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Featured Book
cover: Here Stands Marshall by Dan Chiras click for more about this book

Here Stands Marshall

by Dan Chiras

Marshall stands perched precariously on the edge of insanity and self-destruction. Set against a backdrop of the turmoil of Vietnam, the changing roles of the sexes, and the growing awareness of environmental destruction, Marshall Rhodes struggles to find happiness and love – for himself and others. It's a harrowing journey that beelines deeply into a troubled human mind.

The son of an abusive father, Marshall abandons his residency in pediatrics and a failing marriage to become a writer. He moves from New Haven, Connecticut to Aspen, Colorado to create fiction that will help "set the world straight." For Marshall there is no shortage of surrounding hate, greed, violence, and stupidity. "No more mollycoddling the American psyche," he pledges.

Success proves elusive. The ink that spills from his pen has the smell of blood. Editors find his work interesting, but his outlook unredeemable.

Haunted by his father's disapproval, Marshall struggles to free himself from a crippling self-image. Will Marshall find the capacity to love himself -- and others? Will he heal the wounds from his past -- or fling himself further into despair? Will he learn that in fighting a monster, he must not become one? Will he find that the loving heart is, as Charles Dickens once wrote, "the truest wisdom"?

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click for more about this book Stripah Love cover

Stripah Love


In which our hero (Artie) has achieved success, but then it's withdrawn from him summarily, arbitrarily, and unfairly. The lady of our tale, Shea, has achieved success, only to find that it exists in close proximity to the law of the jungle. Cuzzin, who never bothered, is much closer to being happy with his place in life than the others.

The process of becoming whole, for Artie, calls for him to re-establish connection with his culture through his tumbledown shack and with nature by getting a fish to chomp on his artificial feathers. Only when he gives himself entirely to this pursuit does obscene success, in the form of wealth, find him. He uses it wisely by enabling his cousin to pursue his dream. And love finds them all, just like in Shakespeare where each Jack has his Jill (and nought shall go ill).

Set within this story is confrontation of the tribal and the dominator cultures. In this instance, the tribal (the Injuns) has checkmated the dominator by adopting their own manipulative, and threatening, tactics. It's the only way a tribal culture can avoid being devoured by the dominator.


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cover: Beyond Yonder by Stephen Morris click for more about this book

Beyond Yonder

by Stephen Morris

When Darwin Hunter decides to update Over Yonder Hill (Alton Blanchard's history of the tiny Vermont hamlet of Upper Granville), the result is Beyond Yonder, a chronicle of the cultural divide between the entrenched natives and the invaders from the Land of Flat. From "Babysitters" to "Zucchinis" the contrasting world views are examined and skewered.

Beyond Yonder is part one of "Stories and Tunes," Stephen Morris's "four-part" trilogy of life in the rural North.


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14.95

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From Publishers Weekly

This is a hilarious send-up of life in Vermont, the characters of which are a mixed bag of "chucks" (natives) and "flatlanders" (those who "recently" have moved to Vermont even if as long as 30 years earlier). Morris, marketing director for a Vermont manufacturer of wood stoves, knows the territory. The seemingly endless, bleak and dreary winters (when "ice dams" form on the roof and cause leaks) are followed by mud season, the few short weeks of summer (when wood for winter is gathered and zucchini abounds) and the beauty of autumn (when "leaf peepers" number in the thousands). The story, set in the fictional town of Upper Granville, is told from the viewpoint of a local entrepreneur, Darwin Hunter, who is attempting to write a local history. The town is near enough to Burlington (the state's largest city) for occasional shopping sprees and aerobics classes for flatlanders, which add to the fun. Morris has written a marvelous comedy that's a must for "chucks" and "flatlanders" alike.

Copyright © 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
cover: The King of Vermont by Stephen Morris click for more about this book

The King of Vermont

by Stephen Morris

A chance comment on Vermont's most popular talk show, Straddlin' the Fence, lands Darwin Hunter in a three-way race to be elected State Senator. Set against a political landscape as rocky and muddy as the garden during Mud Season, Darwin combats his wily, experienced opponents with his only long suit–the truth.

The King of Vermont is part one of "Stories and Tunes," Stephen Morris's "four-part" trilogy of life in the rural North.


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14.95

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From Publishers Weekly

Midlife crises prompt strange, unpredictable behavior in the denizens of a rural Vermont town in Morris's second comic novel. Ophthalmologist Darwin Hunter, who decides to run for the Vermont state senate on a campaign promise of "total disclosure," reveals to voters the most intimate details of his personal life; his wife Sammi, declaring her need for a "multigamous relationship," moves out and hooks up with a 65 basketball star; ex-radical hippie Townshend Clarke transforms himself into an architectural maven and hatches a scheme to restore Upper Granville, Vt., to its pristine 1839 state. Set in the same fictive hamlet as Morris's Beyond Yonder, this gently sardonic satire, like its predecessor, pits "Chucks," the native Vermonters, against "Flatlanders," the invading urban refugees for whom home canning is a sacrament. Morris has mildly amusing fun with a large cast of deft caricatures as he spoofs New Englanders, back-to-nature types, political elections, yuppies and the lofty standards of private behavior demanded of politicians.

Copyright © 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
cover: Tales and More Tails by Stephen Morris click for more about this book

Tales and More Tails of Beyonder

by Stephen Morris

This book is a collection of articles originally appearing in a variety of Vermont newspapers. Stephen Morris is an indefatigable chronicler of life in Beyonder, and this is his best work. His offerings on Mud Season and Vermont Holidays is particularly memorable.

Tales and More Tales of Beyonder is part three of "Stories and Tunes," Stephen Morris's "four-part" trilogy of life in the rural North.


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14.95

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Deus ex Machina book cover

Deus ex Machina

by Paul Freundlich

Plunked down in the middle of the twentieth century, reverted to his childhood body, but his memories intact, Joshua Leyden takes a run at revising his own life, and changing a future that needs some tinkering.

Author Paul Freundlich has created a journey that transcends time, reworks reality, and challenges the human spirit. What a trip!


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19.95

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"I liked the blending of human passions and emotions with some fairly intricate political analysis of the last 50 years in this book. It's rare I find a book that can both hold my attention and teach me a lot. The characters were human, believable, well created. The passion was juicy. The perspective on world government and politics was comprehendible and fresh. And the sense of our place in this world, on how we impact it by the community we surround ourselves with and the choices we make was long, long overdue. Thanks for such a good read."

Lisa Geiger, Boston, Massachusetts

"Deus ex Machina takes you by surprise, where am I, or more accurately, when am I? Josh finds himself in 1950 though he has already lived through the 1990's. And he remembers all that living! He remembers the 1950's as a young boy, and he remembers the 70's, 80's and 90's for he has already lived in those decades. Does Josh want to change history based on what he knows from his adult life? You bet he does. Can he? Is he successful? I recommend the book not necessarily to find the answers to those questions, but because along the way you will find a good read that is entertaining, seductive, and often very clever."

David Kahn, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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