The never-before-told story of the horned rabbit—the myths, the hoaxes, and the entirely real scientific breakthroughs it has inspired—and how it became a cultural touchstone of the American West. Just what is a jackalope? Purported to be part jackrabbit and part antelope, the jackalope began as a local joke concocted by two young brothers in a small Wyoming town during the Great Depression. Their creation quickly spread around the U.S., where it now regularly appears as innumerable forms of kitsch—wall mounts, postcards, keychains, coffee mugs, shot glasses, and so on. A vast body of folk narratives has carried the jackalope’s fame around the world to inspire art, music, film, even erotica! Although the jackalope is an invention of the imagination, it is nevertheless connected to actual horned rabbits, which exist in nature and have for centuries been collected and studied by naturalists. Around the time the two young boys were creating the first jackalope in Wyoming, Dr. Richard Shope was making his first breakthrough about the cause of the horns: a virus. When the virus that causes rabbits to grow “horns” (a keratinous carcinoma) was first genetically sequenced in 1984, oncologists were able to use that genetic information to make remarkable, field-changing advances in the development of anti-viral cancer therapies. The most important of these is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical and other cancers. Today, jackalopes are literally helping us cure cancer. For fans of David Quammen’s The Song of the Dodo, Jon Mooallem’s Wild Ones, or Jeff Meldrum's Sasquatch, Michael P. Branch's remarkable On the Trail of the Jackalope is an entertaining and enlightening road trip through the heart of America.

Never seen a jackalope? Not even sure what one is? Well, you've come to the right place. You'll get the whole wild story right here in this book. You see, the jackalope didn't start out with horns. First he was a plain old hare. You know, a jackrabbit. The horns came later, along with a corny fairy godrabbit and a cranky coyote. And the trouble those horns brought--hoooo-wee! With a gut-busting brew of sassy storytelling and outrageous art, Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel finally give the jackalope his due. After all, he's long been part of American legend--isn't it time to tell the real story?

Corey Henry is fired from her Montana middle school teaching job after striking a taunting student, 13-year-old Ariel Doggett. Heading into her 60s with diminished hopes, Corey faces further trials when her 80-year-old father, a decorated WWII vet and former rodeo star named Loren, commits suicide. Then Ariel's opportunistic father, Hailey Doggett, sues Corey for assaulting his daughter and turns out to be a lot more than merely greedy.

“If Thoreau drank more whiskey and lived in the desert, he’d write like this.”—High Country News Welcome to the land of wildfire, hypothermia, desiccation, and rattlers. The stark and inhospitable high-elevation landscape of Nevada’s Great Basin Desert may not be an obvious (or easy) place to settle down, but for self-professed desert rat Michael Branch, it’s home. Of course, living in such an unforgiving landscape gives one many things to rant about. Fortunately for us, Branch—humorist, environmentalist, and author of Raising Wild—is a prodigious ranter. From bees hiving in the walls of his house to owls trying to eat his daughters’ cat—not to mention his eccentric neighbors—adventure, humor, and irreverence abound on Branch’s small slice of the world, which he lovingly calls Ranting Hill.

In her fiercely beautiful memoir, Jeannine Ouellette recollects fragments of her life and arranges them elliptically to witness each piece as torn and whole, as something more than itself. Caught between the dramatic landscapes of Lake Superior and Casper Mountain, between her stepfather's groping and her mother's erratic behavior, Ouellette lives for the day she can become a mother herself and create her own sheltering family. But she cannot know how the visceral reality of both birth and babies will pull her back into the body she long ago abandoned, revealing new layers of pain and desire, and forcing her to choose between her idealistic vision of perfect marriage and motherhood, and the birthright of her own awakening flesh, unruly and alive. The Part That Burns is a story about the tenacity of family roots, the formidable undertow of trauma, and the rebellious and persistent yearning of human beings for love from each other.

The Saddle Club is heading west--on the Oregon Trail. They are taking part in a re-creation of the famous wagon train ride across the American West. Things may be a little easier for these modern-day pioneers, but they still have their fair share of problems to face. Stevie has to drive their wagon--and wear a dress! She isn't sure which is worse. Lisa, meanwhile, has to contend with a reluctant cow who really doesn't want to walk across the prairie. Even Carole is finding those long days in the saddle a little more than she bargained for.

When Jack and Jimmy Doe left New Orleans to live with a new guardian in Opossum Trot, Mississippi, the brothers thought they would finally live out a normal childhood-at least by their standards. They expected unfair fights with schoolyard bullies, hard work with ornery neighbors, and an endless supply of terrible though well-intended cookies. But one Halloween night, Jimmy convinces his older brother Jack to break through the chains and locks on a wooden shed behind the town mortuary. By the time Jack rubs the blinding light from his eyes, Jimmy is already gone, stolen away by a pale hand with sharp, yellow nails. While Jimmy struggles against his ravenous captor, Jack can only give chase into a strange world-taking every risk necessary to find his lost brother before time runs out. Because once spirits in the Hinderwood forget their purpose, they fade... or they feed.