Charley Morgan lost his faith in mankind and in God during the Vietnam War. Failing to put his life back together after his return to civilian life, he outfits his sailboat and launches an odyssey to oblivion by sailing aimlessly from one island to the next. At the lowest point in his life, Charley sails into an island where he meets a young woman who has inherited a defunct rum distillery. She begs Charley for help in getting it operational again. He reluctantly agrees and suddenly finds ...

When Ward Degler graduated from journalism school, his mother speculated he would become a world-famous war correspondent or, at the very least, editor-in-chief of an influential newspaper. He did neither. Instead, he became a columnist, giving him the opportunity to write about subjects that interested him while avoiding everything that didnt.In The Dark Ages of My Youth, Degler shares a selected collection of the weekly columns written for the Times Sentinel in ...

" Funny, elegiac . . . a remarkably sunny coming-of-age story about growing up in a Midwest world." —NPROne of the Best Books of the Year—Amazon, Golf Digest , Minnesota Public RadioThis is a story of the 1970s. Of a road trip in a wood-paneled station wagon, with the kids in the way-back, singing along to the Steve Miller Band. Of brothers waking up early on Saturday mornings for five consecutive...

Harley-Davidson bikers • Grand Canyon river rats • Mormon archaeologists • Spelling bee prodigies • For more than fifteen years, the bestselling, award-winning author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers has traveled widely across the continent exploring the America that lurks just behind the scrim of our mainstream culture.This sparkling mosaic of our country, in all its wild and poignant charm, “may be the best road trip you’ll ever t...

A hilarious collection of essays dedicated to life in the great outdoors from Field & Stream's acclaimed Sportsman's Life columnist.For nearly a decade, Bill Heavey, an outdoorsman marooned in suburbia, has written the Sportsman's Life column on the back page of Field & Stream, where he does for hunting and fishing what David Feherty does for golf and Lewis Grizzard did for the South. If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat? is the...

Fruitcake Hill is a cleverly written history and personal memoir of an Irish family from the Chicago suburbs that has continuously occupied a single farmhouse property for over 137 years. The story focuses on the family's struggles to preserve the life they knew before urban sprawl became a reality. A humorous and informative read!

Inspired by his From the Ground Up New York Times blog, a beautifully written memoir about building and brotherhood.Confronted with the disappointments and knockdowns that can come in middle age-job loss, the death of his mother, a health scare, a divorce-Lou Ureneck needed a project that would engage the better part of him and put him back in life's good graces. City-bound for a decade, Lou decided he needed to build a simple post-and-beam cabin in the wo...

“Dreaming of moving to the country? First, read Michael Korda’s engaging memoir. City types will find laughter, profit, and fair warning in Country Matters.” —Washington PostWith his inimitable sense of humor and storytelling talent, New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda brings us this charming, hilarious, self-deprecating memoir of a city couple's new life in the country.At once enterta...

Whether your home is an apartment, a house, or a condo -- rented or owned -- the 101 stories in this book all about the place you call home will warm your heart.Home is where the heart is. Be it your childhood home or where you lay your head now, you will find joy, laughter, and inspiration in these 101 stories about cooking, family meals, decorating, remodeling, repairing... everything we do to make a home.

For twenty-five years, millions of Americans watched Jack Perkins on NBC News as a correspondent, commentator, and anchorman. People were familiar with his face, his bearing, and his rich, reassuring bass.Yet at the age of fifty-two and at the height of his career, Jack Perkins left the world of broadcasting and moved with his wife, Mary Jo, to a bare-necessities cabin on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine. This isolated home they came to call Moosewood was the setting fo...

One midnight when I was about sixteen and watching the late movie with Dad, I started to nod off. He rocked my shoulder. "Listenup," he said, pointing to the screen. I propped up to peer past the bowl of old maids to see Mr. O'Hara, redder than usual, lecturing Scarlett.". . . land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dying for, because land is the only thing that lasts!"Sarah Stonich's family had once owned land—an island in Lake Verm...

In The Chili Cone Chronicles, Michael Winslow shares his remarkable story of growing up and coming-of-age in a small midwestern town during the tempestuous, whirlwind time of the 1960s. Funny and poignant by turns, Winslow offers a memorable journey through the mayhem as he relies on the comfort of his family, oddball friends, and small-town charm to make everything right in his own little corner of the world. Against a backdrop of calamitous world and national events, Winslow rec...