All Things Left Wild

All Things Left Wild
Author: James Wade
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982601043

After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Caleb’s moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill. Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice. Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul.

River, Sing Out

River, Sing Out
Author: James Wade
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982601078

Attempting to escape his abusive father and generations of cyclical poverty, young Jonah Hargrove joins the mysterious River—a teenage girl carrying thousands of dollars in stolen meth—and embarks on a southern gothic odyssey through the East Texas river bottoms. They are pursued by local drug kingpin John Curtis and his murderous enforcer, Dakota Cade, with whom River was romantically involved. But Cade and Curtis have their own enemies, as their relationship with the cartel controlling their meth supply begins to sour. Keeping tabs on everyone is the Thin Man, a silent assassin who values consequence over mercy. Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in savage fashion as their final paths collide and all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God. With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into a sinister and sanguinary world, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.

The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing

The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing
Author: Joseph Fasano
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2020-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781913007072

Fiction. Deep in the mountains of British Columbia, across an unforgiving landscape, one man's pursuit of a fabled mountain lion leads him into the furthest reaches of himself. As he struggles to confront the wilderness surrounding him--from the baying hounds to the relentless northern snows--he journeys into his own haunted memories: a life of wild horses and ballet, fishing skiffs and blizzards, tropical seas and dolphins. Through wind, snow, and the depths of grief, he asks what price he is willing to exact on a world that ravages what we love, and whether redemption awaits those who learn to forgive. A tender story of love and a modern-day parable, The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing, the debut novel from acclaimed poet Joseph Fasano, guides us into the deepest territories of the human heart. "Joseph Fasano has the heart and the ear and he puts them to magnificent use in THE DARK HEART OF EVERY WILD THING. By turns mournful and thrilling, this story, told in precise and glorious prose, traverses the wild heights of grief, vengeance, tenderness, and love. It pierces."--Sam Lipsyte "A father, a boy, and a mountain lion. If it sounds like the start of a parable, that's because THE DARK HEART OF EVERY WILD THING has wisdom to share. But that wisdom is complicated, surprising, and at times even vicious. What seems at first like a quiet book is actually quite fierce, not unlike the big cat at the center of its story. This elegiac novel is a moving meditation on grief, love, and obsession."--Erica Wright "Joseph Fasano is a wonderfully gifted writer. He writes evocatively, lyrically, and never fails to surprise us with his revelations and illuminations. His insights are deep, his delineation of character and place immensely satisfying. He gives us a story that keeps resonating long after we have finished reading."--Nicholas Christopher

Beasts of the Earth

Beasts of the Earth
Author: James Wade
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2022-10-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1665024062

James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as “rhapsodic” and “haunting,” delivers his most powerful work to date—a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana. Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School’s grounds department whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice. Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael’s life that sends him running from everything he has ever known. He is rescued by a dying poet and his lover, who extract from him a promise: to be a good man, whatever that may require. Beasts of the Earth deftly intertwines these stories, exploring themes of time, fate, and free will, to produce a revelatory conclusion that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.

All Things Wild And Wonderful

All Things Wild And Wonderful
Author: Kobie Kruger
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2012-10-09
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0143027476

In All Things Wild and Wonderful, Kobie Krüger brings us further stories of her life in the Kruger National Park, where her husband was a game ranger. After eleven years in the remote Mahlangeni region they are transferred, first to Crocodile Bridge and then to Pretorius Kop. Fully at peace in the wild and lonely landscapes of the north, Kobie fears she will never adapt to the relatively people-populated southern area. It takes time, but eventually she is able to acknowledge that the move has shown her 'other Edens' and has given her a store of new adn precious memories. Foremost among her memories is the unique experience of raising Leo, an abandoned lion cub. It is a fascinating and emotional encounter with the king of the beasts, which brings her and her family equal measures of joy and sorrow. Written with her usual warmth and humour, and imbued with her love of the wilderness and all its inhabitants, this new book is truly a celebration of all things wild and wonderful.

Something Wild

Something Wild
Author: Hanna Halperin
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2021-06-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1984882066

"Propulsive . . . . Good books sometimes cut to the bone, and this one feels like a scythe." —The New York Times Book Review "This wise, brilliant novel is so special, so overflowing with honesty and love—about motherhood, sisterhood, what it’s like to be a woman—that every paragraph feels like an epiphany. Hanna Halperin knows the fierce love that can exist especially among broken things. Something Wild moved me deeply." —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed A searing novel about the love and contradictions of sisterhood, the intoxicating desires of adolescence, and the traumas that trap mothers and daughters in cycles of violence One weekend, sisters Tanya and Nessa Bloom pause their respective adult lives and travel to the Boston suburbs to help their mother pack up and move out of their childhood home. For the first time since they were teenagers sharing a bunk bed over a decade ago, they find themselves in the place where long-kept secrets were born, where jealousy, comfort, anger, forgiveness, and repulsion coexist with the fiercest love and loyalty. What they don't expect is for their visit to expose a new, horrifying truth: their mother, Lorraine, is in a violent relationship. As Tanya urges Lorraine to get a restraining order, Nessa struggles to reconcile her fondness for their stepfather with his capacity for brutality. Their differing responses to the abuse bring up the sisters' shared secret—a traumatic, unspoken experience from their adolescence has shaped their lives, their sense of selves, and their relationship with each other and the men in their life. In the midst of this family crisis, they have no choice but to reckon with the past and face each other in the present, in the hope that there's a way out of the violence so deeply ingrained in the Bloom family. Told in alternating perspectives that deftly interweave past and present, Something Wild is a magnetic, unflinching portrait of the bond between sisters, as well as a psychologically acute exploration of the legacy of divorce, the ways trauma reverberates over generations, and how it might be possible to overcome the past.

Forever Wild

Forever Wild
Author: K.A. Tucker
Publisher: K.A. Tucker
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2020-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1777202744

From the international bestselling author of The Simple Wild comes Forever Wild, a novella that continues the story of Calla’s journey to the Alaskan wild and a life she never imagined for herself. The holiday season is upon Calla and Jonah, and with the mistletoe and gingerbread comes plenty of family drama. Jonah is bracing himself for two weeks with a stepfather he loathes, and while Calla is looking forward to her mother and Simon’s arrival, she dreads the continued pressure to set a date for their wedding … in Toronto. Add in one bullheaded neighbor’s unintentional meddling and another cantankerous neighbor’s own family strife, and Christmas in Trapper’s Crossing will be anything but simple.

All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone

All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone
Author: John J. Jacobson
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982600918

All the Cowboys Ain’t Gone is the rollicking adventure story of Lincoln Smith, a young Texan living at the beginning of the twentieth century, who thinks of himself as the last true cowboy. He longs for the days of the Old West, when men like his father, a famous Texas Ranger, lived by the chivalric code. Lincoln finds himself hopelessly out of time and place in the fast-changing United States of the new century. When he gets his heart broken by a sweetheart who doesn’t appreciate his anachronistic tendencies, he does what any sensible young romantic would do: he joins the French Foreign Legion. On his way to an ancient and exotic country at the edge of the Sahara, Lincoln encounters a number of curious characters and strange adventures, from a desert hermit who can slow up time to a battle with a crocodile cult that worships the god of death. He meets them all with his own charming brand of courage and resourcefulness.

Walk on the Wild Side

Walk on the Wild Side
Author: Christine Warren
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2008-06-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1429939095

In national bestseller Christine Warren's Others novels, vampires, witches, werewolves, and more have come out of the supernatural closet. Now, the world as we know it will never be the same... Kitty Sugarman is a lot tougher than her name implies. Still, she's content with how her small- town life keeps her removed from all the changes happening in the world—like the Unveiling of the Others. That is, until a near-tragedy strikes and Kitty discovers she has abilities . . .thanks to a father she never knew was alive. He also happens to be a were-lion and leader of one of the most powerful Prides out West. WALK ON THE WILD SIDE When Kitty heads to Vegas to find out more about her father, it's his sexy, seductive second-in-command or baas of the Pride, Marcus Stewart, who commands her attention. Now that she has tempted Marcus's hunger for a mate, Kitty finds herself stuck in a vicious struggle for her father's fortune, while deadly unrest stirs within the pride. Kitty's rivals won't rest until she's gone for good, but Marcus will fight until his last breath to save her...even if it means going against the pride. "Warren brings fascinating alternate realities to life." —Romantic Times BOOKreviews

All the Wild Hungers

All the Wild Hungers
Author: Karen Babine
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1571319832

A “lovely” memoir of caring for a mother with cancer, reflecting on our appetites for food and for life (Minneapolis Star Tribune). When her mother is diagnosed with a rare cancer, Karen Babine—cook, collector of vintage cast iron, and fiercely devoted daughter, sister, and aunt—can’t help but wonder: feed a fever, starve a cold, but what do we do for cancer? And so she commits to preparing her mother anything she will eat, a vegetarian diving into the unfamiliar world of bone broth and pot roast. In this series of mini-essays, Babine ponders the intimate connections between food, family, and illness. As she notes that her sister’s unborn baby is the size of lemon while her mother’s tumor is the size of a cabbage, she reflects on what draws us toward food metaphors to describe disease. What is the power of language, of naming, in a medical culture where patients are too often made invisible? How do we seek meaning where none is to be found—and can we create it from scratch? And how, Babine asks as she bakes cookies with her small niece and nephew, does a family create its own food culture across generations? Generous and bittersweet, All the Wild Hungers is an affecting chronicle of one family’s experience of illness and of a writer's culinary attempt to make sense of the inexplicable. “[Babine] continues to navigate her way through extraordinary challenges with ordinary comforts, finding poetry in the everyday. Reading this quiet book should provide the sort of balm for those in similar circumstances that writing it must have for the author.”―Kirkus Reviews “Profound…Anyone who has experienced a family member’s struggle with cancer will be stabbed by recognition throughout this book…In the end, the overriding hunger referred to in this lovely book’s title is the hunger for life.”―Minneapolis Star Tribune