Erin Osmon presents a detailed, human account of the Rust Belt–born musician Jason Molina—a visionary, prolific, and at times cantankerous singer-songwriter with an autodidactic style that captivated his devoted fans. The songwriting giant behind the bands Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. had a knack for spinning tales, from the many personal myths he cultivated throughout his life to the poems and ballads he penned and performed. As with too many great musicians, Molina’s complicated relationship with the truth, combined with a secretive relationship with the bottle, ultimately claimed his life. Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost details Molina’s personal trials and triumphs and reveals for the first time the true story of Molina’s last months and works, including an unpublished album unknown to many of his fans. Offering unfettered access to the mind and artistry of Molina through exclusive interviews with family, friends, and collaborators, the book also explores the Midwest music underground and the development of Bloomington, Indiana–based label Secretly Canadian. As the first authorized and detailed account of this prolific songwriter and self-mythologizer, Jason Molina provides readers with unparalleled insight into Molina’s tormented life and the fascinating Midwest musical underground that birthed him. It’s a story for the ages that speaks volumes to the triumphs and trials of the artistic spirit while exploring the meaningful music that Molina’s creative genius left behind.

An unflinching memoir from a writer reckoning with his relationship with his troubled father and the complicated legacy that each generation hands down to the next “Justin Taylor’s relentless, peripatetic, and tender search for reconciliation with his late troubled father blooms into a full-throated song of joy about his own life lived through music, teaching, travel, and literature.”—Lauren Groff, author of Florida NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS When Justin Taylor was thirty, his father, Larry, drove to the top of the Nashville airport parking garage to take his own life. Thanks to the intervention of family members, he was not successful, but the incident forever transformed how Taylor thinks of his father, and how he thinks of himself as a son. Moving back and forth in time from that day, Riding with the Ghost captures the past’s power to shape, strengthen, and distort our visions of ourselves and one another. We see Larry as the middle child in a chilly Long Island family; as a beloved Little League coach who listens to kids with patience and curiosity; as an unemployed father struggling to keep his marriage together while battling long-term illness and depression. At the same time, Taylor explores how the work of confronting a family member’s story forces a reckoning with your own. We see Taylor as a teacher, modeling himself after his dad’s best qualities; as a caregiver, attempting to provide his father with emotional and financial support, but not always succeeding; as a new husband, with a dawning awareness of his own depressive tendencies. With raw intimacy, Riding with the Ghost lays bare the joys and burdens of loving a troubled family member. It’s a memoir about fathers and sons, teachers and students, faith and illness, and the pieces of our loved ones that we carry with us always.

Frank and often outrageous, this is an account of a 40-something Englishwoman's epic 4,000 mile cycle ride from Seattle to Mexico, via the snow-covered Rockies, mostly alone and camping in the wild. She runs appalling risks and copes in a gutsy, hilarious way with exhaustion, climatic extremes, dangerous animals, eccentrics, lechers, and a permanently saddle-sore backside. We share her deep involvement with the West's pioneering past, and with the tragic traces that history has left lingering on the land. When she rides the faded trails of the vanished American Indian nations she displays a strong sensitivity to the atmosphere of the spectacular landscape, as if the moments of its vibrant past are hanging in the air, only waiting for her to conjure them up vividly—sometimes with humor, and frequently with passion. As she travels, the ghosts of Lewis and Clark, Chief Joseph and Geronimo, Custer and Crazy Horse—all the legendary figures of the Old West—ride with her.

As an internationally known professional psychic, John Russell has experienced a host of compelling and sometimes spine-chilling paranormal adventures. His book Riding with Ghosts, Angels, and the Spirits of the Dead is an episodic collection of really good ghost stories...all of which happen to be true! John’s logged thousands of miles on his motorcycle, and readers can ride along as he encounters UFOs, mystical weather, Civil War phantoms, electronic recordings of spirit voices, crop circles, Indian spirits, haunted forests, and even a phone call to a ghost! Each entertaining, unique essay offers up a spiritual truth or insight for further contemplation. His experiences show us that powerful, unseen intelligences on the Other Side observe us and listen to us; communicate with us in astonishing ways; are sometimes able to grant our desires; may offer us further insights into the spiritual realm; and can literally save our lives—as long as we listen to them and pay attention.

In less than a year, Neil Peart lost both his 19-year-old daughter, Selena, and his wife, Jackie. Faced with overwhelming sadness and isolated from the world in his home on the lake, Peart was left without direction. That lack of direction lead him on a 5

After Andres discovers a haunted bike park, he calls best friend Desmond, a ghost investigator.

"...The reader departs with the narrator from Louisville and accompanies him on his route, which takes him from Peru, through Argentina and Chile, on his return through Peru and eventually on his return to Louisville, Kentucky. However, the human side of the story that occurs with the narrator, in fact the most outstanding part of the story, does not follow as linear a path as the trip on which Kulkarni embarks through the areas of South America. In fact, what stands out most in the text is the mastery of narration that catches the reader from the first page and never lets go. One continues reading because one wants to (needs to, in fact) know what will happen next. The plot contrasts the trip through geographic points, the ponderings and reflections of Mauktik along his trip and his retrospective vision of his life. The result is fascinating. All of it awakens our attention... ...The book is a cultural/anthropological study that permits us access to the perspective of a person coming from another culture disparate from that of Latin America, a non-North American vision of our people and our customs. What's fascinating is that the narrator does not speak Spanish fluently; a reader that has a command of both languages quickly notes the linguistic errors. However, one immediately recognizes that the value and purpose of the book goes far beyond linguistic conventions. A Ghost of Che explores the human condition, as told by a narrator who travels thousands of kilometers in search of the unknown and who ends up finding himself; in the process, he discovers the goodness of people. Probably, the best tribute that one could make to the book would be to say that the reader wants to embark on a similar journey after reading it." - Dr. Manuel F. Medina, Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Spanish, University of Louisville, in Al Da en Amrica. Full review is available Here