One of the world's most singular guitarists, Loren Connors has wrung distinct shades of ephemeral blues from his guitar, its sound ever-shifting while remaining unmistakably his own in more than 100 records across almost four decades. In the mid-80s, Connors took a partial break from music and focused instead on the art of haiku, for which he received the Lafcadio Hearn Award in 1987. With his wife Suzanne Langille he also co-wrote an article on blues and haiku, "The Dancing Ear," published in the Haiku Society of America's journal. It was during this period that Connors penned the material that appears in Autumn's Sun, a chapbook first published by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's Glass Eye in 1999. The text features diary excerpts from 1987, lyrically fragmented observations interspersed with haiku-like poems that paint an idyllic impression of the passing seasons in his home of New Haven, Connecticut. With synesthetic perception, Connors gazes from tranquil domestic streets. Sycamore, elm, and catalpa trees are activated by the breeze and made to rustle in unison with their natural and artificial surroundings, including the howling dogs from which Connors derived his 'Mazzacane' moniker. As summer fades to winter, Connors portrays death as an undramatic certitude, the flux of his own maturation reflected in musings on his son's. Like his music, Autumn's Sun is tender without being sentimental, conjuring those rare, delicate moments when time stands still. This edition includes "The Dancing Ear" and an introduction by Lawrence Kumpf.

Under the Autumn Star by Knut Hamsun And so we started on our digging. I did my share of the work, and Grindhusen had no fault to find with me as a work-mate. "You'll turn out a first-rate hand at this, after all," he said. Then after we'd been working a bit, the priest came out to look, and we took off our hats. He was an oldish man, quiet and gentle in his ways and speech; tiny wrinkles spread out fanwise from the corners of his eyes, like the traces of a thousand kindly smiles. He was sorry to interrupt, and hoped we wouldn't mind - but they'd so much trouble every year with the fowls slipping through into the garden. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

WE LIVE IN A CULTURE THAT IS DESPERATE TO AVOID LOSS. We choose to fight it because we assume that it has come only to unfairly steal and inflict terrible pain. Loss is seen as the rogue enemy and heartless foe, rather than an opportunity for immense and improbable growth. It’s in loss that some of the richest and rarest of life’s lessons lay buried, eagerly waiting to be deeply mined and unearthed. In the deepest pain God does the deepest work. An Autumn’s Journey – Deep Growth in the Grief and Loss of Life’s Seasons does not loosely gloss over loss or provide shallow prescriptions and weak formulas for our grieving. Rather, it aggressively embraces both grief and loss, bringing fresh eyes to these times in our lives in order to draw out of them the marvelous riches that we all too often miss.

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize In 2007, Time magazine named him one of the most influential novelists in the world. He has twice been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. The New York Times Book Review called him simply “a genius.” Now David Mitchell lends fresh credence to The Guardian’s claim that “each of his books seems entirely different from that which preceded it.” The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a stunning departure for this brilliant, restless, and wildly ambitious author, a giant leap forward by even his own high standards. A bold and epic novel of a rarely visited point in history, it is a work as exquisitely rendered as it is irresistibly readable. The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland. But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?” A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author. Praise for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet “A page-turner . . . [David] Mitchell’s masterpiece; and also, I am convinced, a masterpiece of our time.”—Richard Eder, The Boston Globe “An achingly romantic story of forbidden love . . . Mitchell’s incredible prose is on stunning display. . . . A novel of ideas, of longing, of good and evil and those who fall somewhere in between [that] confirms Mitchell as one of the more fascinating and fearless writers alive.”—Dave Eggers, The New York Times Book Review “The novelist who’s been showing us the future of fiction has published a classic, old-fashioned tale . . . an epic of sacrificial love, clashing civilizations and enemies who won’t rest until whole family lines have been snuffed out.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post “By any standards, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is a formidable marvel.”—James Wood, The New Yorker “A beautiful novel, full of life and authenticity, atmosphere and characters that breathe.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

