Rural America

A classic story of imperiled love on the western frontiers of 19th-century America. While a battle rages between two outlaw gangs in a remote Utah canyon, Jim Wales struggles to rescue Helen Herrick, who has been captured and held for ransom. Robbers' Roost tells the story of their personal struggle to escape the clutches of the murderous outlaws while simultaneously safeguarding their passion, one that is not likely to survive the beautiful, yet deadly, terrain and people of the old American West.

Barney Dwyer is a gentle giant who has yet to find a place in the world. Capturing two notorious outlaws has made a hero of him, so much so that rancher Robert Parmelee offers him a job on his ranch to put a stop to persistent rustling. Taking the job promises an income sufficient for Barney to marry his sweetheart. But this promise for the future falls into jeopardy when the outlaws escape, determined to kill Barney.

Set in rural Michigan in the mid-1960s, when life was simpler and less chaotic, Major League Dreams follows the lives of two inseparable twelve-year-old boys, Hank and Richie, as they navigate the hardships of growing up in a world that seems determined to hold them back. Hank is an American Indian who is a towering, gifted athlete with an unwavering passion for baseball. He dreams of playing Major League Baseball. But his home life is anything but supportive. His father, a hardened World War II veteran and alcoholic, sees no future in baseball and expects Hank to work in the grueling labor...

In the rural town of Paxton, Alabama, a high school junior lives in the shadow of a father he never knew—a railroad stationmaster who died after being drafted into WWII just before his birth. Years after his father's death, a twist of legal fortune granted his family ownership of the abandoned rail yard adjacent to their home. It is here where the boy and his new girlfriend, Samantha, discover an incredible secret: the “Tullahoma,” a forgotten Civil War-era locomotive of historical significance tucked away in an old repair shop on the deserted property. Aided by their history teacher,...

Frozen in grief after the loss of her son at sea, Edith Baines stares across the water at a schooner, under full sail yet motionless in the winter wind and surging tide of the Northern Reach. Edith seems to be hallucinating. Or is she? Edith’s boat-watch opens The Northern Reach, set in the coastal town of Wellbridge, Maine, where townspeople squeeze a living from the perilous bay or scrape by on the largesse of the summer folk and whatever they can cobble together, salvage, or grab.

Uncle Sam’s Plantation is an incisive look at how government manipulates, controls, and ultimately devastates the lives of the poor—and what Americans must do to stop it. Once a hustler and welfare addict who was chewed up and spit out by the ruthless welfare system, Star Parker sheds much needed light on the bungled bureaucratic attempts to end poverty and reveals the insidious deceptions perpetrated by self-serving politicians.

Charles D. Thompson, Jr., was born in Southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet, as he came of age, he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of Eastern Kentucky.

When Andrew Apperley visits his brother David in the East, he brings along an unexpected companion. Andrew's giant wolf dog, Comanche, is so wild that he has to be chained up for the safety of others. However, when the Apperley brothers come across a man drowning in the East River, Comanche breaks loose from his chains and swims to the man's rescue.

Rural Church RESCUE speaks directly to churches struggling with these issues. Speaking from his experience as both a rural church pastor and firefighter, Jon Sanders presents a unique perspective on these common problems facing the rural church. Using a metaphor drawn from the world of the fire service, Sanders outlines six principles necessary for rural churches to be healthy and reclaim the vital role God has called them to in their communities.

In 2013, Ayaz Virji left a comfortable job at an East Coast hospital and moved to a town of 1,400 in Minnesota, feeling called to address the shortage of doctors in rural America. But in 2016, this decision was tested when the reliably blue, working-class county swung for Donald Trump. Virji watched in horror as his children faced anti-Muslim remarks at school and some of his most loyal patients began questioning whether he belonged in the community. Virji wanted out. But in 2017, a local pastor invited him to speak at her church....

