Easy Going gives us Leon Hale where he is most at home, on the road.In a collection drawn from his longtime column for The Houston Post he takes us with him from the Grand Prairie to the Piney Woods to the Lower Rio Grande Valley to the “quiet, thoughtful” countryside of Washington County. This is Texas at its backroads best, a portrait of people and places that remains fresh and unique despite the passage of time.Hale is special. His view is clear and wid...

Natural wonders were Leon Hale’s lifetime subject matter. He looked for them wherever he went, and found them surprisingly often.In the lives of plain people and eccentrics, in the brilliant smile of a tiny 100-year-old black lady, or the hi-jinks of his cousin C.T., in what happened on a dirt farm in 1930 or why he found value in chiseling brick, he revealed truths and wonders we might not have noticed on our own.When published in 1982, A Smile from Katie Hattan w...

A boy searches for his fugitive brother in 1960s Minnesota in this New York Times bestseller—"a stunning debut novel [of] faith, miracles, and family" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).An eleven-year-old asthmatic boy, Reuben Land has reason to believe in miracles. But he will soon learn that life, even when touched by the divine, is never easy. Along with his father and poetically inclined sister, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search ...

Sent on a mission to New York he gets involved in a wild journey that takes him in and out of stolen cars, freight trains, and buses. By the time he returns home to Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a bus; befriended the second shortest midget in show business and “the world's smallest perfect fat man†?; and helped Joann “the chicken with a college education,†? realize her true potential in life. As with all Portis’ fiction, the tone is cool, sympathetic, and funny.

"Woodrell writes about violence and dark deeds . . . in compact, musical prose. . . . once you begin reading [these short stories ]you can't stop." — New York TimesDaniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal behavior in this wrenching collection of stories. Desperation--both material and psychological—motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the killing of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for ...

This classic story of a boy, a dog, and small-town America is "a rich experience all around.... Skip turns out to be a dog worth writing about.... I'd take him home in a shot" (The New York Times Book Review).In 1943 in a sleepy town on the banks of the Yazoo River, a boy fell in love with a puppy with a lively gait and an intelligent way of listening. The two grew up together having the most wonderful adventures. My Dog Skip belongs on the same s...

**In the final volume of the Pulitzer Prize–winner's bestselling and beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man,this "evocative family memoir” (Boston Globe)delivers an unforgettable rumination about fathers and sons.Bragg documents a mesmerizing journey back in time to the lush Alabama landscape of his youth, to Jacksonville's one-hundred-year-old mill and to his father, the troubled, charismatic...

"[In] this anthology of well-chosen excerpts by a satisfyingly diverse group of writers....the truth of their lives shines from every beautifully, often courageously composed page."— Booklist“Packed with superb writing.” — New York NewsdayModern American Memoirs is a sampling from 35 quintessential 20th century memoirs, including contributions from Margaret Mead, Malcolm X, Maxine Hong Kingston, Loren Eisely, and Zora Neale Hurston. Supremely written and excellent examples ...

The Man Who Was Not With It is the story of young Bud Williams and his safari southward to Florida. On the way, he is abruptly confronted with the con men, addicts, and freaks, and the bruised innocence, of carnival and nightclub life.

**Winner of the 2018 Nebraska Book Award for FictionA rousing, suspenseful debut novel—True Grit meets Catch Me If You Can—based on the forgotten true story of a Robin Hood of the American frontier who pulls off the first successful kidnapping for ransom in U.S. history**“A kidnapper with a social-justice mission” (Time), Pat Crowe was once the most wanted man in America. World, Chase Me Down resurrects him, telling the electrifying story...

A memoir of youthful years spent in Colorado as the American West was transformed, by the author of High, Wide, and Lonesome and The Dog Who Came to Stay.Country Editor's Boy picks up where Hal Borland's classic memoir High, Wide and Lonesome left off: with Borland, on the cusp of adulthood in the early twentieth century, making his way in an eastern Colorado town that still retained all the flavors of the Old West. Borland's fat...

Described by James Dobson as "America's Storyteller", Joe Wheeler has been collecting short stories from numerous sources for many years.Among these over 1,000 stories are some especially selected for girls, age 8-12, about horses. About a dozen stories, perfect for any girl who loves horses and everything about them!