The New York Times bestseller. "This book is full of wonders...Loose teeth, chewing gum, it all becomes noble, almost holy, under Knausgaard’s patient, admiring gaze. The world feels repainted.” —The New York Times From the author of the monumental My Struggle series, Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of the masters of contemporary literature and a genius of observation and introspection, comes the first in a new autobiographical quartet based on the four seasons. 28 August. Now, as I write this, you know nothing about anything, about what awaits you, the kind of world you will be born into. And I know nothing about you... I want to show you our world as it is now: the door, the floor, the water tap and the sink, the garden chair close to the wall beneath the kitchen window, the sun, the water, the trees. You will come to see it in your own way, you will experience things for yourself and live a life of your own, so of course it is primarily for my own sake that I am doing this: showing you the world, little one, makes my life worth living. Autumn begins with a letter Karl Ove Knausgaard writes to his unborn daughter, showing her what to expect of the world. He writes one short piece per day, describing the material and natural world with the precision and mesmerising intensity that have become his trademark. He describes with acute sensitivity daily life with his wife and children in rural Sweden, drawing upon memories of his own childhood to give an inimitably tender perspective on the precious and unique bond between parent and child. The sun, wasps, jellyfish, eyes, lice--the stuff of everyday life is the fodder for his art. Nothing is too small or too vast to escape his attention. This beautifully illustrated book is a personal encyclopaedia on everything from chewing gum to the stars. Through close observation of the objects and phenomena around him, Knausgaard shows us how vast, unknowable and wondrous the world is.

" ... Examines the natural and biological phenomena of fall."--Cover.

Can one choice alter destiny or is fate set in stone? After her father’s unexplained disappearance, the entrancingly beautiful healer Rhianwyn Albray finds herself in a perilous position. She’s nineteen, living alone, and unwed—which, by the king’s law, is strictly forbidden. Several men rally to claim her as their bride, but when a mysterious Irishman, Lord Broccan Mulryan, requests the king’s permission to wed her, Rhianwyn immediately objects. Though he is handsome and there is an undeniable physical attraction, he’s also demanding, arrogant, and not husband material. Rhianwyn meets with her three closest friends, Elspeth, Selena, and Lilliana, at the mystical stone circle near their small English village. Bemoaning their inevitable and undesired fates, each presumes the others will fare better. Then a peculiar old crone offers them a magical opportunity to trade lives—a binding pact that will forever change them, their friendships, and their destinies. With a world of possibilities ahead of her, Rhianwyn must decide: is there a future for her with Lord Broccan?

In 1849, Rose and James MacKenzie homesteaded their Double MK ranch and were founders of the town of Timberline, Arizona. Fifteen years and five children later, their eldest, Abby, goes missing. Before the year ends, James dies from grief. Yet Rose is no damsel in distress; the banker is not coming for her ranch--Rose owns the bank--and she dedicates her life to raising the boys, managing the ranch, and the search for Abby. Rose's twice broken nose and publicly stoic Scot demeanor have earned her a tough reputation and dark legends swirl around the knife she carries at her hip. Yet, as years go by, the winters grow deeper, winds blow colder, and hope of finding Abby has become a flickering ember. Cambridge educated "Lee's Army" veteran, KO Campbell, suffered serious burn injuries during the Civil War and hopes to speed his recovery by fulfilling a dream of traveling west to "complete" the botanical journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His horse slips on an icy mountainside, and he literally falls into the Double MK ranch, so he decides to linger and seek work there. When he meets Mrs. MacKenzie, KO is startled to see a familiar face that he cannot quite place. As they work sometimes side-by-side on the ranch, a kindredship develops between Rose and KO, and they begin to question it from their different stations. She is the boss, he is the ranch hand. She is a wealthy landowner who would never leave her mountains and family. He has a dream, which can easily call him away, and a secret which can hurt both of them. Set in Arizona's dramatic, diverse landscapes of tall Saguaros, Ponderosa Pine, lush mountain meadows, and the secret caves and canyons of the Moggollon Rim, Autumn's On Its Way is not a bodice ripper, nor a shoot'em up, it's the story of a woman's realization of her physical, spiritual, and emotional capacities and reemergence into life after tragedy. It's a love of life story, brim full of legend, mystery, family relationships, adventure, near-death escapes, and an esteemed cast of supporting, real-west characters, including Mangus Colorado, Cochise, Lozen, Juh, pirates, privateers, and Italian royalty.

"Autumn's Obstacles" is an inspiring story of divine guidance. The reader will laugh and cry while compelled to route for Autumn as she navigates the roller coaster ride of her challenging life. Making a wish that is divinely challenged, Autumn's dramatic wish and near death experience introduces her to God. She develops a relationship with her heavenly father who ominously directs her through survival and triumph over the obstacles of her life.