IN SEARCH OF A NEW LIFE OUT WEST, BRAZOS FORTUNE FINDS HIS FAMILY ENDANGERED BY THE VERY QUEST HE HOPED WOULD SAVE THEM. With these simple words, Brazos Fortune sets out on his journey in the first of Stephen Blys new Fortunes of the Black Hills series. When locals threaten the lives and property of his family. Brazos abandons his Texas homestead for a new ranch in the West he has seen in a dream. Its a war against corrupt lawmen, wild outlaws, and bitter winter weather as Brazos wrestles with his newfound hunger for gold and the burning desire to be reunited with his family. He must test himself against the untamed frontier, confront the greedy miners who try his Christian convictions, and find the new home God showed him Beneath a Dakota Cross.
"Perhaps every woman will lie for the man she lies with."-Sarah Wakefield August 18, 1862. On the Sioux reservation in southwestern Minnesota, Indians desperate for food and freedom rise up against whites in the region. Sarah Wakefield, the wife of a physician, is taken captive with her two babies. Their fate falls into the hands of the warrior Caske, with whom she has slim acquaintance. As war rages, little does she know how entwined their lives will become. Beneath the Same Stars is the gripping story of two people, caught between worlds, who are willing to do almost anything to defend those they care about-including each other. But the drama is bigger than themselves. Tragic forces have been set in motion.... Inspired by actual events surrounding the U.S.-Dakota War. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Beneath the Same Stars "I come from a family descended from Gabriel Renville (Ti Wakan, Sacred Lodge), a Sisitunwan headman who helped to resolve the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. But among my people that conflict never ended. It still divides us today. We were once a strong, spiritual people. We need reminders of who we really are and where we come from. Beneath the Same Stars helps us reexamine our own history and identity. Will that create some positive change among us? I hope so, for the sake of our children, most of all."-Darlene Renville Pipeboy, independent Dakota scholar and elder "This is a sensitive portrait of a complicated woman caught in the politically and culturally fraught conflict that led to the U.S.-Dakota War. It both reflects the prejudices and divisiveness of that time and offers bridges to help heal the rifts between and within the communities that continue to be affected by the events of 1862 and their aftermath. The novel turns historical figures into living, breathing embodiments of the conflict, making tangible both the historical events and the contemporary impact of those events on all the affected communities. It raises questions and concerns of substance rather than trying to resolve them and is a constructive contribution to the dialogue we continue to need."-Carol Chomsky, Professor, University of Minnesota Law School, and author of "The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice" "Beneath the Same Stars weaves feeling and concern into the tragic landscape of the U.S.-Dakota Conflict. Readers are taken on a journey beyond history-book headlines and into the world of a woman who, despite confusion and weakness, dares to care. The story has echoes for today-it invites us all to acknowledge and appreciate cultural differences despite the ever-present social anxiety directing us not to."-Jim Green, former director, Institute for Dakota Studies, Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal College; co-director, Center for Indigenous Teaching, Sinte Gleska University "This novel, whose title beautifully expresses the ongoing relevance of the so-called "past," should be widely read and discussed in schools and communities. Through impressive research and powerful storytelling, Cole-Dai contextualizes one of this country's most tragic histories exceptionally well. Beneath the Same Stars is a significant contribution to the literature of cross-cultural understanding."-Charles L. Woodard, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, South Dakota State University, and author of Ancestral Voice: Conversations with N. Scott Momaday
As featured on Bustle.com After her soldier brother is horribly wounded in Afghanistan, Gabriela must honor the vow she made: If anything ever happened to him, she would walk the Camino de Santiago through Spain, making a pilgrimage in his name. The worst part is that the promise stipulates that she must travel with her brother's best friend--a boy she has despised all her life. Her brother is in a coma, and Gabi feels that she has no time to waste, but she is unsure. Will she hesitate too long, or risk her own happiness to keep a promise? An up-close look at the lives of the children of military families, Beneath Wandering Stars takes readers on a journey of love, danger, laughter, and friendship, against all odds.
"Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not." Nazia doesn't mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother, who has spent years saving and preparing for her dowry. But every daughter must grow up, and for fourteen-year-old Nazia that day arrives suddenly when her father gets into an accident at work, and her family finds themselves without money for rent or food. Being the beti that she is, Nazia drops out of school to help her mother clean houses, all the while wondering when she managed to lose control of her life that had been full of friends and school. Working as a maid is a shameful obligation that could be detrimental to her future -- after all, no one wants a housekeeper for a daughter-in-law. As Nazia finds herself growing up much too quickly, the lessons of hardship that seem unbearable turn out to be a lot more liberating than she ever imagined.
