In 1910, twelve-year-old Savannah Dawson lives with her widowed father on a whaling station in New South Wales, Australia. For generations, the Dawson family has carried on a very unusual way of life there. They use orcas to help them hunt whales. But Savannah believes the orcas hunted something else - her older brothers, who died mysteriously while fishing. Haunted by their deaths, Savannah wants to become a whaler to prove to her father that she's good enough to carry on the family legacy and avenge her slain brothers. Meeting an aboriginal boy, Figgie, changes that. Figgie helps Savannah to hone her whaling skills and teaches her about the Law of the Bay. When she is finally able to join the crew, Savannah learns just how dangerous the whole business is. A whale destroys her boat and Savannah sinks into the shark-infested waters. That's when the mysterious spirit orca Jungay returns to rescue her. Savannah starts questioning everything she thought she knew about the orcas, her family and herself. She vows to protect the creatures. That vow tests her mettle when the rapacious owner of a fishing fleet captures the orca pod and plans to slaughter them.

From a “delightfully smart” historical novelist, a woman raised to believe she is the daughter of a British war hero searches for her true parentage (The Sunday Times). Nan Prunty’s mother is the rare woman to have served aboard navy vessels, an eyewitness to British sea battles aboard the HMS Victory. Now a notorious drunk, Nan’s mother shares outlandish anecdotes of bygone adventures, most of which Nan believes to be tall tales. The only story her mother tells the same way twice is that of Nan’s father, with whom she had an affair just before his tragic death during the Battle of Trafalgar. Is it possible the story is actually true—and that Nan is the daughter of naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson? The search for answers is a mystery that will carry Nan through her life, her marriage, and the birth of her own daughter, Pru. Growing up, Pru listens with skepticism to her mother’s narrative of her legendary genealogy. But when Pru marches off to her own intrepid life as a nurse during the Crimean War, she wonders how much of her mother’s legacy lives within her. With her characteristic warmth and wit, author Laurie Graham explores what our families stories truly tell us about ourselves. Praise for Laurie Graham “Laurie Graham has a wonderfully light, deft touch.” —Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls “Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people’s shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!” —Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Again, Rachel and Grown Ups

The diary of Laura Jernegan, a young girl who traveled with her family on her father's whaling ship in the 1860s who records her schooling, dangerous whale hunts, and the activities of her baby brother. Includes activities and a timeline related to this era.

The Shaman’s Daughter By: Ingrid Merkel In 2007, in a water cave on the peninsula of Yucatan, divers discovered the skull and skeleton of a teenage girl who died there some 13,000 years ago. The bones were moved to a museum. Ancient piety forbade the disturbance of the remains of the dead. In the novel, during the late Ice Age a shaman in Beringia divines this future sacrilege and sends his daughter on a journey to rectify the crime. As she traverses dozens of centuries on her journey through the American West, she encounters events and people in historical time. She recognizes the abyss between ancient and modern mentalities, and the conflict between scientific and her own spiritual understanding of nature. In the end, she resolves the conflict for herself, is liberated from the ancient laws, and emerges as a free woman whose freedom, however, demands a heavy price.

"Noelle Werlin, the beautiful wife of a rock 'n' roll legend, was never able to shake the ghosts of her past, but dying at the hands of one of those ghosts never crossed her mind." "In Woods Hole on Cape Cod, Noelle grew up as Neptune de Oliveira's daughter Celestina - otherwise known as Tina the Tease. Changing her name and running away to New York as a teenager, she thought she could run away from her life of unspeakable sexual depravity." "Tina's body is found with a marlin spike through her heart. Her cocaine addicted, philandering, husband, Butch Werlin, is the NYPD's primary suspect. But the morbid class reunion of childhood boyfriends who congregate for Tina's funeral think otherwise. They think the murderer is actually from Woods Hole, and that somehow their high school buddy Billy Bagwell has been at the center of some gruesome web since their teenage years." "Despite the dread Billy feels when returning to his hometown, he knows he owes it to Tina to see her off properly, that and even in death she can seduce him to her. Upon his return, Billy's past with his old friends - especially with the former wild man, present day Catholic priest Zal - floods his mind with classic machismo and rite-of-passage boyhood events. But some of their moments were a bit darker, and all revolved or involved Tina...moments that Billy doesn't want to remember." "This psycho-thriller carries Billy Bagwell deeper and deeper into long-repressed memories of thirty-five-year-old crimes from the days when Billy was known as "Bagger, the crazy Bagman." As the days grow darker, Billy finds himself caught in a turbulent tide of past homoerotic encounters, lost innocence, rage, religion and lust."--BOOK JACKET.

An impassioned, charming, and hilarious debut novel about a young woman's coming-of-age, during one of the harshest whaling seasons in the history of New South Wales. 1908: It's the year that proves to be life-changing for our teenage narrator, Mary Davidson, tasked with providing support to her father's boisterous whaling crews while caring for five brothers and sisters in the wake of their mother's death. But when the handsome John Beck -- a former Methodist preacher turned novice whaler with a mysterious past -- arrives at the Davidson's door pleading to join her father's crews, suddenly Mary's world is upended. As her family struggles to survive the scarcity of whales and the vagaries of weather, and as she navigates sibling rivalries and an all-consuming first love for the newcomer John, nineteen-year-old Mary will soon discover a darker side to these men who hunt the seas, and the truth of her place among them. Swinging from Mary's own hopes and disappointments to the challenges that have beset her family's whaling operation, Rush Oh! is an enchanting blend of fact and fiction that's as much the story of its gutsy narrator's coming-of-age as it is the celebration of an extraordinary episode in history.

Oral histories of the 100 years of British and American whaling off the east coast of Canada and in Hudson Bay, as experienced by the native people who fed, clothed, and hunted with the whalers. Illustrated with modern drawings (some in color), and photographs from the period. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR