 |  |  |
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
 | An Illustrated Novel by Joseph Marshall III and Jim Yellowhawk Amulet Books November 10, 2015 Hardcover, $16.95. ISBN: 9781419707858 When Jimmy McClean embarks on a journey with his grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, he learns more and more about his Lakota heritage—in particular, the story of Crazy Horse, one of the most important figures in Lakota and American history. STARRED REVIEW "As Jimmy and his grandfather’s journey comes to an end, the boy has gained much more than a history lesson—he learns a great deal about courage, sacrifice, and the ties that connect him to his ancestors. VERDICT A moving narrative that should be required reading for all students of American history." |
Jimmy McClean is a Lakota boy—though you wouldn’t guess it by his name: his father is part white and part Lakota, and his mother is Lakota. Drawing references and inspiration from the oral stories of the Lakota tradition, celebrated author Joseph Marshall III juxtaposes the contemporary story of Jimmy with an insider’s perspective on the life of Tasunke Witko, better known as Crazy Horse (c. 1840–1877).
| The book follows the heroic deeds of the Lakota leader who took up arms against the US federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Along with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse was the last of the Lakota to surrender his people to the US army. Through his grandfather’s tales about the famous warrior, Jimmy learns more about his Lakota heritage and, ultimately, himself. |  |  |
Joseph Marshall III, raised on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota (Rosebud Sioux) tribe. His internationally acclaimed works include nine nonfiction books, four novels, a collection of short stories and essays, and several screenplays. He divides his time between Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.
Jim Yellowhawk is a contemporary Lakota multimedia artist. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Jim Yellowhawk is a contemporary Lakota multimedia artist. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Crossing the Plains with Bruno
 | A Memoir by Annick Smith Trinity University Press October 6, 2015. Paperback Original, $17.95. ISBN: 9781595346698 “Annick Smith has one of the most graceful and vital relationships with time that I know of. As we see in Crossing the Plains with Bruno, she comes by it naturally. Her entire life—like Bruno’s—has been one magical trail. We in the West are lucky to have her, and this lovely, honest book.” — Rick Bass, author of All the Land to Hold Us “Crossing the Plains with Bruno is proof of Martín Prechtel’s belief that ‘the domesticated dog in particular is an ancient master of grief.’ Also of joy. I knew Bruno . . . How great to find him gleefully panting and stealing our food once more.” — David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K “My interest in Annick Smith’s life was handsomely rewarded by this tender and perceptive book. A great woman, a great dog, and a road trip in the American West. How can you miss?” — Thomas McGuane, author of Crow Fair Crossing the Plains with Bruno is a story narrated by a woman beset by the processes of aging, living with the imminent reality of a parent’s death, but it is the dog that rides shotgun, like Sancho Panza to Don Quixote, that becomes the reminder of the physical realities outside our own imaginations. |
Dogs, like humans, have memories, instincts, fears, and loyalties. But, as far as we know, dogs do not get swept up in nostalgia, speculation, or self-analysis. Although they have hopes, they are not driven by regrets. In Crossing the Plains with Bruno, Annick Smith weaves together a memoir of travel and relationship, western history and family history, human love and animal love centering around a two week road trip across the Great Plains she and her 95 pound chocolate lab, Bruno, took in the summer of 2003. It is a chain of linked meditations, often triggered by place, about how the past impinges on the present and how the present can exist seemingly sans past.
Traveling from her rural homestead in Montana to pick up her nearly 100-year-old mother from her senior residence on Chicago’s North Side and bring her to the family’s beach house on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan, Smith often gets lost in memory and rambling contemplation. Bruno’s constant companionship and ever present needs force her to return to the actual, reminding her that she, too, is an animal whose existence depends on being alert to the scents, sights, hungers, and emotions of the moment.
Passing through wide open spaces, dying ranch towns, green cornfields, and Midwestern hamlets, Annick is immersed in memories of her immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, her childhood days in Chicago, her early marriage, and ultimate immigration west. Triggered by random encounters along the way, she’s taken back to life as a young mother, her career as a writer and filmmaker who produced the classic A River Runs Through It, the death of her husband, and the thrill of a late romance. A lifetime of reflection played out one mile at a time.
Traveling from her rural homestead in Montana to pick up her nearly 100-year-old mother from her senior residence on Chicago’s North Side and bring her to the family’s beach house on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan, Smith often gets lost in memory and rambling contemplation. Bruno’s constant companionship and ever present needs force her to return to the actual, reminding her that she, too, is an animal whose existence depends on being alert to the scents, sights, hungers, and emotions of the moment.
