{"title":"Shepherdess Books","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"wrong-highway-1","title":"Wrong Highway","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is 1986. Erica Richards lives in West Meadow Long Island with her three young boys, newborn baby girl, and successful Wall Street analyst husband. But don't be fooled by her seemingly placid suburban lifestyle. Erica is fierce, curious, uncompromising, and often impulsive. When her teenage nephew Jared rebels against his straight-laced parents, Ron and Debbie, he turns to Erica for help setting in motion a chain of events that will take all of them careening down a dangerous and twisty highway. Buckle your seatbelt, crank up the 80's soundtrack, and learn how stunningly easy it is to keep BIG SECRETS.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWendy Avra Gordon\u003c\/b\u003e grew up in Bethesda Maryland and lived in Boston, Chicago, and New York before finding her true home on the West Coast. She received a B.S. in Nutrition from Simmons College and an M.S. in clinical Nutrition from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She has been a journalist for over twenty-five years, publishing in newspapers, magazines and on the internet. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and children. This is her first book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shepherdess Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321563619478,"sku":"9780997078008","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9780997078008.jpg?v=1708116033"},{"product_id":"it-s-always-9-11","title":"It’s Always 9-11","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMost people say wait it out.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter all, President Kaspar isn’t as bad as expected.  He’s banned fracking, improved medical care, even provided every American over eight with a free cell phone!  So what if the number of news channels has shrunk to three, and no one can afford email anymore?  Even when a health crisis in New York City shakes the country to its core and raises the specter of authoritarianism, President Kaspar explains it all calmly in his cardigan sweater.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMost people say wait it out.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNew York City transplant Tessa lives in a leafy Portland, Oregon neighborhood with her husband Larry and teenage son Holden.  They are 3,000 miles away, but that is too close for comfort.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey can’t wait it out.  They take a different path—one that will shatter their lives, their identities, and change the course of a nation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWendy Gordon\u003c\/strong\u003e grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, and lived in Boston, Chicago, and New York before finding her true home on the West Coast.  A graduate of Simmons College and the University of Chicago, she has been a journalist for over 30 years, publishing in newspapers, magazines, and on the internet.  She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and children.  Her first novel, Wrong Highway, was published in 2016.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003cem\u003eIt’s Always Nine-Eleven” \u003c\/em\u003eis about the dystopia of the present moment, when many of our fears about contagion, totalitarianism, environmental destruction, and civil liberties—until now, mostly constrained to speculative fiction—are manifesting in every facet of daily life.  For fans of Omad El Akkad’s \u003cem\u003eAmerican War\u003c\/em\u003e, Gordon’s prescient story of one family’s high-stakes determination to fight societal collapse is a searing, fast-paced warning to resist that all readers should heed.”\u003c\/span\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRhianna Walton, Managing Editor, Powell’s Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Wendy gives us a believable dystopia in the not-too-distant, not-too-different future.  She tells a detailed story with jarringly accurate turns of phrase, characters you feel like you know, and a situation you hope you’ll never know.”\u003c\/span\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eElyse Schumock, owner, Rose City Book Pub\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shepherdess Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41321705963670,"sku":"9780997078022","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/products\/img_proxy_fc85b19c-6c57-4102-b885-e0ff1400fdb1.jpg?v=1642163182"},{"product_id":"alley-pond-park","title":"Alley Pond Park","description":"\u003cp\u003eSeth Matthews was sixteen when his older brother Jonah sped away on his motorcycle and never returned. Seth blames himself, but does he know the whole truth as he sets off on a journey to find Jonah and beg his forgiveness? He yearns to be a good person but his inner demons keep tripping him up. Neither success nor a loving marriage can satisfy the emptiness at his core as he navigates secrets, guilt, and obsessions through two tumultuous decades. \u003cem\u003eAlley Pond Park\u003c\/em\u003e is a compelling novel that explores the walls in which we imprison ourselves, but also the redemptive power of love.