On May 14, 1804 Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left the docks in St. Louis, leading a secret expedition up the Missouri River with the goal of finding a passage to the west coast of the continent. A young blacksmith’s apprentice, Hugh McNeal, begs for and gains a last minute spot on the company’s roster. As they travel up river, the company experiences hardship, sickness and the dangers involved with meeting the primitive natives that inhabit the banks of the Missouri. But the promiscuous nature of the Indian women they meet proves a distraction from the men’s daily tribulations. A light-skinned, red-haired child is born of a liaison between Hugh and a young Dakotah girl, Bright Morning. It is a difficult birthing aided by the girl’s medicine god and mystical dreams. Fearing that the child’s medicine is strong, the young girl’s husband changes her name to Horse Woman and names the baby Horse Woman’s Child.

Horse Woman's Child: A Novel About Clashing Cultures on the American Frontier

Literature & Fiction

Stoner, Roger

Genre Fiction

Shapato Publishing, LLC

Make Hay While the Sun Shines follows the tradition of the Midwest anthologies with a fun, and often insightful, collection of stories by a wide range of talented authors. Animal stories abound, beginning with “Bird and Dolly,” the tale of a pair of sturdy workhorses, to “Bugsy the Traveling Cat,” about a feline’s unique mode of transportation. With “Switchboard Telephone Operators,” we get a firsthand account of early telephone service in small towns and the rural areas. Containing thirty-four stories by both new and returning authors, this latest volume is sure to have something to please all reading tastes.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines: Fourth in the Series of Stories About Growing Up in and Around Small Towns in the Midwest

Tennant, Jean

United States

Sowing Wild Oats brings, once again, an assortment of nostalgic, funny and touching stories with this, the fifth installment of the Midwest anthologies. Within these pages you’ll find some familiar names, authors who have shared their memories before, as well as many new contributors. “Social Dancing Class” by David Peterson offers a humorous glimpse into the trials of a first year college student in Minnesota when he learns the class he’d signed up for isn’t going to be quite as cushy as he’d thought; and in “When Memories Become a Treasure,” Joyce Jenkins recalls, with love, the life of Rhonda, her special-needs daughter. Whether you’re in the mood to laugh or shed a tear, there will be something here to feed the soul.

Sowing Wild Oats: Fifth in the Series of Stories About Growing Up In And Around Small Towns In the Midwest

Farm families everywhere have a different lifestyle than many today. Yet we choose it knowing that tomorrow’s livelihood is never guaranteed, and that God is only as far away as the fields and the livestock barns—and all that happens there. These pages are filled with stories of an Iowa farm family, but it’s a book for all people. The Dirt is a book about life. It’s a farm wife and mother’s perspective on the things that made us laugh, cry, think, and even grow up in every possible way on the farm. A farm is a great teacher of life and joy and loss, and the lessons learned there cannot be found in any textbook, they can only be experienced. It’s all “the dirt” there is to know. Come and be entertained and inspired by our experiences; and imagine yourself and your own family in the heart of these stories.

The Dirt: Family Life on an Iowa Farm. Stories to Entertain and Inspire

Schwaller, Karen

Parenting & Relationships

Readers will savor the sixth in a series of anthologies about growing up in the rural Midwest. The stories in Needle in a Haystack recount bits of wistful reflection that are certain to move and amuse. Thirty-two contributors share such memories as tinkering with cars, searching for treasure in junk piles, and the value of hard work. Others write of treasured gifts, train rides, hitch-hiking, mishaps and near-catastrophes. Lake Okoboji in northwest Iowa is the setting for three diverse narratives dealing with a range of emotions, from the joy of learning to water ski, to the misery of being homesick while away at camp, to fear during a tornado that ended a vacation.     Though regional in content, the stories within hold universal connections associated with coming of age in simpler times when, though life was often far from easy, family values were the cornerstone of each author’s life.     As always, this volume of the popular series is enhanced by vintage black and white photographs, as well as the sketches of artist LaVonne Hansen.

Needle in a Haystack: Sixth in the Series of Stories About Life ...

Literary

It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity continues, with this seventh volume, the tradition of Shapato Publishing’s yearly “Midwest” stories. In these pages you’ll have the opportunity to read author/director Scott Rubsam’s account of meeting Robert Kennedy during a campaign stop in Worthington, Minnesota; Orville Taylor’s stay in Japan following WWII; as well as new contributor Sam Kaderly’s amusing story about an ornery billy goat on the family farm. Whether you’re in the mood to laugh or shed a tear, there will be something here to feed the soul.

It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity: Seventh in the Series of Stories About Growing Up (The Midwest Anthologies)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

In 1996, Benjamin Wade, then 24 years old, set out to paddle his kayak from Baja, California, to South America—a six-thousand mile journey expected to take several months. Everyone told him he was crazy. At times he thought he was crazy. Throughout his months of travel he made new friends, battled the elements and sharks, encountered a playful school of dolphins and paddled so close to a humpback whale that he feared the mammal would lift his kayak up from the ocean's surface. He camped on beaches and made friends with the locals in the small towns he stopped at along the way. Fighting the the weather—including Hurricane Hernan—he was often broke, usually hungry, and was forced at times to stop to work for his meals or recuperate from injuries. Showers were a luxury, sunburn a constant danger, but crushing loneliness overshadowed all other discomforts. During those long months he found within himself a deep faith that carried him through what he would later describe as “six months of hell.” These pages hold the account of that journey, an expedition that made him, in the end, a stronger person.

No Turning Back: The South American Expedition of a Dragon Slayer

Religion & Spirituality

Wade, Benjamin "Coach"

New Age & Spirituality

The authors of "Follow the Piper" were born in the 1920s and 1930s and were forever impacted by The Great Depression. Banks failed, dust storms buried the prairies and grasshoppers devoured everything in sight. Money was scarce and jobs were hard to come by. They were hungry for food and a better life. Some joined the military before graduating to fight the war that had to be won, World War II. The hopes and dreams of earlier generations burned in these authors' souls. They came home from war and through the GI Bill attended college, many of them working their way through college and trade schools. Careers and opportunities opened to them that they could not have previously imagined. With hard work, faith and sacrifice, they are survivors, living the American Dream. These are just a few of their stories.

Follow the Piper: Through True Life Stories of a Century

Keith Jensen

Sam Judge of the Lincoln Giants is one of the top pitching prospects in the minor leagues. His dark mane, burly physique, and feral glare intimidate batters even before they face his wicked repertoire of pitches. Brian "Boo" Carter is barely hanging on to his spot in the Giants rotation. He wrestles with a lack of confidence, a nonexistent curve, and his feelings for Eileen Palmer-Sam's girlfriend. Both pitchers are chasing dreams. Both pitchers are facing barriers made more formidable by their off-field pursuits. With the Giants season hanging in the balance, Sam and Boo must make decisions that will impact far more than their careers in baseball.

Men Among Giants

Krause, Kent

"Turning Around the Heart: Stories of Possibility, Connection, and Transformation" shares thirty inspirational teaching stories that can help us remember who we truly are, shift our awareness and perspective and open us to new wisdom. Author Cindy Chicoine says, “What healing and teaching stories await your exploration? This book offers a way to claim and explore, individually, in groups or book clubs, with a spiritual companion or a trusted friend, the power of stories turning around your heart. The journal prompts, reflection questions, suggested activities and exercises, along with guided meditations, invite you deeper into story, mine and yours.”

Turning Around the Heart: Stories of Possibility, Connection, and Transformation

Chicoine, Cindy

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