Cultural Heritage Fiction

Twisted Briar is Peggy's fortieth novel; her forty-fifth book. Each book resonates with Peggy's authentic Appalachian mountain voice and her gift to engross the reader in the story. From Chapter 2 : He was looking for another woman and boy. The young woman stopped and looked at the crowd as though she didn't know what direction to go in. She looked so lost and scared he felt sorry for her. Not only that, she was just a girl. She couldn't be a whole lot older than the frail little boy whose hand she had a tight grip on. One thing was for sure, the ragged clothes they wore wouldn't keep them ...

A mountain girl in the early 1900’s copes with a marriage arranged by her dad. Her story is titled from an old saying “I own my land, heaven-high and hell-deep.” “Your pa gave his consent for us to marry,” he said the words as though it was a simple matter. It wasn’t a romantic proposal of love and devotion. It wasn’t a proposal at all. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I tried again. “I don’t know your name,” I managed to say as I felt my chest constrict. There was a pain in me that started at my toes and went to the roots of my hair. Dad had come up with a ...

"Ashmore creates fierce characters with confidence and authority. A fresh and welcome Western narrative." -Best-Selling Author Ralph Cotton Lem Jenkins is a man sentenced to hang for his crimes. John Riley is the bounty hunter who brought him to justice. A jail escape in the middle of the night sends Riley back out on the trail of Jenkins. This time, the young bounty hunter may be taking on more than he can handle. Jenkins will do anything to keep away from the hangman’s noose and Riley wants to see justice done. They are both riding a losing trail. Excerpt The horse was tired and injured...

FROM HAN KANG, WINNER OF THE 2024 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE “[Han Kang’s] intense poetic prose . . . exposes the fragility of human life.”—The Nobel Committee for Literature, in the citation for the Nobel Prize A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE ONE OF...

"Captivating, suspenseful & raw. An accurate depiction of life during that time. Incredible!" When Danny Jackson says "the N-word" on his fifth birthday his grandmother tells him their family doesn't use that word, though he's learned it from his father. There's a mysterious grave in their woods, and all he's ever heard it called was "the N-word Grave." Thus begins a family saga and coming of age story as an Appalachian grandmother tries to change her family's trajectory regarding race relations. Danny and Martin Noble Peoples, a descendent of the murdered black man, team up to uncover the ...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Stephen Graham Jones, the master of modern horror and New York Times bestselling author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, a novel of revenge and identity hailed by Stephen King as “thrilling, literate, scary, immersive” that is equal parts psychological horror...

316 pages print edition, 98,142 words, Contemporary southern fiction, suspense, drama, romance. Appalachian Culture Heritage From Chapter 1: A cold sweat gathered on Catalena’s skin as she gripped the steering wheel. She didn’t want to move a muscle, was afraid to draw a breath. She was scared out of her mind. Her overwhelming fear of heights had her feeling paralyzed. A sheer rock wall towered on the left side of the vehicle with a cliff of dizzying proportions dropping straight down on the right side. It reminded her of the Road of Death in North Yungas, Bolivia where hundreds of ...

A widowed mountain girl copes with running her farm, getting another husband, and having children. Above all she strives to protect her mountain from land speculators. His hat was pulled low over his black hair and his shirt sleeves were rolled up almost to his elbows. His hands appeared strong and in control as he held the reins of his high stepping horse. He looked a little thinner than he used to be and a lot more tired. “What’s wrong?” he asked me fast. “You’ve got to go back to Banners Elk,” I told him, forgetting about supper. His eyes widened with concern. “Should you ...

From the award-winning author of Hula, a dazzling saga about the generations of women tasked with protecting the history and place that made them. A young woman lies comatose in a hospital, watched by her estranged grandmother. Mystery surrounds the woman’s fall—did she jump off the cliff...

From award-winning novelist Mary Morris comes the remarkable story of a remote New Mexican town coming to grips with a dark history it never imagined. In 1492, the Jewish and Muslim populations of Spain were expelled, and Columbus set sail for America. Luis de Torres, a Spanish Jew, accompanies Columbus as his interpreter. His journey is only the beginning of a long migration, across many generations.

George Washington Carver wasn't just an inventor. He was also a botanist, a farmer, and a professor. Young listeners will discover how this teacher not only improved the way people farmed, but introduced the world to more than 300 uses for the peanut.

A Western Adventure by Ronnie Ashmore Sam Bolton was wanting life to return to normal on the Lightning Bolt Ranch after the ranch was destroyed. But a new marshal in the town has his own way of keeping the peace, a way that goes against everything Sam believes in. When a family of fighting men rides in from east Texas seeking revenge, Sam is soon drawn into a fight for survival with an ally he doesn’t trust. Sam Bolton enemies will soon know what a fighting man really is. Excerpt “Who’s this coming?” Billy said. Sam turned toward the direction Billy was looking. It was a horse and a...

Picture a Crow Indian elder, his wizened eyes catching yours in the ancient flicker of firelight. His mesmerizing stories span the ages, from Custer to World War II to the 21st Century. He is the last traditional chief of his people. He is over 90 years old. Now picture that same man lecturing at colleges nationwide and addressing the United Nations on the subject of peace. National Geographic presents the amazing life story of Joseph Medicine Crow, the man who begins life as Winter Man. Trained as a warrior by his grandfather Yellowtail, he bathes in icy rivers and endures the ceremony of "counting coup".

“It’s a stunner.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) From award-winning South African author Nadia Davids comes a gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s, where a young maid finds herself entangled with the spirits of a decaying manor and the secrets of its enigmatic owner. I...

A moving and powerful novel about the lives of the men, women, and children who endure a second-class existence and labor under dangerous conditions as migrant workers in California’s fields. “Viramontes depicts this world with sensuous physicality...working firmly in the social-realist vein...

Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is...

To dream of death is a curse."I WAS BORN with the ability to prophesize the future. The destinies I dream about are impossible to alter, despite my many attempts to do so...nightly visions forewarn me of good fortune, but also of despair, discord, and death--always death."Matilde of Ringelheim, a paragon of virtue and achievement, a legendary woman of passion, beloved 10th-century queen, and saint of the Germanic states, was one of the most influential and charitable women in European medieval history. Her story of love, family discord, betrayal, prophetic dreams, and political intrigue is ...

A Western Adventure by Ronnie Ashmore "Ashmore creates fierce characters with confidence and authority. A fresh and welcome Western narrative." -Best-Selling Author Ralph Cotton -The Claren Range Dispute- John Riley finds himself working as a lawman in a backwater town that seems to need no law. But there is a fight brewing between two major land holders and Riley will need to keep his wits about him if he is to see it settled. Riley is a man with his own sense of what is right and wrong, but to get out of Claren alive he will have to dispense justice the only way he knows how.

How did Yo-Yo Ma become a world-renowned cellist? Listeners will learn all about this musician and the significant events in his life in this low-leveled biography.

A Western Adventure by Ronnie Ashmore A simple trip to Austin so his wife can shop is anything but simple for Sam Bolton. Caroline is attacked and gunned down in the streets by an outlaw with a taste for killing. With her life in the balance, Sam sets off to find the man responsible. Along the way he discovers that chasing this outlaw will test his limits and his patience. Teaming up with the man’s cousin, they follow the killer’s crooked trail of destruction and deception. This is one trail Sam Bolton won’t let go cold because this time he is riding to settle a score with the man who...