From California to the Klondike, prospector Holly Skinner follows a trail of gold across the nineteenth -century American West. Living in a ghost town on Wyoming's South Pass, she steps back into a world where gold ruled the passions of those who pursued it and changed the shape of the nation that found it. In a style reminiscent of John McPhee, Skinner weaves the story of her own solitudinous search for the precious metal into her accounts of the gold rushes that so dramatically accelerated the westward movement.

??Wallace Stevens? ?Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird? appeared originally in 1917 and was subsequently published in his first book, Harmonium, in 1923. In a letter, Stevens once wrote that ?this group of poems is not meant to be a collection of epigrams or of ideas, but of sensations.? If this is indeed the poet?s intent, the poem provides readers with no fewer than thirteen perspectives or observances about blackbirds, but in those ?thirteen ways? is the immeasurable culmination of sensations. Just as the poet?s imagination invites readers to discover the infinite mysteries of the world and how these unify us in unexpected ways, Corinne Jones? new visual interpretation of Stevens? poem invites us, again, to re-explore the multiplicity of observation and subsequent knowledge.????This new trade edition, a 10x10 reprint of the original fine arts book, juxtaposes Jones?s beautiful and sensual prints of blackbirds against Stevens?s poetic text. The result is that the life and power inherent in each artwork is increased wonderfully and vibrantly when taken as a whole.??.

Winner of the 1996 Four Way Books Intro Prize in Poetry selected by Chase Twichell. "Like the voice in Whitman, which she exuberantly appropriates and updates, McFadden's speaker is at once uniquely human and recognizable in all of us. . .a genuinely ambitious book, a book with big wings." --Chase Twichell

"In this elegant narrative, celebrated naturalist Ted Floyd guides you through a year of becoming a better birder. Choosing 200 top avian species to teach key lessons, Floyd introduces a new, holistic approach to bird watching and shows how to use the tools of the 21st century to appreciate the natural world we inhabit together whether city, country or suburbs." -- From book jacket.

Two men are kidnapped, sent to an African diamond mine to complete an equipment installation, and must find a way to escape. They'll revive a temple and keep their mouths shut, or be killed. It's 1994, near the end of the Rwandan war. Robert's a privileged kid with anger issues. He must reconcile his old life, where everything is easy and nothing matters, with his new one as a forced laborer. It's easier said than done. He's plagued by his inner demon-the blackbird-the violent temper he must control. Logos, his mentor, is known as the man who can fix any mining equipment in the field. He's done things for governments he no longer remembers, and he must conquer a trauma, or it will destroy him. His talent, reputation, and dark past have made him the target of the kidnappers. The mysterious Consortium has stalked him for years. The guide, Mr. K.K., tells them they'll work to the brink of death. Why? Only one man in the world is capable of the "special installation" to make the owners rich again-Logos. In the nothingness of the bush, they experience a new and dark world. Villagers are forced to work at gunpoint, subjugated by a hierarchy of Masters and Workers, alive since the Belgian Congo. Logos and Robert will play with nothing to lose or die as slaves. The jungle keeps secrets. They're about to find out why. Includes Readers Guide.

This selection of works by Wallace Stevens--the man Harold Bloom has called “the best and most representative American poet”--was first published in 1967. Edited by the poet's daughter Holly Stevens, it contains all the major long poems and sequences, and every shorter poem of lasting value in Stevens' career, including some not printed in his earlier Collected Works. Included also is a short play by Stevens, "Bowl, Cat and Broomstick."

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Los Angeles Times • The Boston Globe • The Seattle Times • The Independent In such acclaimed novels as Let the Great World Spin and TransAtlantic, National Book Award–winning author Colum McCann has transfixed readers with his precision, tenderness, and authority. Now, in his first collection of short fiction in more than a decade, McCann charts the territory of chance, and the profound and intimate consequences of even our smallest moments. “As it was, it was like being set down in the best of poems, carried into a cold landscape, blindfolded, turned around, unblindfolded, forced, then, to invent new ways of seeing.” In the exuberant title novella, a retired judge reflects on his life’s work, unaware as he goes about his daily routines that this particular morning will be his last. In “Sh’khol,” a mother spending Christmas alone with her son confronts the unthinkable when he disappears while swimming off the coast near their home in Ireland. In “Treaty,” an elderly nun catches a snippet of a news report in which it is revealed that the man who once kidnapped and brutalized her is alive, masquerading as an agent of peace. And in “What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?” a writer constructs a story about a Marine in Afghanistan calling home on New Year’s Eve. Deeply personal, subtly subversive, at times harrowing, and indeed funny, yet also full of comfort, Thirteen Ways of Looking is a striking achievement. With unsurpassed empathy for his characters and their inner lives, Colum McCann forges from their stories a profound tribute to our search for meaning and grace. The collection is a rumination on the power of storytelling in a world where language and memory can sometimes falter, but in the end do not fail us, and a contemplation of the healing power of literature. Praise for Thirteen Ways of Looking “Extraordinary . . . incandescent.”—Chicago Tribune “The irreducible mystery of human experience ties this small collection together, and in each of these stories McCann explores that theme in some strikingly effective ways. . . . [The first story] is as fascinating as it is poignant. . . . [The second] captures the mundane and mysterious aspects of shaping characters from the gray clay of words, placing them in realistic settings and breathing life into their lungs. . . . That he makes the story so emotionally compelling is a sign of his genius. . . . The most remarkable [piece] is Sh’khol. . . . Caught in the rushing currents of this drama, you know you’re reading a little masterpiece.”—The Washington Post “McCann is a writer of power and subtlety and beauty. . . . The powerful title story loiters in the mind long after you’ve read it.”—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times “[McCann] unspools complex and unforgettable stories in this, his first collection in more than a decade.”—The Boston Globe “McCann is a passionate writer whose impulse is always toward a generous understanding of his diverse characters.”—The Wall Street Journal “Powerful, profound, and deeply empathetic, McCann’s beautifully wrought writing in Thirteen Ways of Looking glides off the page.”—BuzzFeed “McCann weaves the magic that made Let the Great World Spin so acclaimed.”—The Huffington Post

The New York Times-bestselling collection of poems from celebrated poet Mary Oliver In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her treasured dog Percy, Oliver is open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments and explores with startling clarity, humor, and kindness the mysteries of our daily experience.

Society columnist Nora Blackbird is thrust into the world of celebrity tabloid gossip when a billionaire buys the farm…. Nora’s assigned to write a profile on billionaire fashion designer Swain Starr, who recently retired to build a high-tech organic farm with his new wife, Zephyr, a former supermodel. But before Nora can get the story, the mogul is murdered. And now her boss wants her to snap up an exclusive on who killed Starr before the cops do. But solving this murder won’t be easy with a family as colorful as Nora’s. Mick, her sort-of husband, is associating with unsavory characters from his past. Her sister Libby is transforming into a stage mom for her diabolical twins. And Emma, the youngest Blackbird, is mysteriously kicked out of the house by Mick. Nora’s home life may be hogging the spotlight, but there’s also a matter of Starr’s missing pig, which just might be the key to solving this mystery and the way Nora can bring home the bacon….

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER A SYDNEY TAYLOR MIDDLE GRADE HONOR BOOK Like Ruta Sepetys for middle grade, Anne Blankman pens a poignant and timeless story of friendship that twines together moments in underexplored history. On a spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work--Chernobyl--has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who've always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina's estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person. Oksana must face the lies her parents told her all her life. Valentina must keep her grandmother's secret, one that could put all their lives in danger. And both of them discover something they've wished for: a best friend. But how far would you go to save your best friend's life? Would you risk your own? Told in alternating perspectives among three girls--Valentina and Oksana in 1986 and Rifka in 1941--this story shows that hatred, intolerance, and oppression are no match for the power of true friendship.