick and Helena--with their children, Daisy and Ed--try to recapture that sense of possibility. But when Daisy and Ed discover the victim of a brutal murder, the intrusion of violence causes everything to unravel. The members of the family spin out of their prescribed orbits, secrets come to light, and nothing about their lives will ever be the same. Brilliantly told from five points of view, with a magical elegance and suspenseful dark longing, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut novel from a writer of extraordinary insight and accomplishment.

Sir John Hewett was an administrator in India, with a passion for big game hunting. He wrote this chatty memoir in 1938 when he returned to England. The book offers a detailed account of his adventures in the jungles of Tarai, Gooch Behar, the Central Provinces, and up north in Kumaon and Garhwal. In reading of his descriptions of his travels, we learn a lot about John, as he was known among friends. He travelled a great deal with his younger daughter Lorna, who was an intrepid hunter in her own right and even returned with him to India in 1926-27. The last chapter in this book is about Lorna's unchaperoned trek, to Leh in 1921. The book provides interesting vignettes of the social structures and cultural traditions of the days of the Raj. The photographs of the people the author knew, the maharajas and his colleagues and the author's staff lend colour to the readers' visual vocabulary of a bygone era.

Tom and Sophie Nightingale live on a barge with their zookeeper dad and vet mum, and as many animals as you can get on a small boat. Surely there's no room for any MORE animals in their life? When a tiger at the zoo has a dental dilemma, Tom and Sophie can't help but get involved. But there is a carnivorous culprit closer to home that they must also diagnose - and quickly! An animal-mad adventure written with the help of the brilliant team at ZSL London Zoo.