Passing through wide open spaces, dying ranch towns, green cornfields, and Midwestern hamlets, Annick is immersed in memories of her immigrant Hungarian Jewish family, her childhood days in Chicago, her early marriage, and ultimate immigration west. Triggered by random encounters along the way, she’s taken back to life as a young mother, her career as a writer and filmmaker who produced the classic A River Runs Through It, the death of her husband, and the thrill of a late romance. A lifetime of reflection played out one mile at a time.
| Annick Smith is a writer and filmmaker of Jewish-Hungarian descent whose work deals primarily with the literature and history of Montana, memoir, travel, and environmental issues. She has worked as a high school teacher, a book editor for the University of Washington Press, and an editor for the Montana Business Quarterly. She is known for her film credits, which include Heartland, co-producer of Robert Redford’s adaptation of Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, and associate producer of Peacock’s War. Smith is a founding board member of the Sundance Film Institute and the founder of the Hellgate Writers, a literary center in Missoula. Her books include Homestead, Big Bluestem, and The Last Best Place, which she edited with William Kittredge. Her articles, poems, and stories have appeared in Audubon, Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Story, and elsewhere. She has lived in Montana since 1964. |  |
The Voiceover Artist
 | A Novel by Dave Reidy Curbside Splendor Press November 10, 2015. Paperback Original, $15.95. ISBN: 9781940430553 Simon breaks his 18-year-long vow of silence in order to master his stutter, find love, and become a voiceover artist. "The Voiceover Artist connects a community of disparate Chicagoans—rising stars and fading elderly, drunks and dreamers, performers and mutes—who yearn to find their voices and prove their value to the world. In a chain of intimate, first-person narratives, each character takes a turn at the microphone, confessing to the reader the secrets that separate them from the people they love. The Voiceover Artist is a compelling and unforgettable exploration of the power of the human voice and the human heart." — Valerie Laken, author of Dream House and Separate Kingdoms "My first thought picking this book up was what if Binx Bolling [of Walker Percy's The Moviegoer] were really Catholic and winds up not glib in New Orleans but stuttering in Chicago? This is a completely errant, if not arrant, idea. The Voiceover Artist is a broad, ambitious, multifaceted, exacting set of portraits of some very twisted folk. They are their own analysts, viciously jockeying to win. Mr. Reidy can be frightening." —Padgett Powell, Whiting Award winner and author of six novels, including You & Me (Ecco) |
Simon Davies suffers a crippling stutter inherited from his father. At the age of seven, he decides to stop speaking completely—eventually rendering his vocal cords useless from atrophy. Unable to speak, Simon finds solace in the voices piping through his bedside radio.
Eighteen years later, Simon rebuilds his voice and learns to mostly manage his stutter with a series of subtle tics he’s developed to loosen his vocal cords. He moves to Chicago and pursues his lifelong dream of becoming a voice on the radio—a voiceover artist. Meanwhile, his younger brother Connor, in every way more confident and charming than Simon, attempts to take his prodigious talent for improv comedy from the barroom stages of Chicago to the television studios of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Coming out of his years of silence, Simon seeks to balance his relationship with his brother, forcing Connor to examine what brotherhood and success mean to him.
Eighteen years later, Simon rebuilds his voice and learns to mostly manage his stutter with a series of subtle tics he’s developed to loosen his vocal cords. He moves to Chicago and pursues his lifelong dream of becoming a voice on the radio—a voiceover artist. Meanwhile, his younger brother Connor, in every way more confident and charming than Simon, attempts to take his prodigious talent for improv comedy from the barroom stages of Chicago to the television studios of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Coming out of his years of silence, Simon seeks to balance his relationship with his brother, forcing Connor to examine what brotherhood and success mean to him.
| Told in a series of first-person narratives by the characters who weave in and out of Simon’s life, The Voiceover Artist considers the complexities of family and celebrates the heart with which we fight to fulfill our dreams. Dave Reidy’s fiction has been published by Granta and other journals. His first book, Captive Audience, a collection of short stories about performers, was named an Indie Next Notable Book by the American Booksellers Association. Reidy works at closerlook, inc., where he is the Creative Director. He lives in Chicago. To schedule a bookstore visit with this author, please contact Catherine Eves at Curbside Splendor |  |
