The More We Take is about the transformation of the American Desert into the American Heartland and the ongoing cost of that transformation. After taking the prairie from Plains Nations like the Lakota, the land's original stewards, will we now desecrate their land and waters too? Three Nebraskans, sorting out their own confused lives, start to figure it out and turn their attention to the earth beneath their feet–in particular the sacred Ogallala Aquifer, which corporate farming is decimating. Our ragtag group stands up to Big Agriculture, finding themselves outgunned, until they get help from legendary chiefs like Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, and from women wisdom-keepers like Josephine Waggoner and Zitkala-Sa. Clete, Kathy, and Irene are putting their lives on the line. Dreams and visions ensue. Will they find a path that’s not about taking all we can until all is gone?
Rikki Thunder is about to have it all: global fame, a dream girlfriend, a closet bursting with spandex—and an unwitting role as an international spy. It's Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is beautiful, just like his hair—even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that’s going nowhere. But when Rikki gets a shot to join L.A.’s hottest up-and-coming club band, Whyte Python, his life takes a mind-blowing turn. Soon the band has a hit single rocketing up the charts, and Rikki has the new love of his life in the audience. He couldn’t ask for anything more. But Rikki soon discovers that powerful forces are helping to propel Whyte Python, and the stakes of his journey—to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe—might be far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Mayenne Bay, a quaint harbor town on Maine’s Mid Coast, once home to great sea captains, is in peril. Traditional maritime industries are no longer enough to sustain its people. As the town takes steps to reinvent itself, unusual things happen to disrupt the status quo—closed door meetings, a stolen painting, missing items all over town and flagrant effrontery by a few outlanders. The residents are becoming restless. Resolutely single, 29-year-old Claire Munro struggles to find a place in her new hometown. Through her habit of people-watching and her peculiar magnetism for troubled strangers, she gains disturbing inside information about the townsfolk. But her usual good sense is clouded when she crosses paths with an intriguing artist.
Harrison Steele’s dream of a work-free sailing sabbatical from his law firm is thwarted when a young bank auditor is killed a few days before he departs for the Caribbean. He becomes entangled in the investigation when no motive is uncovered for the young woman's murder. His sailing adventure takes an unexpected turn when he helps a teenage girl deserted by her father in Saint Lucia. The appearance of a beautiful Italian woman adds to the mystery, one good deed leads to another, and Harrison’s sailing adventure becomes a voyage of international intrigue. Has Harrison stumbled on an undercover operation or is it something more sinister?
When an artifact with the potential to destabilize the Middle East disappears, experts Avery Turner and Carter Mosley are summoned to retrieve it. Their destination: Egypt. Their target: a centuries-old relic—a small pin of solid gold, shaped like an ancient goddess. Landing in Cairo, the pair are immediately blindsided by a hailstorm of bullets—clear proof that their reputations have put a target on their backs. Navigating through layers of corruption and in a race full of cutthroat treasure hunters, they must outsmart others who are just as desperate to find the pin. With the situation escalating and a colleague going missing under suspicious circumstances, the odds seem stacked against them. But when a connection between the pin and a forgotten Egyptian queen emerges, the duo begin to think they are onto something. As danger knocks, Avery and Carter learn that some legends are more real—and more valuable—than gold.
The Murder of Dorothy Milliken: Cold Case in Maine
On November 5, 1976, twenty-seven-year-old Dorothy Milliken left her rural home in Sabattus, Maine, to go to an all-night laundromat. The following morning, her body was found slumped against the outside wall. Despite various leads, there were no arrests for her murder. Dorothy Milliken became a name typed on an index card filed at state police headquarters, her crime scene displayed in grainy black-and-white photos in the evening newspapers. Nearly five decades later, author Sharon Kitchens examines the cold case, interviewing more than forty people, including Dorothy’s family, friends, former neighbors, law enforcement and forensic specialists. Who was Dorothy? Why has her killer never been found? Did she know her murderer, or was her death due to a random, frenzied attack? A portion of book proceeds supports the Forensic Anthropology Identification and Recovery Lab at the University of New Hampshire, which trains students in recovering and identifying human remains.
Marita O’Neill is one of those rare poets who writes intensely about personal devastation yet never allows herself to play the role of victim. Even as these poems track the dissolution of a marriage, the brutality of addiction, even as they plumb the disasters of our world, the speaker’s voice lingers on kindness, on forgiveness.
On a cold December night, the eve of a holiday, a creature arrives. This critter has a message and a lesson to share with those who find him. Chris Mouse is the first book in a series about the true adventures of a deer mouse in Maine available in soft and hardcover. This is an uplifting and rhyming tale with lots of heart, appropriate and educational for young children ages 3 to 9.
A richly imagined picture book about finding your way back to yourself. A young swimmer panics in a crowded community pool, and it feels like there isn’t even any room for her tears. Out of place where she was once at home, the girl swims down, down, into the deepest deep…and embarks on a surrealist journey to the swampy world under the under. As she rests there with her feelings, the girl finds power in embracing who she is–even the swampiest parts. And her triumphant return to the pool inspires the other children to be their truest selves, too. This dreamlike picture book models creative ways for children–and adults–to visualize and understand their big feelings and accept their inner selves. Award-winning illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler is at his imaginative best, delivering art that pairs beautifully with author Dorson Plourde’s poetic magical realism.
It Rains Diamonds On Neptune
Edited by Rylan Hynes
Illustrated by Otto Wolyniec
The Telling Room
It Rains Diamonds on Neptune celebrates The Telling Room’s twentieth anniversary by pairing the voices of youth with those of established Maine authors writing across genres, identities, experiences, and themes. Powerful stories, poems, essays, and recipes—accompanied by pen and ink illustrations—touch on pressing topics impacting youth today, from climate change, LGBTQ+ identity, gun violence, and racism; to finding community, cultural connections, humor, and hope in unexpected places. Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award Winner says, "The stories in It Rains Diamonds on Neptune are witty, authentic, and visual, echoing with grace and deep insight." Foreword by Telling Room Cofounders Susan Conley, Sara Corbett, and Michael Paterniti. Introduction by Rylan Hynes.
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