Reading Recommendations: A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, a novel, Suzanne JoinsonIt is 1923, Evangeline (Eva) English and her sister, Lizzie, are missionaries heading for the ancient city of Kashgar on the Silk Road. Though Lizzie is on fire with her religious calling, Eva's motives are not quite as noble, but with her green bicycle and a commission from a publisher to write A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, she is ready for adventure.In present day London, a young woman, Frieda, returns from a long trip abroad to find a man sleeping outside her front door. She gives him a blanket and pillow and in the morning finds the bedding neatly folded and an exquisite drawing of a bird with a long feathery tail, some delicate Arabic writing, and a boat made out of a flock of sea gulls on her wall. Tayeb, in flight from his Yemani homeland, befriends Frieda; and, when she learns she has inherited the contents of an apartment belonging to a dead woman she has never heard of, they embark on an unexpected journey together. A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar explores the fault lines that appear when traditions from different parts of an increasingly globalized world crash in to one another. Dear and fully written and peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, the novel interweaves the stories of Frieda and Eva, gradually revealing the links between them, and the ways in which they each challenge and negotiate the restrictions of their societies as they make their hard-won way toward home.And, True Tales of the American Southwest, Pioneer Recollections of Frontier Adventures, Howard BryanCompiled here are the recollections of some remarkable men and women who experienced frontier life in the American Southwest during the latter part of the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century. These pioneers shared their experiences with me, as a newspaper reporter and columnist, during the last years of their long and eventful lives, principally during the 1950's.All of them have been deceased for years now, but in a sense, this is their book. "I serve as a moderator in passing along their recollections of life on the last frontier of The American West." - from the Introduction, Howard Bryan.And, Dead Man's Tunnel, a Hook Runyon Mystery, Sheldon RussellSergeant Erikson knew the tunnel better than anyone alive. He walked it every day from end to end.It is near the end of World War II, shortly after the atomic bomb has been dropped on Japan, and one armed Yard Dog Hook Runyon and his dog, Mixer, are back, this time the caboose that serves as their cramped living quarters has been moved to the West's Salvage yard in the high desert area of Arizona. Not far away is Johnson Canyon Tunnel. Though remote and ordinary as tunnels go, it is the gateway to the steepest railroad grade in North America and a potential bottleneck for the delivery of war supplies. So vital is this tunnel to the war effort that a twenty-four hour military guard has been assigned for the duration. It's the only guarded tunnel in the United States. No engines, not even the newly minted diesels, can climb this grade without pushers, which are kept at the ready.The time is set, Hook's orders at the ready, he will be tested to his physical and mental limits.See you and Rylander!