From his humble beginnings in a small, country town in Oklahoma, we follow Henry Lee McCarthy Ridge through his childhood, his stint in the military, his ventures into the country music scene and all the roads in-between. Sometimes sad, sometimes happy and often humorous, the journey is worth the read.
In the bloody aftermath of Suicide Lounge, Selena is lying low and putting her life back together. When the freedom she has fought hard to secure is threatened, Selena is forced to take on a new enemy—an elusive young man who holds her fate in hand, a man with connections to the nastiest criminals in the south. In a desperate attempt to protect herself and those she’s grown to love, Selena blazes a blistering, high-octane path through the southeast leaving blood-drenched carnage in her wake. Road Carnage is the fourth book in the Selena series. Praise for the SELENA SERIES: “Greg Barth cooked up something mean and served it up and I hope none of you choke on it because it’s mighty tasty.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “It’s like the wildest of the men’s adventure novels of the ’70s, updated for the new millennium. Definitely not for the faint of heart.” —Bill Crider “Reminiscent of Larry Brown’s Fay, but less innocent and more violent, Selena combines fine writing and an indelible character to help fill the gap of female protagonists in the world of noir.” —Vicki Hendricks, author of Miami Purity “Greg Barth writes with a knife-like edge…A fast, crazy read.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “Greg Barth writes a hell of a book. He steps on the gas and doesn’t let up for a second.” —Michael Finamore “Mister Barth writes well—hard charging and fast paced.” —Tony Knighton, author of Three Hours Past Midnight “This book had me turning pages and gritting my teeth…a total punch to the gut, and it hurts so good.” —S. W. Lauden, author of Crosswise “Selena is a visceral pulp thriller that had me gripped from the outset.” —Tom Leins, of Dirty Books Blog “This series is a literary legend in the making” —Will Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me “Selena is a tour de force of unapologetic sex and violence, not for the faint of heart but definitely for hardcore fans of fast paced, unrelenting pulp-noir in the fashion of nobody except Greg Barth.” —Shane D. Keene
Molly Harper brings her signature “clever humor, snark, silliness, and endearing protagonists” (Booklist) to the charming small town of Lake Sackett, Georgia with the new Southern Eclectic series. Carl and Marianne were high school sweethearts, loving the way only teenagers can—with no thought to logic or pride, just a bone-headed, optimistic frenzy of unicorns and hormones. That was all they needed. Or so Carl thought. Scared of being stuck in Lake Sackett, Georgia, like so many of her friends—without a real shot at a future or achieving her own dreams—Marianne panicked and bolted to college after stomping Carl’s heart into the high grass. But when she returns to Lake Sackett for the summer with her family after years away, she and Carl are drawn together like moths to a flame. As they rekindle their old romance and remember what it was like to be in love, they have to wonder: is this, finally, their real chance at happiness? Perfect for fans of Kristan Higgins and Amy E. Reichert, this warmhearted and witty love story introduces Molly Harper’s new Southern Eclectic series set in the small town of Lake Sackett, Georgia. This story about second chances proves that “Molly Harper never lets the reader down with her delightfully entertaining stories. Humor, emotions, and romance are cleverly matched, and her likable characters are most appealing” (SingleTitles).
Raised by her widowed father, Jolie Russell could keep up with any man?that is, until wealthy and sexy land developer Cody Dean struts into her life. Cody buys the Russell farm with an impossible-to-refuse multimillion-dollar offer, then relocates Jolie and her dad to the Copper Creek Estates. But the country club atmosphere isn?t ready for Jolie?s kind of country. As her two worlds collide, Jolie wonders how she can ever hope to capture Cody?s heart without giving up her grits.
"May my thoughts flow freely until I am empty." Meet Spartacus, an independent biker, who takes you on a journey from more than 25 years on the roads of America and Canada. Discover and experience one man's travels through life as he struggles with alcohol, drugs and heart break. From Texas gin mills to fighting off cabin fever in his home on the banks of the Salmon River in Upstate New York. Within his pages you will discover philosophy, poetry, stories of travel, and advice from a man who lives what he writes and writes what he lives. From his trials and tribulations, to his near suicide. "The Incoherent Ramblings of an American Madman" is the first novel of its kind. Unedited and raw...it opens a new avenue into American Literature....
Annette Goode has finally found a man who loves her. But at a pre-wedding ceremony, her ugly past is revealed, and her world falls apart. When she reunites with her childhood sweetheart, it seems like everything might be fine--until her long-absent friend, who hides a deadly secret, comes back into Annette's life.
Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story... From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class. THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "You will not read a more important book about America this year."--The Economist "A riveting book."--The Wall Street Journal "Essential reading."--David Brooks, New York Times Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis--that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history. A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
When seven-year-old Bethany meets her six-year-old cousin Reana Mae, it's the beginning of a kinship of misfits that saves both from a bone-deep loneliness. Every summer, Bethany and her family leave Indianapolis for West Virginia's Coal River Valley. For Bethany's mother, the trips are a reminder of the coalmines and grinding poverty of her childhood, of a place she'd hoped to escape. But her loving relatives, and Bethany's friendship with Reana Mae, keep them coming back. But as Bethany grows older, she realizes that life in this small, close-knit community is not as simple as she once thought. . .that the riverside cabins that hold so much of her family's history also teem with scandalous whispers. . .and that those closest to her harbor unimaginable secrets. Amid the dense woods and quiet beauty of the valley, these secrets are coming to light at last, with a force devastating enough to shatter lives, faith, and the bond that Bethany once thought would last forever. Spanning four decades, Sherri Wood Emmons' debut is a haunting, captivating novel about the unexpected, sometimes shocking events that thrust us into adulthood--and the connections that keep us tethered, always, to our pasts.
Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous -- and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving. Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire. Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making. When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good.
Journey Bacon has grown up in a small town. She figures she’s settled into a normal, boring life working at a bank and marrying the same controlling man she’s dated since high school. But when a friend gives her an old dance card with a mysterious past and a promise she must keep, Journey experiences an unexpected twist of fate and a second chance at changing her life. A gift of singing country music. A secret romance with a cowboy. A mystery unfolding. And secrets, so many of them. And that is just the beginning—A small town romance with heart. And a country music romance to boot!