Winnerof the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the First Novel Category (under 8,000 words) Pancake Hollow Primer is the story of Gulf War vet and drifter Frank Closky who finds himself on a physical and spiritual journey after he inherits an 1820s farmhouse in New York's Hudson Valley. At first indifferent to his ownership of "seven acres with a house, outbuildings, and all the contents within," Frank discovers a land where nature speaks its ancient history, where ghosts and seers hold the past, and where he comes to find his place in a rock-laden piece of property and a house with no square corners. Inspired by writers like Sarah Orne Jewett, naturalist John Burroughs, and poets Gary Snyder and Mary Oliver, author Laurence Carr weaves together fiction, essay, and prose poem to create an insightful and often humorous tale of rural life and how an old house and its land can bring a broken person back to wellness.

2005 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Basho's Haiku offers the most comprehensive translation yet of the poetry of Japanese writer Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), who is credited with perfecting and popularizing the haiku form of poetry. One of the most widely read Japanese writers, both within his own country and worldwide, Bashō is especially beloved by those who appreciate nature and those who practice Zen Buddhism. Born into the samurai class, Bashō rejected that world after the death of his master and became a wandering poet and teacher. During his travels across Japan, he became a lay Zen monk and studied history and classical poetry. His poems contained a mystical quality and expressed universal themes through simple images from the natural world. David Landis Barnhill's brilliant book strives for literal translations of Bashō's work, arranged chronologically in order to show Bashō's development as a writer. Avoiding wordy and explanatory translations, Barnhill captures the brevity and vitality of the original Japanese, letting the images suggest the depth of meaning involved. Barnhill also presents an overview of haiku poetry and analyzes the significance of nature in this literary form, while suggesting the importance of Bashō to contemporary American literature and environmental thought.

Settle into a plush, red Naugahyde booth at Bette's Oceanview Diner, and you'll be served some of the best pancakes on the planet. Back in 1982, Bette's was founded in Berkeley, California, by a breakfast-loving group of chefs. It has since become one of the Bay Area's favorite breakfast and brunch spots, with people lining up well before the doors open each morning. In THE PANCAKE HANDBOOK, Bette's classic buttermilk pancakes take their place alongside daily pancake specials, including blueberry yogurt, golden cornmeal, double chocolate, and sourdough-not to mention the signature soufflé pancakes, which emerge from the oven spectacularly puffed and golden brown. Packed with tips on keeping your pancakes fluffy and plenty of topping and syrup suggestions, this revised edition with more than 15 new recipes is sure to become your personal pancake bible. • A pancake primer from the pancake experts at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California. • Includes more than 75 recipes and variations. • First edition sold 20,000 copies. Reviews "The most tempting, comforting compilation of pancake recipes I've found." —Karola Saekel, San Francisco Chronicle STEVE SIEGELMAN, BETTE KROENING, and SUE CONLEY were among the original founders of Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California. Steve is a Berkeley-based food writer for print and television. Bette, the diner's namesake, still owns and runs the restaurant with her husband, Manfred. Sue went on to found Tomales Bay Foods and has become a pioneer in the artisan cheese movement through her Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes Station and Artisan Cheese in San Francisco.

Robert Dankoff has culled passages from Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels that deal directly with the life and times of Çelebi's patron, Melek Ahmed Pasha, an outstanding seventeenth-century military and administrative leader. Çelebi's account is sensitive to all the currents of his age and reflects them in his narrative. His wry comments and observations extend from the intimate details of daily life, and the attitudes of the lower classes, to the deeds of the mighty, the ideals of the age, and the fate of the empire. He concentrates on the later phase of Pasha's career, beginning with his appointment as Grand Vizier in 1650. Because Çelebi was Pasha's confidant as well as his protege, there is a level of intimacy, almost a psychological portrait, quite unusual in Ottoman and Islamic literature. The narrative highlights the private side of this public figure -- his weaknesses as well as his heroics; his religious life and domestic affairs -- in particular, his relations with his two successive wives, both sultanas or princesses.

The Haunted History of Pelham, New York is an unusual and fascinating fusion of New York history and folklore. Recognizing that virtually every gripping regional ghost drama springs from kernels of fact, Blake A. Bell weaves spellbinding accounts of ghosts, spirits, and specters together with well-documented context for the stories to help readers understand the actual events and historical developments that underlie each. With nine sections including those on Indigenous American Hauntings, Revolutionary War Specters, Ghostly Treasure Guards, and Phantom Ships off Pelham Shores, Bell relates entertaining and dramatic ghost stories that have been passed from generation to generation as he helps readers understand how local lore came to be and why it is important to an understanding of the region, its culture, and its self-awareness.

Riverine is a contemporary anthology of memoir, short fiction, and poetry by over seventy Hudson Valley writers. The memoirs reflect Hudson Valley life along with life outside the U.S. Intriguing short stories, both dark and light, explore a wide range of fictional characters. Microfiction (or flash fiction) brings the reader the razor-sharp genre of the short-short story and thought-provoking prose poems. Two poetry sections offer a wide array of styles from a diverse group of poets. "Hudson Valley Views" focuses upon the landscape of the valley that these poets call home. "Other Realms" journeys to the inner mindscape and takes the reader to places both real and imaginary. Riverine is the creation of writer and editor Laurence Carr along with Codhill publisher, David Appelbaum, former editor of Parabola magazine. Riverine celebrates the words of those authors who breathe the air of the Hudson Valley, drink its water, eat the harvest from its rich soil and convert these gifts into the gift of words that reflects our individual and collective lives. As long as a healthy Hudson River continues to flow through this valley (and part of our lives must be committed to its good health), the words of its writers will also continue to flow from lips and pens and pencils and keyboards.