In 1831, the then twenty-seven year old Alexis de Tocqueville, was sent with Gustave de Beaumont to America by the French Government to study and make a report on the American prison system. Over a period of nine months the two traveled all over America making notes not only on the prison systems but on all aspects of American society and government. From these notes, Tocqueville wrote "Democracy in America", an exhaustive analysis of the successes...

As Sabine Ecleberry's seventy-second birthday approaches, his family and friends arrive, and his "ranch is soon a chaos of budding and blighted romances, mistaken identities, rampaging poodles, runaway sheep, schemes of seduction and sudden wealth, and a newly hatched ostrich chick in search of love."--Cover.

The protagonist is John Siloa, a Basque shepherd who becomes the foreman and confidant of a recluse cattle rancher in Nevada. The relationship is complicated by a growing attraction between Siloa and the rancher's daughter, 20 years his junior. By the author of A Still and Woven Blue.

In the sequel to her course Iliad, Dr. Vandiver explores the story of Odysseus, "the man of many twists and turns," returns home from the Trojan War by the most winding and adventurous route imaginable, battling gods and monsters and even visiting Hades in his quest to get to Ithaca and set his lands and life in order.