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eZachary Todd Gordon\u003c\/strong\u003e grew up on Long Island and lived in Wisconsin, Boston, Chicago and New York before moving to the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from Beloit College and DePaul University College of Law, he worked as a journalist and Wall Street investment banker. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Genesis of Alley Pond Park\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the age of eighteen I had an adventure in Mexico.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had no particular direction or skills, but I did have visions of grandeur. I wanted to be Hemingway. I wanted to experience life on my own, define myself on my own terms.\u003cbr\u003eMy field term job at a paper factory in Mexico City kept me officially enrolled in college and out of Vietnam. But after toiling for two boring months, I took off to find the \"real\" Mexico with an older traveler I met on the streets of Mexico City, assuming a new identity along the way. His goal was Tierra del Fuego. Mine was open-ended. I made it as far as Guatemala before running out of money and returned to school.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI submitted a censored version of the journal I'd kept for field term credit, hoping to someday expand it into a memoir. In the ensuing years, life intervened. The journal sat in various desk drawers in numerous cities through college, graduate school, marriage, children, career and ultimately retirement. In 2017 I exhumed and expanded it, first by returning the sections I'd removed for propriety's sake. Then I began to embellish it. My protagonist became a more audacious, reckless individual. Took adventures I wished I'd experienced. But the half-century of baggage I'd collected in the interim, particularly painful episodes I'd shunted aside, rose from the murk, begging to be reckoned with. I felt compelled to give it voice, at the risk of exposing myself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA different book emerged, a novel that embraced my Mexico experience while drawing on other aspects of my personal history, as well as the lives of others who had touched mine. With the benefit of hindsight, I created a new protagonist, Seth Matthews, an unreliable narrator who speaks in an unsparing voice that ages from seventeen to forty-three, telling his own story of buried secrets, self-deceptions, and hope.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eAlley Pond Park's\u003c\/em\u003e brilliance lies in its poignant portrayal of a tortured Seth Matthews, haunted by perceived wrong-doings and aching for love, desperately trying to navigate his nascent adulthood amidst a world undergoing unprecedented social and political upheaval. By turns heartbreaking, funny, painful, maddening, and utterly engrossing, the novel unsparingly, but compassionately, explores the heart, mind and soul of a troubled, yet fascinating, young man and the essence of the times.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eNancy Johnson\u003c\/strong\u003e, author, \u003cem\u003eRedefining Success: Women's Unique Paths\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eAlley Pond Park\u003c\/em\u003e is a captivating coming-of-age story that follows Seth Matthews from his socially awkward arrival at Wisconsin's Beloit College in 1969, where he aspires to be a 'Woodstock man,' to his drug-fueled odyssey through Mexico and his ascendance during the 1980's avarice of Wall Street, where he single-mindedly focuses on becoming a Lehman Brothers partner. This yearning and striving, and the story's momentum, is driven by Seth's insecurity, unresolved family secrets, and his aching search for his identity. Readers may find themselves hating the lead character's blatant narcissism one moment, then rooting for his very survival the next. This is an epic tale of a flawed, loving, confused man who persists in finding his way in a very difficult world, and ultimately a universal story of finding oneself despite the lies and secrets buried within a family. The ending is breathtaking.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eSusan Kasten\u003c\/strong\u003e, Editor emerita, \u003cem\u003eBeloit College Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Zachary Todd Gordon's ambitious debut novel explores the complexity of family and identity, love and belonging, with humor and care. \u003cem\u003eAlley Pond Park\u003c\/em\u003e is bighearted and compelling—enjoy the journey.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eMichelle Gutman\u003c\/strong\u003e, owner, Up Up Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gordon's singular and captivating story of love and heartbreak, by turns hilarious and haunting, manages to capture the vast madness of the late 20th century. A resounding paean to the redemptive power of love, this deeply felt debut novel is perfect for fans of Jonathan Franzen and Scott Spencer. It will stay with you long past reading. I couldn't put it down.\" - \u003cstrong\u003eRhianna Walton\u003c\/strong\u003e, former Managing Editor, Powell's Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Shepherdess Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47949536362813,"sku":"9780997078039","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9780997078039ita.jpg?v=1709227051"}],"url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/collections\/shepherdess-books.oembed","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}