Recent estimates put the world's insect population at more than forty million species. Here in Illinois, the numbers are equally awesome: seventeen thousand species call the state home, among them four thousand types of flies; fifteen hundred types of grasshoppers, cicadas, and aphids; five thousand types of beetles; two hundred types of ants, wasps, and bees; and two thousand types of butterflies and moths. With so much entomological diversity here in the Midwest, Illinois residents needn't look further than their own backyards to discover the rich and secret world of insects and spiders.

Marrying art and entomology, Illinois Insects and Spiders is a unique introduction to local biodiversity. Artist Peggy Macnamara celebrates the state's burgeoning insect and spider populations with twenty-seven color plates of beautiful renderings of numerous species, organized both taxonomically and thematically. The insects on each plate are depicted true to scale in relation to one another and are displayed approximately ten times larger than life size. Accompanying each plate are lively captions-written by Field Museum curators and collection managers-that identify the species and reveal their interesting behaviors and unique habitats.

Illinois Insects and Spiders encourages readers to explore the biodiversity at their feet-in the shiny beetles on the ground-and in the air-in the glint of a lightning bug in summer. More than a traditional field guide, Illinois Insects and Spiders is the rare book that combines lush artwork with the science of natural history, bringing both closer to the general reader.

In these times of social media saturation, many are the travelers who set off to track down an Instagrammable meal at a hole-in-the-wall featured by Anthony Bourdain or David Chang. Seamus O’Brien, however, journeyed to an unfamiliar locale with an analog guide from another era: the notes made by Joseph Dalton Hooker as he chronicled his journeys in the Sikkim Himilaya in the northeastern most corner of India. Eager to see the plants described in Hooker’s account, O’Brien set off nearly one hundred and fifty years later to trace Hooker’s footsteps through the natural wonders of the Himalayas, recounting the adventure in this new book. With Hooker as his guide, O’Brien compares mid-nineteenth-century notes to twenty-first-century reality—and he discovers that remarkably little has changed. Accompanied by Hooker’s maps and illustrations, the book is a testament to the region’s splendor and to Hooker’s skill as a botanist and cartographer.

In healthcare, the accuracy of interpretation is the most critical component of safe and effective communication between providers and patients in medical settings characterized by language and cultural barriers. Although medical education should prepare healthcare providers for common issues they will face in practice, their training often does not adequately teach the communication skills necessary to work with patients who use interpreters. This new volume in the Studies in Interpretation series addresses critical topics in communication in healthcare settings around the world.

     Investigations in Healthcare Interpreting consists of ten chapters contributed by a broad array of international scholars. They address topics as diverse as the co-construction of medical conversation between interlocutors, healthcare interpretation in Ireland, and how interpreters make requests for clarification in their work. Using a variety of methodological approaches including ethnography, questionnaires, observation, and diary accounts, these scholars report on trials of simultaneous video interpreting in Austrian hospitals; direct, interpreted, and translated healthcare information for Australian deaf people; the interpretation of medical interview questions from English into ASL; and specialized psychological/psychiatric diagnostic tests for deaf and hard of hearing clients. Researchers, practitioners, and students, as well as all healthcare professionals, will find this volume to be an invaluable resource.

Irish immigration to the United States can be divided into five general periods, from 1640 to the present: the colonial, prestarvation, great starvation, post-starvation, and post- independence periods. Immigration to the Great Lakes region and, more specifically, to Michigan was differentially influenced during each of these times. The oppressive historical roots of the Irish in both Ireland and nineteenth century America are important to understand in gaining an appreciation for their concern with socioeconomic status.
     The Irish first entered the Great Lakes by way of the Ohio River and Appalachian passes, spreading north along the expanding frontier. After the War of 1812, the Irish were heavily represented in frontier military garrisons. Many Irish moved into the Detroit metropolitan area as well as to farming areas throughout Michigan. In the 1840s, a number of Irish began fishing in the waters off Beaver Island, Mackinac Island, Bay City, Saginaw, and Alpena. From 1853 to 1854, Irish emigrants from the Great Starvation dug the Ste. Marie Canal while others dug canals in Grand Rapids and Saginaw.
     Irish nationalism in both Michigan and the United States has been closely linked with the labor movement in which Irish Americans were among the earliest organizers and leaders. Irish American nationalism forced the Irish regardless of their local Irish origins to assume a larger Irish identity. Irish Americans have a long history of involvement in the struggle for Irish Freedom dating from the 1840s.
     As Patrick Ford, editor of Irish World has said, America led the Irish from the "littleness of countyism into a broad feeling of nationalism."