The beloved real-life story of a woman in the Alaskan wilderness, the children she taught, and the man she loved.“From the time I’d been a girl, I’d been thrilled with the idea of living on a frontier. So when I was offered the job of teaching school in a gold-mining settlement called Chicken, I accepted right away.”Anne Hobbs was only nineteen in 1927 when she came to harsh and beautiful Alaska. Running a ramshackle schoolhouse would expose her to...

Finalist for the 2018 Minnesota Book AwardA graphic designer’s search for inspiration leads to a cache of letters and the mystery of one man’s fate during World War II.Seeking inspiration for a new font design in an antique store in small-town Stillwater, Minnesota, graphic designer Carolyn Porter stumbled across a bundle of letters and was immediately drawn to their beautifully expressive pen-and-ink handwriting. She could not read the lett...

A "delightful, witty" memoir about starting over as a beekeeper in the Ozarks ( Library Journal).Alone on a small Missouri farm after a thirty-year marriage, Sue Hubbell found a new love—of the winged, buzzing variety. Left with little but the commercial beekeeping and honey-producing business she started with her husband, Hubbell found solace in the natural world. Then she began to write, challenging herself to tell the absolute truth about her life and th...

After a 17 year coma, Joel Berskin is brought back to life through the power of music and a mystery dog.The last time Joel Berskin was conscious, O.J. Simpson had just led police on a long car chase and nobody knew the name Monica Lewinsky. When he turns on the strange-looking flat screen in his room at the nursing home, he hears reporters on one channel after another talking about Charlie Sheen's infamous meltdown. Once his mother arrives at his bedside, he learns...

Every dog deserves a forever home and after being given up several times, Wrigley has finally found his. The smart, good-natured dog now spends his days at SunRidge Assisted Living, comforting and doting on forty-five seniors. Wrigley has free run of the place—going where he senses he's needed—but his preferred spot is beside his favorite resident, Marjorie Thompson.All is well until a curmudgeon named Walter Kepsen moves in across the hall from Marjorie. Walter can't stand Wrigley...

Winner/Nominee of eight awards"This book needs to join the ranks of the classic survivor stories of WWII such as "Diary of Anne Frank" and "Man's Search for Meaning". It is truly that amazing!" InD'taleMagazine"This novel is fast-paced and emotively worded and features a great selection of characters, flawed and poignantly three-dimensional." Historical Novel SocietySpanning thirteen years from 1940 to 1953 and set ...

Hazard is a poignant, unflinching memoir of the emotional intricacies of growing up with a severely disabled sibling. Margaret Combs shows how her Southern Baptist family coped with lived reality of autism in an era of ignorance and shame, the 1950s through the 1970s, and shares her own tragedy and anguish of being torn between helping her brother and yearning for her own life. Like many siblings of disabled children, young Margaret drives herself to excel in order to make up for ...

The Newbery Medal–winning author of A Wrinkle in Time paints an intimate portrait of her forty-year marriage to actor Hugh Franklin in this personal memoir.A long-term marriage has to move beyond chemistry to compatibility, to friendship, to companionship.As National Book Award-winnin author Madeleine L'Engle describes a relationship characterized by compassion, respect, and growth, as well as challenge and confl...

The Newbery Medal–winning author of A Wrinkle in Time reflects on her life and muses on creativity in this memoir, the first of her Crosswicks Journals.Every so often I need OUT. . . . My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings. . . . I sit there, dangling my legs and looking through the foliage at the sky reflected in the water, and thing...

This acclaimed memoir of Islamic faith, marriage, and motherhood in America is “a culturally rich and rewarding personal chronicle” (Kirkus).Threading My Prayer Rug is the captivating tale of a woman’s pursuit to define an American Muslim identity for herself. With warmth and wisdom, Sabeeha Rehman recounts a multifaceted journey: from Pakistan to the United States; from arranged marriage to lasting love match; from liberal to conservative to Amer...

An estranged daughter returns home to discover her father’s WWII history in a “beautifully written” novel of family rifts and the burdens of racism (Historical Novel Society).Rachel Fleischer has good reasons not to be at her father’s deathbed. Foaling season is at hand and her horses are becoming restless. But her horse manager, Malachi—more of a father to Rachel than Marty ever was—convinces her to go.When a stranger at her father’s funeral delivers an od...

What happens when you discover at thirty that your brain runs on different software? Chemical engineer Michelle Vines reveals the invisible world of female autism—from childhood isolation through workplace disasters to the life-changing moment of diagnosis. With wit and searing honesty, she exposes the exhausting performance of appearing "normal" and the profound relief of finally understanding why she never quite fit. A must-read for anyone who's ever felt like they're operating from a di...