Running The River

Growing up near the Sabine, journalist Wes Ferguson, like most East Texans, steered clear of its murky, debris-filled waters, where alligators lived in the backwater sloughs and an occasional body was pulled from some out-of-the-way crossing. The Sabine held a reputation as a haunt for a handful of hunters and loggers, more than a few water moccasins, swarms of mosquitoes, and the occasional black bear lumbering through swamp oak and cypress knees. But when Ferguson set out to do a series of newspaper stories on the upper portion of the river, he and photographer Jacob Croft Botter were entranced by the river’s subtle beauty and the solitude they found there. They came to admire the self-described “river rats” who hunted, fished, and swapped stories along the muddy water—plain folk who love the Sabine as much as Hill Country vacationers love the clear waters of the Guadalupe. Determined to travel the rest of the river, Ferguson and Botter loaded their gear and launched into the stretch of river that charts the line between the states and ends at the Gulf of Mexico. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

The iconic writer's electrifying first novel is a story of marriage, murder and betrayal that only she could tell with such nuance, sympathy, and suspense—from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Everett McClellan and his wife, Lily, are the great-grandchildren of pioneers, and what happens to them is a tragic epilogue to the pioneer experience—a haunting portrait of a marriage whose wrong turns and betrayals are at once absolutely idiosyncratic and a razor-sharp commentary on the history of California.

"The Green River runs wild, free and vigourous from southern Wyoming to northeastern Utah. Edward Abbey wrote in these pages in 1975 that Anne Zwinger's account "of the Green River and its subtle forms of life and nonlife may be taken as authoritative. 'Run, River, Run,' should serve as a standard reference work on this part of the American West for many years to come." ÑNew York Times Book Review

All Freya can remember is her sister, the basement, and the Man Upstairs. She has no memory of the world outside or of being warm or of not feeling hungry. And now her sister is gone. An unlikely ally shows her how to break out of the basement, but on the frozen banks of the Mississippi, Freya quickly discovers things worse than the Man Upstairs. Freya is lucky to find Finn. He has a canoe, some supplies, and a vague idea about a place down south called Norlins. If they can dodge the slavers and avoid starving to death, the two of them might just have a shot at survival.

An explosive debut mystery for readers of Christine Carbo and Paul Doiron featuring a newly minted deputy thrust into the cutthroat world of hunting. This waterfowl season, the hunters become the hunted. Newly promoted sheriff's deputy Delia Chavez has worked hard to get where she is. Without any family to speak of, law enforcement is all she has. But just a few days into her new job, Delia finds the body of a hunter washed up on the bank of the Willamette River missing his trigger finger. Soon, more bodies are found--all hunters without their trigger fingers. Waterfowl season often means clashes between hunters and animal rights activists, but could someone be killing to make a statement? Petrified, but invigorated by the opportunity, Delia dives head first into the case. Soon, she catches a whiff of something foul and it's not the dead bodies--man or bird. What starts off looking like a simple case of a ruthless vigilante quickly devolves into something much more complex. Facing evasive killers who stop at nothing to conceal their crimes, Delia must bring the criminals to justice because everyone knows, if you're not the predator, you're prey.

“Beautiful. ... A lyrical companion to his father’s classic, A River Runs through It, chronicling their family’s history and bond with Montana’s Blackfoot River.” —Washington Post A "poetic" and "captivating" (Publishers Weekly) memoir about the power of place to shape generations, Home Waters is John N. Maclean's remarkable chronicle of his family's century-long love affair with Montana's majestic Blackfoot River, the setting for his father's classic novella, A River Runs through It. Maclean returns annually to the simple family cabin that his grandfather built by hand, still in search of the trout of a lifetime. When he hooks it at last, decades of longing promise to be fulfilled, inspiring John, reporter and author, to finally write the story he was born to tell. A book that will resonate with everyone who feels deeply rooted to a landscape, Home Waters is a portrait of a family who claimed a river, from one generation to the next, of how this family came of age in the 20th century and later as they scattered across the country, faced tragedy and success, yet were always drawn back to the waters that bound them together. Here are the true stories behind the beloved characters fictionalized in A River Runs through It, including the Reverend Maclean, the patriarch who introduced the family to fishing; Norman, who balanced a life divided between literature and the tug of the rugged West; and tragic yet luminous Paul (played by Brad Pitt in Robert Redford’s film adaptation), whose mysterious death has haunted the family and led John to investigate his uncle’s murder and reveal new details in these pages. A universal story about nature, family, and the art of fly fishing, Maclean’s memoir beautifully captures the inextricable ways our personal histories are linked to the places we come from—our home waters. Featuring twelve wood engravings by Wesley W. Bates and a map of the Blackfoot River region.

As the last of the mourners departed the ornate Catholic Church, Emily entered a side door unnoticed, walked to the coffin, and punched her dead father in the face. "You'll never be dead enough," she whispered. "Never." Determined to recover from the hands of a father who sexually abused her and an emotionally distant mother, twenty-seven-year-old Emily Evans seeks the peace she'd lost in her youth. Yet, shattered by the betrayal of those she was taught to respect and love, she fears that she may never overcome the devastating effects of generations of abuse. Will she ever let herself truly open up to the power of unconditional love? Set in the rich backwoods of New Brunswick, Canada, Run, River Currents is inspired by a true story of abuse, pain, and the struggle to find healing and forgiveness.