The story of a Civil War soldier finding his humanity in the face of horrible savagery. Emerging from the Civil War a shamed and broken man, Stephen Latch turns to a life of thievery and murder. Still hoping to uphold the values of the Confederacy, Latch sets his sights on the wealth of resources pouring westward from the northern United States, putting together a band of ruthless misfits to help him stake his claim of the riches of the caravans.

What is a normal life, anyway? Perfect parents, who never argued or made a mistake? Some 2.2 perfectly behaved children who magically morphed into honor students, then doctors and lawyers with no problems, or nary a regret? All this, evolving from the safety of some picket fence inside the boundaries of which never a harsh word was spoken? How far back must you go in your family before hitting grief or hurt? Steve Watkins never knew what to call it, but he knew something about growing up on a small rural farm in the 1980s felt different. Something strange and out of the ordinary.

Born in Brooklyn, Sammy Gregg is small in stature and naive to the ways of the world, yet headstrong and resolute to save enough money to marry Susie Mitchell. Gregg calculates that he needs $15‚000 and figures he can earn enough in six months out west. Although he is a small man who knows nothing of fighting‚ guns‚ or horses‚ he takes his $5‚000 in savings and heads west‚ arriving in Munson‚ a tough, lawless town.

In a dusty town in Nebraska’s rugged sandhills, weary Sheriff’s Deputy Harley Jensen patrols the streets at night, on the lookout for something - anything - out of the ordinary. It’s July 1978, and the heat is making people ornery, restless. That and the Reddick family patriarch has decided, decades after authorities ended the search for his murdered boy’s body, to lay a headstone. Instead of bringing closure, this decision is the spark that threatens to set Pickard County ablaze.

A novel in the historical fiction genre set in the rural landscape of Gilead during the early 20th century. "Under the River's Gaze" is a poignant tapestry of life in the tranquil village of Gilead. Set primarily along the serene Moosatuk River, spanning the early 1900s, the novel details the intersecting lives of its characters against the backdrop of an untouched natural landscape edging into modernization. Central to the story are Robert Lawson and Dr. Russell, two seasoned outdoorsmen who engage in deep, philosophical reflections while hunting, serving as witnesses to Gilead’s looming...

hn Signal, fleeing from a murder charge in a fair fight, arrives in the mining town of Monument. Calling himself John Alias, he is made a deputy sheriff by Sheriff Peter Ogden, who puts Alias between two crooked factions and fails to give him any support.

On December 6, 1941, the rural township of Cussler was making final preparations for the town’s Christmas gala held every year. Nobody in the township, or the entire country, could predict that Sunday, December 7, 1941, would end far differently than anyone would ever imagine. The following morning during the gala, news broke of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The mood turned from celebratory to solemn in a matter of minutes as the reports of the attack on the Pacific Fleet came in. After the attack, the nation became galvanized, and over the coming weeks and months, the ...

A mystery and adventure narrative, set in the contrasting atmospheres of rural America and hustling New York City during the transformative era of the early 1900s. This enthralling saga ricochets from the eerie tranquility of the countryside to the booming urban sprawl of the metropolis, ingeniously incorporating sequences of romance, espionage, and the eternal quest for treasure. Storyline Michael K. Anderson, an intrepid wanderer, stumbles upon Hart’s Tavern, an ancient shelter in the heart of rural America. His journey leads him across a patchwork of quaint scenes and intriguing ...

Who are the Minutemen? Patriots? Racists? Vigilantes? Harel Shapira lived with the Minutemen and patrolled the border with them, seeking neither to condemn nor praise them, but to understand who they are and what they do. Challenging simplistic depictions of these men as right-wing fanatics with loose triggers, Shapira discovers a group of men who long for community and embrace the principles of civic engagement. Yet these desires and convictions have led them to a troubling place.

When Kristin L. Hoganson arrived in Champaign, Illinois, after teaching at Harvard, studying at Yale, and living in the DC metro area with various stints overseas, she expected to find her new home, well, isolated. Even provincial. After all, she had landed in the American heartland, a place where the nation's identity exists in its pristine form. Or so we have been taught to believe.