Red River Rising" is a masterful collage connecting the dots between alignments of nations and events prophesied two-and-a-half millennia ago with todays front-page headlines.
Proud of Their Heritage and Sustained by Their Faith, They Came to Tame a New Land She had promised herself that once they left the fjords of Norway, she would not look back. After three long years of scrimping and saving to buy tickets for their passage to America, Roald and Ingeborg Bjorklund, along with their son, Thorliff, finally arrive at the docks of New York City. It was the promise of free land that fed their dream and lured them from their beloved home high above the fjords of Norway in 1880. Together with Roald's brother Carl and his family, they will build a good life in a new land that promises untold wealth and vast farmsteads for their children. As they join the throngs of countless immigrants passing through Castle Garden, they soon discover that nothing is as they had envisioned it. Appalled by the horrid stories of fellow immigrants bilked of all their money and forced to live in squalid living conditions, the Bjorklunds continue their long journey by train as far as Grand Forks. From there a covered wagon takes them into Dakota Territory, where they settle on the banks of the Red River. But there was no way for them to foresee the price they will have to pay to wrest a living from the indomitable land. The virgin prairie refuses to yield its treasure without a struggle. Will they be strong enough to overcome the hardships of that first winter?
The road from Louisiana to the L Bar Ranch on the Bosque River, Texas is a long and dangerous one, but for Earl Lamar, recently discharged sergeant from the First Texas Confederate Cavalry, it's the only way home. Earl Lamar, former Confederate soldier and Bosque County Texas rancher has made two successful cattle drives, selling cattle to keep the L Bar Ranch in business. While driving his herd safely across the Red River and Indian Territory will bring in enough gold to keep his ranch afloat for a long time to come, the danger in taking the trail to Kansas can't be overlooked with treacherous rivers to cross, Indians to avoid or fight, bad weather, and ruthless cattle thieves always lying in wait. Earl manages to return home in one piece just in time to meet his new daughter. But a carpetbagger Texas governor seems intent on playing rough with former rebelling states by making things as miserable as possible for native Texans. To make matters worse, the KKK raids Earl's ranch and Texas no longer seems to have a hope or prayer of ever returning to normal.
The first time the author met eighty-six-year-old Hadley Thompson, he told her about the Thompson-Crismon feud in Missouri in the 1920s. He described his lifelong quest to understand his father's murder. This book describes a collaborative effort between the author and Thompson to investigate why his father was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan.
One Book, One Minnesota Selection for Summer 2021 Introducing Cash Blackbear, a young Ojibwe woman whose visions and grit help solve a brutal murder in this award-winning debut. 1970s, Red River Valley between North Dakota and Minnesota: Renee “Cash” Blackbear is 19 years old and tough as nails. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota, where she drives truck for local farmers, drinks beer, plays pool, and helps solve criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, who helped her out of the broken foster care system. One Saturday morning, Sheriff Wheaton is called to investigate a pile of rags in a field and finds the body of an Indian man. When Cash dreams about the dead man’s weathered house on the Red Lake Reservation, she knows that’s the place to start looking for answers. Together, Cash and Wheaton work to solve a murder that stretches across cultures in a rural community traumatized by racism, genocide, and oppression.
Is She Really Leaving Forever? Tracing the difficulties and joys of carving out a life from the Dakota sod in the second half of the 800s, Tender Mercies continues Snelling's Red River saga and will pull your heartstrings and make you feel the joys and frustrations of life on the open lands of the 9th century mid-west. The rich farmlands of the Dakota Territory in 1887 are finally beginning to yield the abundant harvest the pioneers had dreamed about so long. The establishment of the railroad has brought significant changes to the small town of Blessing as well as prosperity to the Bjorklund family and their neighbors. Among the townsfolk, Reverend John Solberg--despite being wary of matchmaking efforts in the past--is developing a friendship with a delightful young woman through their common love of books. Mary Martha has a gentle southern charm that wins everyone in her circle but too soon she is called on to return home to care for her mother. She leaves behind many heavy hearts and countless questions of whether it will be the last time to see her.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award. An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of almost one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of African Americans north, and transformed American society and politics forever. The flood brought with it a human storm: white and black collided, honor and money collided, regional and national powers collided. New Orleans’s elite used their power to divert the flood to those without political connections, power, or wealth, while causing Black sharecroppers to abandon their land to flee up north. The states were unprepared for this disaster and failed to support the Black community. The racial divides only widened when a white officer killed a Black man for refusing to return to work on levee repairs after a sleepless night of work. In the powerful prose of Rising Tide, John M. Barry removes any remaining veil that there had been equality in the South. This flood not only left millions of people ruined, but further emphasized the racial inequality that have continued even to this day.
From the author of the Jack Ryan series comes an electrifying #1 New York Times bestseller—a standalone military thriller that envisions World War 3... A chillingly authentic vision of modern war, Red Storm Rising is as powerful as it is ambitious. Using the latest advancements in military technology, the world's superpowers battle on land, sea, and air for ultimate global control. It is a story you will never forget. Hard-hitting. Suspenseful. And frighteningly real. “Harrowing...tense...a chilling ring of truth.”—TIME
JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. VENGEANCE IS HERE. A good man like Perley Gates knows that when you race with the devil, you’d better cross the finish line first—or you won’t finish at all . . . They rode into town like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Four armed outlaws bringing their own brand of hell to Paris, Texas. First they rob the First National Bank. Then they take a woman hostage as insurance. When Perley Gates learns that local waitress Becky Morris is in the hands of these tough customers, he rides alone to get her back. Problem is, the outlaws are heading toward the Red River—straight into Indian Territory. That’s where the ranch hands draw the line. But Perley won’t give up. He manages to rescue the girl, but not before killing the gang’s leader. Now he’s incurred the wrath of the other three . . . The race is on. Come hell or high water, Perley has to get Becky across the Red River—before three vengeful devils make it flow with their blood . . . Live Free. Read Hard.