Five generations of Marnie O. Mamminga’s family have been rejuvenated by times together in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. In a series of evocative remembrances accompanied by a treasure trove of vintage family photos, Mamminga takes us to Wake Robin, the cabin her grandparents built in 1929 on Big Spider Lake near Hayward, on land adjacent to Moody’s Camp. Along the way she preserves the spirit and cultural heritage of a vanishing era, conveying the heart of a place and the community that gathered there. Bookended by the close of the logging era and the 1970s shift to modern lake homes, condos, and Jet Skis, the 1920s to 1960s period covered in these essays represents the golden age of Northwoods camps and cabins—a time when retreats such as Wake Robin were the essence of simplicity. In Return to Wake Robin, Mamminga describes the familiar cadre of fishing guides casting their charm, the camaraderie and friendships among resort workers and vacationers, the call of the weekly square dance, the splash announcing a perfectly executed cannonball, the lodge as gathering place. By tracing the history of one resort and cabin, she recalls a time and experience that will resonate with anyone who spent their summers Up North—or wishes they had.

"Wake-Robin", John Burroughs' first book, is a detailed work on birds, being an alluring "invitation to the study of Ornithology". It's aim is to stimulate an interest in the natural history of birds, which Burroughs arguably achieves through a masterful marriage of interesting facts and beautiful writing. John Burroughs (1837 - 1921) was an American naturalist, essayist, and active member of the U.S. conservation movement. Burroughs' work was incredibly popular during his lifetime, and his legacy has lived on in the form of twelve U.S. Schools named after him, Burroughs Mountain, and the John Burroughs Association-which publicly recognizes well-written and illustrated natural history publications. Other notable works by this author include: "Winter Sunshine" (1875), "Birds and Poets" (1877), and "Locusts and Wild Honey" (1879). Contents include: "The Return of the Birds", "In the Hemlocks", "The Adirondacks", "Birds'-Nests", "Spring at the Capital", "Birch Browsings", "The Bluebird", "The Invitation", etc. . Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.

Combining the personal and the universal, this essay collection by best-selling author Marnie O. Mamminga details the common experiences that unite us in the heart of the country. From the Chicago suburbs to the Northwoods of Wisconsin, On a Clear Night charts the passage of time from childhood to adulthood, sickness to health, working life to retirement, parenthood to grandparenthood, and everything in between. These humorous and sharply-observed vignettes highlight the importance of taking time to appreciate the ordinary occurrences that profoundly shape our lives and the places we call home.

A collection of over 180 pages of observations, phrases, and interpretations of life and its daily business through the mind of a child. "You guys wanna see how much stuff is in my pocket?" ​You bet, little bean. Go ahead and rock it.

After a series of suicide-killings and a deadly storm, the residents of the town of Oleander, Kansas, start acting even more strangely than would be expected. Only the five witnesses of the murders retain their sound minds, and they must band together to save the town from whatever has come over it.

*Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied* highlights and documents Brock Evans' 50-year career as a leader in the environmental movement. These nearly 500 pages form a unique 80-year autobiographical collage pieced together from three main sources: A Forest of Stories: Brock's unknown and unpublished personal writing from boyhood diaries, letters, journals, stories from Ohio to Princeton to Bombay, from the Marines to Michigan Law School, from Ann Arbor to Montana. Later personal writing include his poem "Elegy," Israel diaries, "Seventeenth Summer," Cancer-Time diaries, and "Music to Play at my Funeral." Most texts were transcribed and quoted verbatim or excerpted. A Mountain of Documents: These were selected from thousands of Brock's extensive professional published environmental writing, including testimony, speeches, letters, articles, memoranda, histories, essays, complete chapters. Most texts were scanned and/or excerpted. Chapters tell of winning or influencing battle after battle: North Cascades, Alpine Lakes, Horseshoe Basin, French Pete, Hells Canyon, John Day River, Sparta Mountain, Congaree. A River of Photos: These 124 photographs-both color and black-white, both published and unpublished, personal and professional-introduce, enrich, and vary the multiple texts. Scanned and featured at the opening of all fifty chapters, they include Evans family photos, landscapes, arrests, mentors, marches, nurses, friends, mountains, wives and lovers, shots from the freighter Capto, and professional photos: Hells Canyon, Boundary Waters Wilderness, Alaska.In *Endless Pressure, Endlessly Applied*, these sources come together to create a new whole-a rich and complex place to understand and appreciate Brock Evans' life and work. An attorney by profession and a writer by instinct, he has previously published two books: *Alpine Lakes* (1971) and the award-winning *Fight and Win* (2015).

Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of nature with 'Wake-Robin' by John Burroughs. Take an extraordinary journey through the untamed wilderness of early Washington D.C. and the serene Hudson River Valley. Burroughs, a master observer, unveils the hidden wonders of the natural world—spotting elusive birds, tracing the flight of raptors, and discovering the secret melodies of fledglings in their diverse nests.

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than its name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything. Instead they “check out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what’s going on. But once they take their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls of the bookstore. Evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or Umberto Eco, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like—an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.

In Going for Wisconsin Gold, author Jessie Garcia provides insights into the lives of athletes who grew up or spent time in Wisconsin on their journey to the Olympic Games. She shares some of our competitors most captivating tales--from those that have become legend, like Dan Jansen's heartbreaking falls and subsequent magical gold, to unlikely brushes with glory (do you know which Green Bay Packer was almost an Olympic high jumper?). The book features the athletes' personal stories, many of them told here in detail for the first time, plus pictures from their private collections.