An abandoned English village holds generations of dark secrets that are about to be uncovered in this gothic thriller by the author of A Dark Dividing. Some fifty years ago, Priors Bramley was emptied of its residents—all for the sake of a Cold War experiment with chemical weapons that went wrong. Since then, the cordoned off town has been known at The Poisoned village. But the locals don’t know the half of it. Now, as The Poisoned Village is set to be reopened, its secrets are set to be unleashed. Tracing the contagion leads inexorably to the long-abandoned Cadence Manor, once home to generations of secretive, powerful bankers and their elegant wives. What happened there in the years before the World War I? What murderous madness infected the family? And what is the source of the eerie music that, even now, can be heard drifting down the crumbling village streets?
This young readers’ edition of Christina Baker Kline’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel Orphan Train follows a twelve-year-old foster girl who forms an unlikely bond with a ninety-one-year-old woman. Adapted and condensed for a young audience, Orphan Train Girl includes an author’s note and archival photos from the orphan train era. This book is especially perfect for mother/daughter reading groups. Molly Ayer has been in foster care since she was eight years old. Most of the time, Molly knows it’s her attitude that’s the problem, but after being shipped from one family to another, she’s had her fair share of adults treating her like an inconvenience. So when Molly’s forced to help an a wealthy elderly woman clean out her attic for community service, Molly is wary. But from the moment they meet, Molly realizes that Vivian isn’t like any of the adults she’s encountered before. Vivian asks Molly questions about her life and actually listens to the answers. Soon Molly sees they have more in common than she thought. Vivian was once an orphan, too—an Irish immigrant to New York City who was put on a so-called "orphan train" to the Midwest with hundreds of other children—and she can understand, better than anyone else, the emotional binds that have been making Molly’s life so hard. Together, they not only clear boxes of past mementos from Vivian’s attic, but forge a path of friendship, forgiveness, and new beginnings.
*Now a Hulu limited series starring Lily Gladstone, Riley Keough, and Archie Panjabi!* “A swift, harrowing classic perfect for these unnerving times.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation One moonlit night, fourteen-year-old Reena Virk went to join friends at a party and never returned home. In this “tour de force of crime reportage” (Kirkus Reviews), acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey takes us into the hidden world of the seven teenage girls—and boy—accused of a savage murder. As she follows the investigation and trials, Godfrey reveals the startling truth about the unlikely killers. Laced with lyricism and insight, Under the Bridge is an unforgettable look at a haunting modern tragedy.
Invited to protect an actress within the rose red walls of a fairy-tale castle, Detective Cordelia Gray finds the stage is set for death. Actress Clarissa Lisle has always been famous for her ravishing beauty—and her unscrupulous manipulations. Now on the death-shrouded island of Courcy, her schemes win her a starring role in a nightmare in which she can trust no one—not her deceived husband; her dangerously insecure stepson; her ominously genial host; her dependent, desperate cousin; or her cruelly amusing ex-lover. Soon Detective Cordelia gray finds that nothing is as it seems on Courcy—especially after the curtain goes down. Here she must delve into ancient secrets and guilt-stained pasts—and risk her life to stop a brilliantly cunning murderer who has set the stage for her death.
Awards: One Book South Dakota Common Read, South Dakota Humanities Council, 2022. PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, PEN America, 2020. One Book One Tribe Book Award, First Nations Development Institute, 2020. Finalist, Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, 2019. Shortlist, Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, 2019. Our History Is the Future is at once a work of history, a personal story, and a manifesto. Now available in paperback on the fifth anniversary of its original publication, Our History Is the Future features a new afterword by Nick Estes about the rising indigenous campaigns to protect our environment from extractive industries and to shape new ways of relating to one another and the world. In this award-winning book, Estes traces traditions of Indigenous resistance leading to the present campaigns against fossil fuel pipelines, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, from the days of the Missouri River trading forts through the Indian Wars, the Pick-Sloan dams, the American Indian Movement, and the campaign for Indigenous rights at the United Nations. In 2016, a small protest encampment at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, initially established to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, grew to be the largest Indigenous protest movement in the twenty-first century, attracting tens of thousands of Indigenous and non-Native allies from around the world. Its slogan “Mni Wiconi”—Water Is Life—was about more than just a pipeline. Water Protectors knew this battle for Native sovereignty had already been fought many times before, and that, even with the encampment gone, their anti-colonial struggle would continue. While a historian by trade, Estes draws on observations from the encampments and from growing up as a citizen of the Oceti Sakowin (the Nation of the Seven Council Fires) and his own family’s rich history of struggle.
When Jill Kandel married Johan, a man from the Netherlands, she never imagined the influence her father-in-law, Izaak, would hold over her life. Beneath his calm demeanor and clerical garb, Izaak carried the wounds of growing up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Childhood chaos led him to become a man who had all the answers. For everyone. Except himself. Izaak ended his own life-while still a healthy man-using legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands. The long tumultuous relationship between daughter-in-law and father-in-law was over. But Kandel couldn't move on. Ten years later, still exhausted by thoughts of Izaak, she returned to the Netherlands to search for understanding.The Clean Daughter is a story about building family across cultural, linguistic, and geographical divides. The complicated ways families both destroy and heal one another underpin Kandel's story of a family held together by tenacity, curiosity, and courage
