It's bad enough that PD's husband left her a childless widow at 42, but when she heads west to the Oregon coast to remake her life with a new name, a new look and a new determination to become a professional musician, things keep going wrong. Her cabin has problems. The landlord is missing. Her first gig is a disaster. And the tsunami is coming.

*A Boston Globe Bestseller!* *An Outside Magazine Book Club Pick!* *Winner of the International Ski Association's Ullr Book Award!* "A sparkling account."—Wall Street Journal An electrifying adventure into the rich history of skiing and the modern heart of ski-bum culture, from one of America's most preeminent ski journalists The story of skiing is, in many ways, the story of America itself. Blossoming from the Tenth Mountain Division in World War II, the sport took hold across the country, driven by adventurers seeking the rush of freedom that only cold mountain air could provide. As skiing gained in popularity, mom-and-pop backcountry hills gave way to groomed trails and eventually the megaresorts of today. Along the way, the pioneers and diehards—the ski bums—remained the beating heart of the scene. Veteran ski journalist and former ski bum Heather Hansman takes readers on an exhilarating journey into the hidden history of American skiing, offering a glimpse into an underexplored subculture from the perspective of a true insider. Hopping from Vermont to Colorado, Montana to West Virginia, Hansman profiles the people who have built their lives around a cold-weather obsession. Along the way she reckons with skiing's problematic elements and investigates how the sport is evolving in the face of the existential threat of climate change.

What is a Californigonian? What was waiting by the door that night? What possessed us to adopt two puppies at once? How is playing the piano like ice skating? Why stay in Oregon when it rains all the time and the family is still back in California? Find the answers to these and other questions in these posts selected from ten years of the Unleashed in Oregon blog. Chapters will look at the glamorous life of a writer and the equally glamorous life of a musician, true stories from a whiny traveler, being the sole human occupant of a house in the woods, and dogs, so much about dogs.

The bear, the moose and the beaver are the best of friends, even though they often disagree. On a canoe trip, the trioÍs squabbling leads them into rough waters. Can they agree on a plan before itÍs too late?