Mountain Memoir

Soy Eufrosina Cruz y nací en la montaña zapoteca. A los 27 años gané la presidencia de mi pueblo, pero no me dejaron gobernar porque era mujer. En ese momento supe que, para cambiar mi vida y la de las mujeres indígenas, debía transformar la ley más importante de mi país. Desde entonces, mi lucha ha sido para que los pueblos indígenas y afro no sean considerados menores de edad y para que las mujeres no sean personas de segunda.

Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain is the remarkable story of a couple who came together during the Civil Rights Movement and made fighting for equality and civil and workers’ rights their purpose for more than sixty years, overcoming adversity—with the strength of their love and commitment—to bring about meaningful change.

With Mountain Madness, Clinton Crockett Peters chronicles his travels and personal transformation from a West Texas evangelical to mountain guide to humbled humanist after a near-fatal injury in Japan's Chichibu Mountains. From 2007 to 2010, Peters lived in Kosuge Village, nestled in central Japan's peaks, where he was the only foreigner in town. This essay collection profiles who he was before Japan, why he became obsessed with mountains, and his fallout from mountain obsession. Ultimately, the collection asks, how can landscape create and end identities?

Heroes are hard to come by - but there's one man whose legend has stood the test of two centuries, and whose name sits on Australia's highest peak. Tadeusz Kosciuszko: freedom fighter, friend of Thomas Jefferson and champion of liberty on two continents. Bestselling author Anthony Sharwood finds out why he's the hero the world needs right now.

Soon after Henk Pröpper moves from Amsterdam to Paris, both the world and his heart almost come to a full stop. He undergoes major surgery and awakes in an empty city in lockdown. Paris is transformed into an abandoned stage. To quicken his recovery, Pröpper begins walking. He combs his immediate surroundings, he hunts for the past, discovering countless commemorative plaques and monuments that honour well- and lesser-known Parisians and keep their histories alive. Pröpper also reflects on his own life and the literature that has shaped him.

By the golden age of the mountain man in the mid-19th-century, there were perhaps only three thousand living in the West. Their origins were disparate, although they included many Anglo-Americans. A good number hailed from wilderness regions of Kentucky and Virginia and throughout the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, which occupied the entire central section of the continent. French Canadians traveled from the north to work in the fur trade, while Creole-Europeans represented approximately 15 percent of the men known to be living the isolated mountain life.

After decades as a long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. Before long he noticed that many of his neighbors were captivated by the prospect of vast riches in “the Hemp Space.” When hemp was legalized, after eighty years in federal exile, Colorado became the center of a hemp growing and processing boom. Figuring he’d harvest some of that easy money, Murphy bought a thirty-six-acre farm. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much everything…

For the Love of It: The Mammoth Legacy of Roma and Dave McCoy traces the lives of Roma and Dave McCoy, visionary founders of world-renowned Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, from their singular childhoods through their eventual building of the first chairlift in the Eastern Sierra. The nostalgic narrative non-fiction book depicts California skiing in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s and illustrates the power of dedication, upbeat attitudes, and teamwork.

On October 7, 1780, American Patriot and Loyalist soldiers battled each other at Kings Mountain, near the border of North and South Carolina. With over one hundred eyewitness accounts, this collection of participant statements from men of both sides includes letters and statements in their original form—the soldiers' own words—unedited and unabridged.

Outdoor journalist James Edward Mills's book The Adventure Gap is a groundbreaking volume that is equal parts adventure story, history, and inspiration as it chronicles the first American all-Black summit attempt on Denali in 2013. Mills uses this momentous expedition as a jumping-off point to explore diversity in the outdoors, from Mathew Henson who stood at the North Pole in 1909 to contemporary adventurers such as polar explorer Barbara Hillary and rock climber Kai Lightner.

This is a collection of short stories and essays on a variety of subjects from the scientific and technical to the humorous and childhood memories, from sasquatch and bigfoot to personal relationships. It is a volume of easy listening, sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant, but always worthwhile.

From the award-winning author of Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon comes an intimate exploration of Alaska's northernmost mountain range with observations on Indigenous cultures, conservation, and intense cross-country travel, all shaped by respect for the land. Follow author Michael Engelhard through tussock-studded tundra for a remarkable tale of bear encounters and white-knuckled river moments, as well as poetic reflections on a vast, untamed landscape.

In Wilderness and Mountain Lore explores the stories and adventures of visiting a mountain wilderness retreat over a 50-year period with a group of friends. We nearly always were able to reserve the only two cabins for the second week of June. Domke Lake is located in the North Cascades wilderness area of North Central Washington State. There is no electricity or phone service of any kind along with little change other than what nature has wrought.

When empty nester Paula Whyman climbs to a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, her plans for a backyard ecology project quickly morph into a massive endeavor. In Bad Naturalist, Whyman struggles with conflicting advice from experts, an influx of invasive species, delayed plans, and the occasional rattlesnake—but none of it dampens her irrepressible passion for protecting the land.

In 2011, Jessica Buchanan found herself in the middle of a nightmare she could never have prepared for; she was a hostage in the desert, captured by Somali pirates, who held a 45 million dollar ransom demand on her head. Taken at gunpoint while on a routine field mission for her non-governmental organization, Jessica was forced to live in deplorable conditions, regularly tortured, and kept on a starvation diet for 93 days. On January 25, 2012, Jessica was successfully rescued by SEAL Team VI, upon order of President Obama, and finally brought home.

Matchbox Mountain is a collection of stories told by the author about one year in her life in 1952 when she was 10 years old. Living in the mountains of western North Carolina in a house with no electricity, no running water, and no close neighbors, the author shares stories of how she and her siblings made their own world with little but creativity.

Larry H. Miller played by his own rules. Owner of an NBA franchise and founder of one of the country's largest automotive retail groups, Larry was a college dropout who went on to buy or build nearly 100 businesses. While his life as a successful businessman played out in public, his health challenges, as well as his quiet acts of service, were known to very few. Behind the Drive contains 99 uplifting and untold stories from every aspect and era of Larry's life.

In a story of remarkable perseverance, Helen Joy writes a memoir of her unusual childhood, her mental breakdown at age 31, and how she fought for a year to stay alive in the mental healthcare system.

Surround Yourself with Greatness takes listeners around the world while looking through the eyes, mind, and heart of Chad Lewis - a once freckle-faced, four-eyed, skinny teenager who at an early age wrote in his journal, “My goal and quest is to surround myself with greatness...only greatness will penetrate the walls of my heart.”

In her hilarious yet sage debut essay collection, Midstokke demonstrates that battles with freeloading varmints, clogged stove pipes, childhood trauma, and one surprisingly aggressive boulder are unexpected, if not wonderfully entertaining, pathways to personal growth and joy. All the Things delivers the irreverent, fearless, and brilliant voice of a woman who laughs in the face of failure and soothes her wounds by splitting wood, often in her skivvies.