Dunes Review


Book Description

Spring/Summer 2021




The Last Days of California: A Novel


Book Description

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection Longlisted for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Book Prize “[A] terrific first novel. . . . Why worry about labeling a book this good? Just read it.” —Laurie Muchnick, New York Times Book Review Jess is fifteen years old and waiting for the world to end. Her evangelical father has packed up the family to drive west to California, hoping to save as many souls as possible before the Second Coming. With her long-suffering mother and rebellious (and secretly pregnant) sister, Jess hands out tracts to nonbelievers at every rest stop, Waffle House, and gas station along the way. As Jess’s belief frays, her teenage myopia evolves into awareness about her fracturing family. Selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and an Indie Next pick, Mary Miller’s radiant debut novel reinvigorates the literary road-trip story with wry vulnerability and savage charm.




Gardens in the Dunes


Book Description

A sweeping, multifaceted tale of a young Native American pulled between the cherished traditions of a heritage on the brink of extinction and an encroaching white culture, Gardens in the Dunes is the powerful story of one woman’s quest to reconcile two worlds that are diametrically opposed. At the center of this struggle is Indigo, who is ripped from her tribe, the Sand Lizard people, by white soldiers who destroy her home and family. Placed in a government school to learn the ways of a white child, Indigo is rescued by the kind-hearted Hattie and her worldly husband, Edward, who undertake to transform this complex, spirited girl into a “proper” young lady. Bit by bit, and through a wondrous journey that spans the European continent, traipses through the jungles of Brazil, and returns to the rich desert of Southwest America, Indigo bridges the gap between the two forces in her life and teaches her adoptive parents as much as, if not more than, she learns from them.




Dunes of Fire


Book Description

Dunes of Fire was completed in the summer of June 2016, after two years of composing its plot and characters. Just like a vintage wine, this book will draw you into its plot as you turn every page. The book is a fiction, historical, fantasy, and romance-one to put in your personal library for generations. It is also a great gift for the avid readers. It will become a best seller. Who built the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Africa? What if teachers came and taught early humans how to build these huge structures? Obviously, they were advanced and could travel through time. So if they traveled through time to get here, they could also go back. But what if one of these "teachers" remained on earth and never grew old? And what if this "teacher" loved only one man? The truth is the "teachers" came through the portal of the sun, and one stayed on Earth. Dr. Manny Cortez has searched for signs of these teachers all his life. Dr. Cortez is the most famous archaeologist of our time, and he is digging in Africa at a site where King Arumet met the original teachers. Some Egyptians believe that Anubis (a "teacher") walked the earth himself and helped humans as the cave drawings depict in the Great Pyramids. Dr. Cortez is searching for the portal of the sun that is the gateway to another dimension. Mr. Widdal, who is the site dig manager, is a crook and wants to sell it and all the artifacts on the black market for money. Dr. Cortez knows the significance of the portal of the sun and doesn't want Mr. Widdal to find it. Dr. Cortez goes missing and cannot be located, leaving his playboy son Johnny Cortez to uncover clues and locate him. Widdal is watching his every move and waiting to kill him.




Dream Golf


Book Description

"Mike Keiser followed his instincts to build courses that speak to golf as a rugged adventure. Steve Goodwin's spirited book will speak to the golfing soul in you." —Lorne Rubenstein, columnist for The Globe and Mail (Canada) and author of A Season in Dornoch On a wild, windblown bluff high above the Pacific sits one of America’s premier golfing destinations, Bandon Dunes. Golf enthusiast Mike Keiser had the dream of building this British-style "links" course on a stretch of Oregon's rugged coast, and Dream Golf is the first all-inclusive account of how he turned his passion into a reality. Now, in this updated and expanded edition, golf writer Stephen Goodwin revisits Bandon Dunes and introduces readers to Keiser's latest effort there, a new course named Old Macdonald that will present golfers with a more rugged, untamed version of the game. This "new" approach to the sport is, in fact, a return to the game's origins, with a very deep bow to Charles Blair Macdonald (1856 –1939), the father of American golf course architecture and one of the founders of the U.S. Golf Association. This highly anticipated fourth course, designed by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak along with Jim Urbina — as detailed in Dream Golf — will further enhance Bandon Dunes' reputation as a place where golf really does seem to capture the ancient magic of the game.




Orion on the Dunes


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A masterful portrait of an essential and unexamined American writer.




Midnight Dunes


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When the shocking discovery of a murdered woman’s body disturbs the tranquility of tourist season, the police detective in charge of the puzzling case must work alongside the new filmmaker in town to pursue every lead in the new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin. After a scandal derails her television reporting career, Macey Burns comes looking for a change of pace in Lost Beach, Texas. She’s ready to focus on her first passion—documentary filmmaking—and has a new job working for the island’s tourism board, shooting footage of the idyllic beachside community. Her plans for a relaxing rebound are dashed when she realizes the cottage she’s renting belonged to the woman whose body was just found in the sand dunes. Detective Owen Breda is under intense pressure to solve this murder. Violent crimes are rising in his small town, and he can’t stand to see anyone else hurt…especially not the beautiful documentarian who keeps showing up at the precinct. With the clock ticking, cameras rolling, and body count climbing, Macey and Owen must use all their resources to find the killer without getting caught in the crosshairs.




Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You


Book Description

Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You destroys our complacency about who among us can commit unspeakable atrocities, who is subjected to them, and who can stop them. From age four to eighteen, Sue William Silverman was repeatedly sexually abused by her father, an influential government official and successful banker. Through her eyes, we see an outwardly normal family built on a foundation of horrifying secrets that long went unreported, undetected, and unconfessed.




Flesh and Stones


Book Description

Fine writing by Midwest author..."Travelogue and family album, tour of heart and tour de force--with Flesh and Stones, we are alerted to an astonishing work in words. Jan Shoemaker crafts essays that tell the rare and contrarian facts of life with apparent ease, uncanny authenticity." --Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking




Diana of the Dunes: The True Story of Alice Gray


Book Description

In the fall of 1915, Alice Gray traded her life in Chicago for a solitary journey in the remote sand hills of northwest Indiana along Lake Michigan. Her audacity so bewitched reporters and a curious public that she became a legend in her own time-- "Diana of the Dunes."