Examines the varied roles of contemporary folk artists from many regions of the world.

When greed, the law, and secrets collide someone is going to get hurt. Two lonely people meet in the workplace and become close. Jason Erickson is a state judge hearing environmental cases who's getting unwelcome political pressure. Tara Highsmith is an environmental journalist covering some of Jason's cases, though she's soon to be exiled to the Science and Health beat. As their relationship develops, Jason and Tara discover shared passions for the Wisconsin wilderness, their book club, and each other. But Tara is married. Meanwhile, Jason grows increasingly concerned about a strange conversation with an attorney. Was it an attempt at a bribe? Jason finds himself embroiled in several high-stakes ethical dilemmas involving powerful political figures, groundwater polluters, a corrupt developer, and his feelings for Tara. As he fights to stay true to his personal and professional principles, the list of Jason's enemies swells. Before long, shots are fired. Full of intrigue, passion, and suspense, Blue Lake sets the stage for a thrilling mystery set against the rich beauty of black spruces, white pines, and austere Upper Midwest lakes. This is a compelling and richly layered story about nature and our place within it that lands with rare emotional depth.

I’m here already, in the bleak, awful hour on Dudley Flats in which the final dereliction of Elsie Williams will come to pass. I’m beginning with it, so you won’t be under any illusion as to how it ends. In Blue Lake, David Sornig examines how the 8km-square zone to the west of central Melbourne became the city's blind spot. Once a fertile wetland with a large blue saltwater lagoon, it passed through various incarnations: from boneyards and rubbish tips; through the Depression-era Dudley Flats shanty town; to the modern-day docks. Through it all, one thing that has persisted is its uncanny, liminal quality. As well as being a social history and a psychogeographic contemplation, Blue Lake is a biography of three specific characters: Elsie Williams, a Bendigo-born singer of Afro-Caribbean origin; Jack Peacock, the king of Dudley Flats’ tip-scavenging economy; and Lauder Heinrich Rogge, a German hermit who lived for decades with sixty dogs on a stranded ship. By charting the rises and falls in their individual fortunes, Sornig reveals much about the race and class divides of their times and explores questions about those strange and singular places in the urban fabric where chaos is difficult to contain. In masterful prose, Sornig reveals cracks in the colonial mythology of the ordered vision of progressive, urban Melbourne — a place where identities, both personal and public, have never quite been resolved. In doing so, he encourages readers to look harder at the places they live in — at the streets they walk, the buildings they enter, the empty spaces they pass — and to see in them intricate layers of time and history that have been hidden from view.

Performing works by master composers from Puccini to Bellini, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a summer magnet for thousands of aspiring musicians, dancers, artists and actors. Blue Lake students, most of them on scholarship, continue in the tradition established by resident muse Ludolph Arens, who believed the best way to nurture young talent was to focus their enthusiasm on the classics in an enchanted woodland setting far away from the distractions of daily life. Blue Lake's camp and international programs have nurtured jazz greats like James Carter as well as musicians who now play with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other leading orchestras. Guest performers have included the likes of Victor Borge, William Warfield and Red Skelton. Blue Lake's international program has given students the chance to perform before European nobility, including His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. Book jacket.

A triumph of the human spirit. This story deserves endless retelling. (Stewart L. Udall) In the mountains of northern New Mexico above Taos Pueblo lies a deep, turquoise lake which was taken away from the Taos Indians, for whom it is a sacred life source and the final resting place of their souls. Marcia Keegan's text and historic photographs document the celebration in 1971, when Taos Pueblo got the sacred lake back after a 60-year struggle with the federal government. Her photographs of everyday life at Taos Pueblo and quotes by members of the community capture the spiritual beauty of Taos Pueblo and its people. All royalties from the sale of this book are donated to the Oo-oonah Children's Art Center of Taos Pueblo.