Brian Doyle

The story of the small Oregon coast town of Neawanaka and its people.

A Novel

Mink River

A playful and moving book of essays by a "born storyteller" (Seattle Times) who invites us into the miraculous and transcendent moments of the everyday When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the twenty-first century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon. At a moment when the world can sometimes feel darker than ever, Doyle's writing, which constantly evokes the humor and even bliss that life affords, is a balm. His essays manage to find, again and again, exquisite beauty in the quotidian, whether it's the awe of a child the first time she hears a river, or a husband's whiskers that a grieving widow misses seeing in her sink every morning. Through Doyle's eyes, nothing is dull. David James Duncan sums up Doyle's sensibilities best in his introduction to the collection: "Brian Doyle lived the pleasure of bearing daily witness to quiet glories hidden in people, places and creatures of little or no size, renown, or commercial value, and he brought inimitably playful or soaring or aching or heartfelt language to his tellings." A life's work, One Long River of Song invites readers to experience joy and wonder in ordinary moments that become, under Doyle's rapturous and exuberant gaze, extraordinary.

Notes on Wonder

One Long River of Song

Voyaging into the Pacific to escape his troubled life in Oregon, Declan O'Donnell bonds with his crewmates and learns of their own respective quests for self, exchanges that lead to a shared celebration of life's unexpected paths. 50,000 first printing.

The Plover

On the last day of summer, some years ago, a young college graduate moves to Chicago and rents a small apartment on the north side of the city, by the vast and muscular lake. This is the story of the five seasons he lives there, during which he meets gangsters, gamblers, policemen, a brave and garrulous bus driver, a cricket player, a librettist, his first girlfriend, a shy apartment manager, and many other riveting souls, not to mention a wise and personable dog of indeterminate breed. A love letter to Chicago, the Great American City, and a wry account of a young man's coming-of-age during the one summer in White Sox history when they had the best outfield in baseball, Brian Doyle's Chicago is a novel that will plunge you into a city you will never forget, and may well wish to visit for the rest of your days.

Chicago

An award-winning essayist for Portland Magazine muses on the scientific, emotional, literary, philosophical, and spiritual understandings of the heart--from cardiology to courage, from love letters and pop songs to the teachings of Jesus--with his own infant sons heart surgery as the thread weaving his reflections eloquently together. This unusual and wise book presents ruminations on all aspects of the human heart.

Exploring the Mad Wild Miracle of the Heart

The Wet Engine

A high school freshman, Dave, thinks about his future and impending adulthood and setting off on his own and crosses paths with an adolescent pine marten, named Martin, who is also leaving his family of small woodland creatures behind as he embarks on the unknown.

Martin Marten

Acclaimed, award-winning essayist and novelist Brian Doyle—whose writing, in the words of Mary Oliver, is “a gift to us all”—presents one hundred new prayers that evoke his deep Catholic belief in the mystery and miracle of the ordinary (and the whimsical) in human life. In Brian Doyle's newest work, his readers will find a series of prayers unlike any of the beautiful, formal, orthodox prayers of the Catholic tradition or the warm, extemporized prayers heard from pulpits and dinner tables. Doyle's often-dazzling, always-poignant prayers include eye-opening hymns to shoes and faith and family. In Doyle's words, “the world is crammed with miracles, so crammed and tumultuous that if we stop, see, savor, we are agog,” and the pages of his newest book give voice and body to this credo. By focusing on experiences that may seem the most unprayerful (one prayer is titled “Prayer of Abject Love for the Dishwasher, To Whom I Wish to Leave My Estate”), he gives permission to discover the joys and treasures in what he often calls the muddle of everyday life.

100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary

A Book of Uncommon Prayer

Dinty W. Moore (brevitymag.com) and Tom Hazuka (Flash Fiction Funny, 2013) present 71 stories that will make you laugh out loud in 750 words or less! Flash Nonfiction Funny explores the exploding form of very short creative writing in this accessible anthology. Perfect for individual entertainment or writing courses. It's funny because it's true!

71 Very Humorous, Very True, Very Short Stories

Flash Nonfiction Funny

Anne Lamott

Yiyun Li

James Patterson

Meghan Daum

Kathryn Ma

Samantha Schoech

Good Writers on Bad Luck, Bum Deals and Other Torments Price: $16

Days Like This

"Versions of these articles were published previously..."--T.p. verso.

Grace Notes

"An affectionate homage...a loving reconstruction of an era of storytelling now lost." —The New York Times "[A] triumph...If a writer is going to put on Stevenson’s voice, he’d better, as the poets say, 'bring it.' Reader, Doyle has brought it...Adventures is a tonic for our bitter times." —Washington Post The young Robert Louis Stevenson, living in a boarding house in San Francisco in the 19th century while waiting for his beloved’s divorce from her feckless husband, dreamed of writing a soaring novel about his landlady’s adventurous and globe-trotting husband—but he never got around to it. And very soon thereafter he was married, headed home to Scotland, and on his way to becoming the most famous novelist in the world, after writing such classics as Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped. But now Brian Doyle brings Stevenson’s untold tale to life, braiding the adventures of seaman John Carson with those of a young Stevenson, wandering the streets of San Francisco, gathering material for his fiction, and yearning for his beloved across the bay. An adventure tale, an elegy to one of the greatest writers of our language, a time-traveling plunge into The City by the Bay during its own energetic youth, The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World is entertaining, poignant, and sensual.

