Literary legend Jim Harrison's collection of novellas, The Farmer's Daughter, finds him writing at the height of his powers, and in fresh and audacious new directions. The three stories in The Farmer's Daughter are as different as they are unforgettable. Written in the voice of a home-schooled fifteen-year-old girl in rural Montana, the title novella is an uncompromising, beautiful tale of an extraordinary character whose youth intersects with unexpected brutality, and the reserves she must draw on to make herself whole. In another, Harrison's beloved recurring character Brown Dog, still looking for love, escapes from Canada back to the United States on the tour bus of a Native rock band called Thunderskins. And finally, a retired werewolf, misdiagnosed with a rare blood disorder brought on by the bite of a Mexican hummingbird, attempts to lead a normal life but is nevertheless plagued by hazy, feverish episodes of epic lust, physical appetite, athletic exertions, and outbursts of violence under the full moon. The Farmer's Daughter is a memorable portrait of three decidedly unconventional American lives. With wit, poignancy, and an unbounded love for his characters, Jim Harrison has again reminded us why he is one of the most cherished and important authors at work today.

Savor the Flavors of Every Season with Beautiful Baked Goods Bake along with Kelsey Siemens, creator of The Farmer’s Daughter blog and fulltime apple farmer at her family’s orchard. In this inspiring collection, she shares the ins and outs of a year on the farm, along with new and heirloom recipes, plus gorgeous photography. Layered with crumbles, fillings, creams and curds, these impressive treats bring out the best in every fruit. Whether you want to take your pies to the next level with a braided lattice crust and creative flavor pairings, or just need clever ways to use your farmers’ market haul or garden harvest, you’ll find a bounty of delicious ideas and easy techniques. Welcome spring with Great-Grandma Enid’s Rhubarb-Pistachio Coffee Cake and capture the sweet taste of summer in Blueberry–Earl Grey Cream Roll Cake. Celebrate autumn’s return with favorite flavors in Apple Crisp Cheesecake with Salted Caramel and warm up your winter with preserves and spices in a festive Gingerbread Loaf with Chai-Spiced Poached Pears. Straight from Kelsey’s cozy farmhouse kitchen, these recipes turn everyday produce into irresistible creations that will have you looking forward to every season.

From yesterday's gingham girls to today's Farmer Janes, The Midwest Farmer's Daughter unearths the untold history and renewed cultural currency of an American icon at a time when fully 30 percent of new farms in the US are woman-owned. From farm women bloggers, to back-to-the-land homesteaders and seed-savers, to rural graphic novelists and, ultimately, to the seven generations of farm daughters who have animated his own family since before the Civil War, the author travels across the region to shine new documentary light on this seedbed for American virtue, energy, and ingenuity. Packed with many memorable interviews, print artifacts, and historic images, this groundbreaking documentary history describes the centuries-long reiteration and reinterpretation of agrarian daughters in the field, over the airwaves, on the printed page, and in the court of public opinion. Offering a sweeping cultural and social history, it ranges widely and well from Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres to Laura Ingalls Wilder's proto-feminist commentaries for the Missouri Ruralist; from the critical importance of rural girls and young women to time-honored organizations such as the Farm Bureau, 4-H, and FFA to the entrepreneurial role today's female agriculturalists and sustainable farm advocates play in farmers' markets, urban farms, and community-supported agriculture. For all those whose lives have been graced by the enduring strength of this regional and national touchstone, The Midwest Farmer's Daughter offers a one-of-a-kind scholarly examination and contemporary appreciation.

“What kind of Navy officer sits on his ship in the middle of the Mediterranean dreaming of gerbils?” That’s the question that Holly Robinson sets out to answer in this warm and rollicking memoir of life with her father, the world’s most famous gerbil czar. Starting with a few pairs of gerbils housed for curiosity’s sake in the family’s garage, Donald Robinson’s obsession with the “pocket kangaroo” developed into a lifelong passion and second career. Soon the Annapolis-trained Navy commander was breeding gerbils and writing about them for publications ranging from the ever-bouncy Highlights for Children to the erudite Science News. To support his burgeoning business, the family eventually settled on a remote hundred-acre farm with horses, sheep, pygmy goats, peacocks–and nearly nine thousand gerbils. From part-time model for her father’s bestselling pet book, How to Raise and Train Pet Gerbils, to full-time employee in the gerbil empire’s complex of prefab Sears buildings, Holly was an enthusiastic if often exasperated companion on her father’s quest to breed the perfect gerbil. Told with heart, humor, and affection, The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter is Holly’s ode to a weird and wonderful upbringing and her truly one-of-a-kind father.

LIFE ON THE LAND: Memoir of a Farmer’s Daughter is an inspirational look at life through the eyes of a black child during a time when “cotton was king.” Carolyn J. Brown shares her story of living on a farm in Northeast Texas. She details the challenges and joys of growing up in a family of black cotton farmers who worked on their own land. Upon leaving the farm for a career in urban education, the author faced different kinds of challenges and rewards which she describes. Also included are strategies that engage children with literature in meaningful ways.

"The Chalice of Mystery" records the deeds of heroes and legends of Donothor. The chronicle occurs three hundred years after the fall of the sorcerer of the Lachinor Morlecainen and his daughter Chalar and seven centuries before the Deathquest to Parallan. The Aivendar family has wisely and justly ruled Donothor, but fantastic creatures roam the land and large areas of Donothor remained unexplored. The Light Sorceress Knarra keeps an uneasy eye toward the Iron Mountains, the imposing eastern border to the growing civilization, and the Lachinor, the great swamp to the south. Attacks by an unlikely alliance of creatures from the Iron Mountains shatter the fragile peace and terrorize Donothor. Knarra enlists the mysterious Dark Sorcerer Roscoe, the dwarves of Hillesdale, a red-haired elf, a legendary dwarfish fighter, and the Rangers of Lyndyn to battle the alliance of red giants, ice giants, ogres, two-headed Ettins, troglodytes, dragons, and stranger ilk. A relic of evil rests in the Iron Mountains. What role does the artifact play in the future of Donothor? What evil unites the denizens of the Iron Mountains?

From the head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission comes a landmark study of the ways in which prejudice has shaped American justice, covering episodes of racism and sexism in the courts from 1865 to the present.

McDowell profiles Sister Alwinia Heinemann, OSF, a pioneer in family-centered maternity care in the 1950s in the Louisville area. The community called her the "Mother Teresa of Louisville" for her saintliness, dedication, and devotion. (Catholic)

The adventures surrounding a mystery

First in the Farmer’s Daughter mystery series set on a picturesque farm in Michigan, where Shelby McDonald runs a popular lifestyle and cooking blog, from the national bestselling author of the Cranberry Cove Mysteries. On her blog, The Farmer’s Daughter, Shelby McDonald is growing her audience as she posts recipes, gardening tips, and her experiences raising two kids and running Love Blossom Farm in the small western Michigan town of Lovett. Working the farm is demanding but peaceful—until that peace is shattered when the minister’s wife is murdered on Shelby’s property during a fund-raiser for a local church. But the manure really hits the fan when Shelby’s good friend veterinarian Kelly Thacker emerges as the prime suspect. Shelby decides to dig in and find the murderer by herself. As more suspects crop up, she’ll have to move fast—before someone else buys the farm. . . . INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES