Life is a journey. In this case, the story of a special boy, Little Bill, who is born in the poverty of a small Kentucky coal-mining town. His father is murdered, and his mother remarries trying to hold on to her two daughters and young son, Little Bill, who feels he is being ostracized by the poverty they live in. His decision to leave his family and travel to the West Coast prompts a companion who likewise is forced to make a similar decision based on the death of his father due to consumption. In his travels, Little Bill is brilliant in his thinking, as observed by his hometown friend and cotraveler. Little Bill’s power to observe and produce positive, lifesaving results is repeatedly manifested in the numerous confrontations recorded. In all, it’s those who see him as needing help that help him to overcome health problems, marriage, fatherhood, poverty, and his ultimate death, as manifested in this life-journey story. The reader will be fascinated with the skills exhibited by this one small boy.

In a lucid, brilliant work of nonfiction, Larry McMurtry has written a family portrait that also serves as a larger portrait of Texas itself, as it was and as it has become. Using an essay by the German literary critic Walter Benjamin that he first read in Archer City's Dairy Queen, McMurtry examines the small town way of life that big oil and big ranching have nearly destroyed. He praises the virtues of everything from a lime Dr. Pepper to the lost art of oral storytelling, and describes the brutal effect of the sheer vastness and emptiness of the Texas landscape on Texans, the decline of the cowboy, and the reality and the myth of the frontier.​ McMurtry writes frankly and with deep feeling about his own experiences as a writer, a parent, and a heart patient, and he deftly lays bare the raw material that helped shape his life's work: the creation of a vast, ambitious, fictional panorama of Texas in the past and the present. Throughout, McMurtry leaves his readers with constant reminders of his all-encompassing, boundless love of literature and books.

'Stories of a Western Town' is a collection of short stories by Octave Thanet. The tales in this book all share one central theme, being set during the Wild West. Here are the following titles to be found inside this book: 'The Besetment of Kurt Lieders', 'The Face of Failure', 'Tommy and Thomas', 'Mother Emeritus', 'An Assisted Providence', and 'Harry Lossing'.

Sothern, a death penalty lawyer who with his wife, photographer Nikki Page, arrived in New Orleans four years ahead of Katrina, delivers a haunting, personal, and quintessentially American story.

We Heard It When We Were Young tells the story of a young boy, first-generation Mexican American, who is torn between cultures: between immigrant parents trying to acclimate to midwestern life and a town that is, by turns, supportive and disturbingly antagonistic.

In this memoir, the author, born and raised in a typical midwestern town, reflects on his life experiences from pre-school through college, military service, work, and retirement, the impact of family, friends, and events which have shaped his life. This autobiography also gives a glimpse of this African-American family's survival during the Depression years through the persevering efforts of strong and loving parents who dedicated their life to the educational pursuits and success of their children. The author, L. Shelbert Smith, is Professor Emeritus of Central State University, and has devoted over four decades of his life as an organic chemist in both industry and academe. This book is a journey from a dream of being a scientist, which he had harbored since his high school days, to his days of retirement.

Rachel Huber returns to her hometown of Reflection to care for her ailing grandmother. Twenty years ago, a tragedy occurred in Reflection and everyone holds Rachel responsible. But she has allies in a young woman who was touched by the tragedy and a man who was her childhood friend. It's her grandmother, however, who surprises Rachel with her wise counsel and secrets she's long been concealing.

Richard Malone and Caroline Sue Miller are born on the same day to parents who live on opposite sides of the societal fences in a small coal-mining town of western Pennsylvania. Despite the economic differences between their families, the two children become best friends, and their unexpected friendship eventually blossoms into forbidden love. In order to be together and escape their bleak, small town opportunities, they leave the security of their homes and settle in New Jersey where their future is a blank slate. As Richard and Caroline make their way through life, their choices often veer their love off course, but the bond they share has deep roots that continually pull them together again. This tale of family, friendship, and love incorporates the historical events and cultural changes of the tumultuous 1900s while following the course of one couple whose connection is stronger than class or circumstance. Whether youre sailing through youthful days or enjoying your golden years, Reflection of Memories will capture your heart and remind you of what is truly important in life.