Dakota Modern

Visit the Mount Rushmore State! Learn about South Dakota's history, geography, weather, people, and more in this book that's all about our 40th state.

"With humor and lyrical grace," Kathleen Norris meditates on a place in the American landscape that is at once desolate and sublime, harsh, and forgiving, steeped in history and myth (San Francisco Chronicle). A combination of reporting and reflection, Dakota reminds us that wherever we go, we chart our own spiritual geography.

Fun is a word that is rarely associated with missionary work, but that is exactly what teenagers are looking for. The goal for this book is to provide teenagers and other preparing missionaries with a vision for who great modern-day missionaries are and the skills they possess. Obtaining that vision is made tangible through specific challenges associated with each chapter's theme. Not only will preparing missionaries be enlightened by a vision of who they can become but they will also be inspired through the personal experiences we will challenge them to have.

The northern plains are often ignored by the rest of the nation or, if not, are mentioned in the context of the weather, Mount Rushmore, or the Black Hills. However, North Dakota and South Dakota have a colorful past - and present - deserving of greater recognition. Norman K. Risjord relates the remarkable histories of these two states, from the geological formation of the Great Plains to economic changes in the 21st century.

Matt Braun's Spur Award-winning Dakota tells the compelling story of Teddy Roosevelt's foray into rugged Dakota Territory. Stunned by a Valentine's Day telegram, Teddy Roosevelt reached his Manhattan home just in time to watch death claim first his mother and then his wife on that dark day in 1884. Abandoning a promising political career, 25-year-old Teddy sought the healing solace of the Dakota Bad Lands.

Former foreign correspondent Lola Wicks is getting a little bored in Magpie, Montana, where she landed at a small local newspaper after being downsized from her job in Kabul. Then Judith Calf Looking, a local Blackfeet Indian girl missing for several months, turns up dead in a snowbank with a mysterious brand on her forearm. The sheriff - whose romantic relationship with Lola provides Magpie with its most delicious gossip in years - thinks Judith probably froze to death while hitchhiking back to the reservation from wherever she'd been.

Dakota Riley is a member of the Seattle Drug Task Force. During an investigation into an international drug smuggling ring, he loses his best friend and partner. To add insult to injury, he is assigned a rookie, Marc Bradley - the son of a black fisherman from South Carolina. Seeking revenge rather than justice, Dakota ditches the rookie...and almost gets himself killed. After leaving the hospital for a "forced" vacation, Dakota and Marc head to Marc's hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. A day out on a fishing boat goes wrong when a mysterious storm arrives. The boat is destroyed, and the two men wash ashore...in 1861....