Murray Bartholomew

Two sisters, small-town Ontario, 1934. Canadian author Richard Wright tells their story, from the ordinary to the extraoridinary with an eye for the commonplace and poignant sense of the larger undercurrents that change people's lives.

Just as some influencers inspire us to tidy up household clutter, The Power of Tranquility in a Very Noisy World takes personal organization a step further – into the sonic realm. Bioacoustician, Bernie Krause, shares healthful tips that identify and reduce the damaging aural assaults that besiege us – incoherent dissonance that impacts our health more than we may realize. With his reassuring guidance, you will be able to fine-tune your surroundings, improve your sense of wellness, reduce anxiety, and restore a sense of inner peace and productivity.

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path discovered on a nearby hike. Out along the sun-scorched trail, the narrator encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door.