On The Far Side Of The Mountain

"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."—The New York Times Book Review Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods—all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever. “An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after year.” —The Horn Book

Two years ago, Sam ran away from New York City to live in the Catskill Mountains. Now his younger sister Alice has joined him and is quietly living in a tree house of her own nearby. Their peaceful life is shattered when a conservation officer confiscates Sam’s falcon, Frightful, and Alice suddenly vanishes. Sam leaves his home to search for Alice, hoping to find Frightful, too. But the trail to the far side of the mountain may lead Sam into great danger. “Surpasses the original in style and substance . . . This story [is] a jewel.” —Booklist “George has outdone herself here.” —Kirkus Reviews

In 1959, Jean Craighead George published My Side of the Mountain. This coming-of-age story about a boy and his falcon went on to win a Newbery Honor, and for the past forty years has enthralled and entertained generations of would-be Sam Gribleys. The two books that followed--On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful's Mountain--were equally extraordinary. Now all three books are available in one deluxe yet affordable volume for veteran devotees and brand-new fans alike.

Frightful, the pelegrine falcon, could not see. A falconer's hood covered her head and eyes. She remained quiet and clam, like all daytime birds in the dark. She would hear, however. She listened t the wind whistling through the pine needles. The wind-music conjured up images of a strange woods and unknown flowers. The sound was foreign. It was not the soft song of wind humming through the hemlock needles of home. Frightful was a long way from her familiar forest. Suddenly an all-invading passion filled her. She must go. She must find one mountain among thousands, one hemlock tree among millions,. And the one boy who called himself Sam Gribley. The one mountain was her territory, the one tree was Sam's house, the perch beside it, her place. And Sam Gribley was life.So begins the third book in the wilderness series that has lifted imaginations around the worlds. Readers last head from Sam Gribley a decade ago , when he kept the hardest resolution of his life and let his falcon partner go free. Now at last we pick up the sotry?but this time, the narrative continues through Frightful's keen-sighted eyes.Raised by Sam, Frightful is an imprinted bird. She has no idea how to migrate, mate, or be a mother. She can barely even feed herself, for although she is a skilled hunter, it was always Sam who signaled permission to partake of the kill. Sam, so patient and kind, will support her from afar, and so will bird activists Jon and Susan wood and conservationist Leon Longbridge. But despite a letter-writing campaign by local schoolchildren, other would despoil her Catskill home?designing fatal electrical wires and disturbing good nesting areas with jackhammers and paint trucks.With evolution and a proud natural intelligence on her side, Frightful may yet beat the odds of famine, winter, and human encroachment. But her terrible longing for that one mountain among thousands, her first home?a longing so noble and generous yet so dangerous?will govern her to either heartbreaking failure or hart-aching triumph, a triumph so right and so natural that readers will want to take to the skies in celebration.Jean Craighead George published My Side of the mountain in 1959, a Newbery Honor Book and coming-of-age story that has enthralled and entertained generations of would-be Sams. This third book in the series shares?in exquisite, elegantly flowing prose?Frightful's own passage into adulthood, taking readers on a journey into the mind and spirit of one of the wild's most magnificent creations and proving once again why the author is considered the most gifted nature writer of her time.

With the election of a new Abbot at the Abbey of Gethsemani, Merton enters a period of unprecedented freedom, culminating in the opportunity to travel to California, Alaska, and finally the Far East – journeys that offer him new possibilities and causes for contemplation. In his last days at the Abbey of Gethsemani, Merton continues to follow the tumultuous events of the sixties, including the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. In Southeast Asia, he meets the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist and Catholic monks and discovers a rare and rewarding kinship with each. The final year is full of excitement and great potential for Merton, making his accidental death in Bangkok, at the age of fifth-three, all the more tragic.

Two years ago, Sam ran away from New York City to live in the Catskill Mountains. Now his younger sister Alice has joined him and is quietly living in a tree house of her own nearby. Their peaceful life is shattered when a conservation officer confiscates Sam’s falcon, Frightful, and Alice suddenly vanishes. Sam leaves his home to search for Alice, hoping to find Frightful, too. But the trail to the far side of the mountain may lead Sam into great danger. “Surpasses the original in style and substance . . . This story [is] a jewel.” —Booklist “George has outdone herself here.” —Kirkus Reviews

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection With hardly any notice, foolish and plain housekeeper Johanna flees her employer and sets off to find the man she’s fallen in love with. Little does she know that her correspondence with him has been a complete fabrication, a cruel teenager’s idea of a practical joke. So, who will Johanna find when she steps off her train with the household furniture in tow? Alice Munro is the universally celebrated master of the contemporary short story, the Chekhov of our time. Nowhere are her powers better on display than in this exquisitely crafted story exploring the wonderful and unexpected places where love, or the illusion of it, can lead. This selection is the title story of Munro’s acclaimed collection, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage and the basis of the 2013 film, Hateship Loveship. An ebook short.

Written by a young human rights worker, "Silence on the Mountain" is a virtuoso work of reporting and a masterfully plotted narrative tracing the history of Guatemala's 36-year internal war, a conflict that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people.

Maria Coffey's Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow is a powerful, affecting and important book that exposes the far reaching personal costs of extreme adventure. Without risk, say mountaineers, there would be none of the self-knowledge that comes from pushing life to its extremes. For them, perhaps, it is worth the cost. But when tragedy strikes, what happens to the people left behind? Why would anyone choose to invest in a future with a high-altitude risk-taker? What is life like in the shadow of the mountain? Such questions have long been taboo in the world of mountaineering. Now, the spouses, parents and children of internationally renowned climbers finally break their silence, speaking out about the dark side of adventure. Maria Coffey confronted one of the harshest realities of mountaineering when her partner Joe Tasker disappeared on the Northeast Ridge of Everest in 1982. In Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow, Coffey offers an intimate portrait of adventure and the conflicting beauty, passion, and devastation of this alluring obsession. Through interviews with the world's top climbers, or their widows and families-Jim Wickwire, Conrad Anker, Lynn Hill, Joe Simpson, Chris Bonington, Ed Viesturs, Anatoli Boukreev, Alex Lowe, and many others-she explores what compels men and women to give their lives to the high mountains. She asks why, despite the countless tragedies, the world continues to laud their exploits. With an insider's understanding, Coffey reveals the consequences of loving people who pursue such risk-the exhilarating highs and inevitable lows, the stress of long separations, the constant threat of bereavement, and the lives shattered in the wake of climbing accidents.