A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson

The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World

In this spirited collection of essays, Brian Doyle employs his wit, wisdom, and gusto for life as he shares with readers his thoughts on Jesus, the Mass, birds, bees, and so much more. What would be a good alternative name for Jesus? What does a honeybee at Mass have to tell us about Christ? What is, after all, the real point of saying prayers when someone is suffering? Through the good and the bad, the serious and the hilarious, Doyle finds just the right story and just the right words to help us better understand life and love—and to help us see our faith in a whole new light.

Revelations & Epiphanies

Leaping

In the sequel to the award-winning Boy O'Boy, it's spring in post-World War II Ottawa and Martin O'Boy has finally found a true home with Grampa Rip. Martin's also found a job, working for the Pure Spring soft drink company. Best of all, he's in love with beautiful Gerty McDowell. But everything's not perfect. Martin lied to kindly Mr. Mirsky, Pure Spring's owner, to get the job. Grampa Rip's brain increasingly goes missing. There's that mysterious, yet oddly familiar, man in the park. There are also Martin's memories, the sudden appearance of famed Soviet defector Igor Gouzensko, and Martin's shady boss, Randy. And worst of all, Randy is robbing Gerty's grandfather, and he's forcing Martin to be his accomplice. Martin's happiness, sense of duty, and love for Gerty collide. Can he find his way through these dire developments? Brian Doyle's fast-paced plot and vivid characterizations, along with the lively colloquial dialogue and period detail, create a rich historical portrait that confirms the author's place as a master storyteller.

Pure Spring

If you love to read, or write, or both, you’ll appreciate Brain Doyle—passionate observer of and commentator on all things written. In this ultimate collection of his thoughts on writers and writing and readers and reading, he covered everything from what the books people keep stashed in the cars or sitting on their bookshelves tell you about them, to the pleasures of reading box scores or what’s hung on refrigerator doors, to the scent that books and newspapers give off as they age, to literary genres of books about nature or travel or Portland or almost any subject you can name, to (in his humble opinion) the great and not-so-great-but-still-essential writers, to why the essay is the coolest wildest literary form of all. But don’t believe us, listen to him: “Think how many times in your own work you were typing along happily, cursing and humming, and suddenly you wrote something you didn’t know you felt so powerfully, and maybe you cried right there by the old typewriter, and marveled, not always happily, at what dark thread your typing had pulled from the mysterious fabric of your heart. Maybe that happens the most with essays. This could be.”

Brief headlong essays about books & writers & reading & readers

Reading In Bed

Soccer is the worlds most popular sport, and the greatest player of the current generation has been the other-worldly Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Overcoming a heart problem as a teenager, Ronaldo set scoring records while playing for powerhouses Manchester United in the British Premier League and Real Madrid in Spains La Liga, won numerous major titles, and was named the worlds best player two times. Off the field he has been cited for his generosity as the most charitable athlete, making him also a star in life. This biography will inspire young readers.

World-Beater

Cristiano Ronaldo

-The young Robert Louis Stevenson, living in a boarding house in San Francisco while waiting for his beloved's divorce from her feckless husband, dreamed of writing a soaring novel about his landlady's adventurous and globe-trotting husband--but he never got around to it. And very soon thereafter he was married ... and on his way to becoming the most famous novelist in the world ... Now Brian Doyle brings Stevenson's untold tale to life, braiding the adventures of seaman John Carson with those of a young Stevenson, wandering the streets of San Francisco, gathering material for his fiction, and yearning for his beloved across the bay---

Stan Phelps

How do you successfully lead the five generations in today's workforce? It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. You need the tools to navigate. Filled with over 100 case studies, Gray Goldfish provides the definitive map for leaders to follow as they recruit, train, manage, and inspire across the generations.

Navigating the Gray Areas to Successfully Lead Every Generation

Gray Goldfish

Lists over 400 major authors and illustrators of children's stories from 1800's to present.

The Who's who of Children's Literature

Jill Cooper

The Yes Book is an anthology of award-winning authors writing about the power of the word Yes published by Exult Road. Seventy-two authors describe stories of transformation and hope, the challenge of life-changing decisions, and the magic of Yes in everyday life. Storytellers breathe Yes through the life of their characters. Poets extol the power of Yes in love and loss. Spiritual teachers reveal the secret of Yes in the heart. A neurologist explains how word Yes affects the brain. The book itself is a transformational device; a perfect gift for yourself or loved ones.

Writings about Yes

The Yes Book

This recollection of essays offers resurrections, restorations, reconsiderations, appreciations, enthusiasms, headlong solos, laughing prayers, imaginary meetings with most unusual and most interesting men.

Brian Doyle

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