To save his family, a logger goes down the river—and brings along his wife and daughter When Annabel’s father sells their house in Detroit, she is thrilled by the idea of life on a farm. But when they reach their little plot of land, she sees that her daddy has been swindled. The rocky ground is hard and unforgiving, and nothing will grow there. Ruined, her father has no choice but to take the only job he can find: chopping down trees in the lush Michigan forest. For Annabel, life in the camp is dreary—but it is about to get a whole lot worse. When her father is chosen to accompany the year’s load of logs as it floats down the river, Annabel and her mother take up residence in the wanigan, the floating cookshack that follows the men. This rough-hewn one-room cabin will house them for three months. As uncomfortable as it is, Annabel learns that sometimes, a river can be a home.

Featured on LitHub. An extraordinary memoir of a woman’s unconventional childhood growing up in the Alaskan wilderness, on the grounds where the burned remains of a cannery once stood. In the 1980s the Neilson family moved out on a floathouse to the remote site of a former cannery in Southeast Alaska that had burned to the ground before statehood. They were miles away from any neighbors, surrounded on all sides by wolves, bears and other wildlife, entering the world of subsistence living in an uninviting land of dangerous weather and storms; yet the Neilsons were able to make themselves a home where few others would have found possible. Led by a jack-of-all-trades handyman for a father and a mother who was afraid of everything in the wilderness, Tara and her four siblings cleared the rough terrain to build atop the blackened, rusty ruins a new way of life that was completely their own. From a young age, Tara learned that anything was possible, so long as one can imagine it and then make it happen. When given her mother’s impractical design of a six-bedroom house, her father picked up his tools and crafted it into a reality. To reach the closest community, they built a wooden boat sixteen feet long for the perilous journey on the water. The Alaska wilds required independence and self-sufficiency from the family, and in return it provided a natural landscape that inspired romantic passion and unlimited dreams. With endless forest on one side and the wide ocean on the other, Tara embraced the lonesomeness of the burned cannery ruins that she called home, and often wondered what it once was with its people inside, their stories, where they went, and what happened to them. Beautifully poignant and completely original, Raised in Ruins escapes into the wilderness to discover a piece of Alaskan history wrapped in an incredible family adventure fueled by love, strength, hard work, endurance, and boundless imagination.

An historical novel of Finnish immigration, love, betrayal, and murder.

This is a rich and many-faceted personal and business biography of the main figure in the third generation of Weyerhaeusers, who led the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company through the difficult and decisive years from 1933 to 1956. Although Phil Weyerhaeuser preferred to pass over the importance of his role, he was an industry leader and as such could not escape a large public duty. The years in which he served, from the 1920s tin the Inland Empire, and from 1933 to 1956 with the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company west of the Cascades, were years of great demands and change. Within his tenure the country experience the Great Depression and World War II, the reluctant acceptance by business of New Deal and Fair Deal legislation and bureaucratic requirements, and the adjustments occasioned by the managerial revolution. In the case of the Timber Company, the period witnessed its transition from what had been primarily a dealer in timberlands to an integrated manufacturer of forest products, from a liquidator of forest resources to a managers of tree farms designed to be perpetual in their providence. Phil oversaw his responsibilities to good purpose. His quiet style is of interest and so too are the effects of just being a Weyerhaeuser. The latter, of course, had much to do with his opportunities and also influenced the manner in which he conducted himself. But it was not without its liabilities, and the family relationships are an important element in the story. The most significant feature, however, has to do with the study of a period and a place and an industry through the experiences of a very special organization and its leadership. The study brings people and events into clearer focus and gives them added meaning. This is of particular importance in an industry so given to stereotyping and disapprobation. This well-written account reveals in detail the operation of a huge family enterprise, government-industry relations at a key time in United States history, labor relations, and efforts to expand and continually revitalize a large company--dependent on natural resources--over a period of half a century. Central to these efforts was Phil’s conviction that the best way for a forest products company to operate was to own its own timberlands. he saw such holdings as necessary if the company was to engage in sustained-yield management. This biography draws extensively on primary sources--correspondence, family records, memoranda, and numerous interviews. It will be of interest to historians of the Pacific Northwest and the forest products industry, students of business history, and all readers interested in the development of a major American company.

On board an aircraft as it makes its way slowly from the Antarctic to New Zealand, three people sit quietly, reflecting on their past summer on the ice. Sally, a composer, has been searching for inspiration. She wasn't prepared for the silence of Antarctica. William, a bird scientist, has been visiting since the 1960s. Estranged from his family, he has just completed his last summer on the ice. Marilyn, a young communications operator, has spent three months at Scott Base feeling isolated and lonely. She has had an affair with a young field-training instructor and now dreads the future. Contrasting the beauty and vastness of the Antarctic with the banality and discomfort of life on ice, Laurence Fearnley's new novel focuses on themes of love and memory to capture the stories of three people stuggling to understand their journey.

Popular Mechanics inspires, instructs and influences readers to help them master the modern world. Whether it’s practical DIY home-improvement tips, gadgets and digital technology, information on the newest cars or the latest breakthroughs in science -- PM is the ultimate guide to our high-tech lifestyle.