Books with author Rian Johnson

No other Western settlement story is more famous than the Donner Party’s ill-fated journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But a few years later and several hundred miles south, another group faced a similar situation just as perilous. Scrupulously researched and documented, Grit and Gold tells the story of the Death Valley Jayhawkers of 1849 and the young men who traveled by wagon and foot from Iowa to the California gold rush. The Jayhawkers’ journey took them through the then uncharted and unnamed hottest, driest, lowest spot in the continent—now aptly known as Death Valley.After leaving Salt Lake City to break a road south to the Pacific Coast that would eliminate crossing the snowy Sierra Nevada, the party veered off the Old Spanish Trail in southern Utah to follow a mountaineer’s map portraying a bogus trail that claimed to cut months and hundreds of miles off their route to the gold country. With winter coming, however, they found themselves hopelessly lost in the mountains and dry valleys of southern Nevada and California. Abandoning everything but the shirts on their backs and the few oxen that became their pitiful meals, they turned their dreams of gold to hopes of survival.Utilizing William Lorton’s 1849 diary of the trek from Illinois to southern Utah, the reminiscences of the Jayhawkers themselves, the keen memory of famed pioneer William Lewis Manly, and the almost daily diary of Sheldon Young, Johnson paints a lively but accurate portrait of guts, grit, and determination.

From an exciting new author—and one of our most talented writers, Johnson—comes a short story collection that speaks of his talent. Delicate Men is a subtle collection of stories focused on what it is to be a man... and all the narratives and trials and tribulations that this entails. Walking the line between the sensitive and the harsh in these men's lives and hearts, Johnson has managed to create a collection for the ages. But don't just listen to us, listen to these greats: “Johnson's tales of contemporary male rituals and relationship politics never fail to dazzle with their clarity, nuance, and peril, coiled and waiting to strike." —Wilton Barnhardt, New York Times bestselling author of Lookaway, Lookaway. “Delicate Men takes a hard look at men caught in that land between here and there, men on the move, men on the verge of what comes next. The writing is sure, and the stories ring true with hard-earned wisdom.” —Lee Martin, Pulitzer Prize Finalist author of The Bright Forever “What’s so compelling about R Dean Johnson’s Delicate Men is the startling revelation that the anxieties and insecurities of our youth—the ones we are certain we will outgrow—actually haunt us into maturity. Johnson seeks out the pressure points in a range of masculine narratives and shapes a complex portrait of male identity, in which vulnerability begets strength, where desire never gets less awkward, and adults still stand foolishly by playground rules: ‘It’s a boy’s game, but you have to be a man to play it.’ Sensitively rendered, Delicate Men is honest and poignant storytelling.” —Rigoberto González, author of Autobiography of My Hungers “These delicate men with their still-soft hearts make their way through machismo and disillusionment, armed with maps of Brugge or nightly tips from valet jobs or white-collar plans for the future, but their delicacy threatens to spoil the fun. R Dean Johnson has given us this sweet gift of good men on the verge of indelicacy. What you’ll remember most—besides the storytelling finesse—is how Johnson renders the delicate or fragile space between innocence and culpability.” —Jennifer Spiegel, author of Love Slave and The Freak Chronicles “The men in Delicate Men are delicate men, yes, in the now-fashionable crisis-of-masculinity sense, but they are also vagabonds and romantics and at times profoundly indelicate men, their indelicateness exposed for all the world to see, and we (the world) are better for having seen them through the tender prism of these mischievous stories by R Dean Johnson.” –Jeff Parker, author of Ovenman and Where Bears Roam the Streets "R Dean Johnson's tales of contemporary male rituals and relationship politics never fail to dazzle with their clarity, nuance, and peril, coiled and waiting to strike. It's a minefield out there, where love and career await, and Johnson's heroes try to walk safely through it all, armed only with their hard-won insights and good but fallible hearts. A splendid collection by any measure." —Wilton Barnhardt, New York Times bestselling author of Lookaway, Lookaway.

The children story book is about three mice, who were friends. The title, “Three Friends Who Became Their Town’s Heroes.” In the story, there is Tommy, Jane, and Collin, names given to these friends. The friends became very close. So you see, I decided I wanted to share this special story. So the book is written about these three friends from the town of Cheese Ville. Now you are about to embark on their great adventures.

The children storybook is about a macaw parrot and a young boy by the name of John who became friends. It was certainly an exciting experience for these two friends. So they developed a close bond. So everyday John on his way to and from school would make it his duty to visit his new friend. And so the story is about to unfold about two friends and their special remarkable friendship.

Joshua Wynn is a preacher’s son and a “good boy” who always does the right thing. Until Maddie comes back to town. Maddie is the daughter of the former associate pastor of Joshua’s church, and his childhood crush. Now Maddie is all grown up, gorgeous—and troubled. She wears provocative clothes to church, cusses, drinks, and fools around with older men. Joshua’s ears burn just listening to the things she did to get kicked out of boarding school, and her own home.As time goes on, Josh goes against his parents and his own better instincts to keep Maddie from completely capsizing. Along the way, he begins to question his own rigid understanding of God and whether, as his mother says, a girl like Maddie is beyond redemption. Maddie leads Josh further astray than any girl ever has . . . but is there a way to reconcile his love for her and his love for his life in the church?