Books published by Rootstock Publishing

Kim Cheney came to Vermont at a time when the US Supreme Court ordered reapportionment of the legislature, ended small town dominance, and loosed a flurry of excitement to bring the State into the progressive world. As the first lawyer ever assigned to the Education Department, Cheney replaced ancient laws with a system of checks and balances for running the schools. Once elected Washington County's State's Attorney, he handled crimes from traffic tickets to multiple murder and other serious crimes, and as State Attorney General, tackled many issues like women's rights, public access to governmental documents, and protecting Lake Champlain by suing New York State in the US Supreme Court. Later, in private practice, Cheney helped create laws to protect children in child custody decisions and revised laws governing adoption so that birth parents and adoptees could find each other. In this memoir of a legal life, Cheney shows us how a lawyer can help pave a path to live peacefully with each other.

Tempo  Caches of rubble are the obstacles              so slowly, geologically formed,          I took them as landmarks,                       orienting myself in accord.But they shift under my feet at a tempo                    I fail to notice.                  In The Lost Grip, poems are stepping stones mapping trauma to recovery, disarming convictions shaped by cultural sins of omission. At times with a painter''s eye or a dancer''s movement, Eva Zimet forms connection and reconnection. The Lost Grip offers respite and nurtures light on the way to healing.

"Crossing continents, cultures, and history, this story of one woman''s ordeal and renewal is filled with hope and generosity. Alice is a remarkable character whose bravery and determination are as much a part of her survival as her expansive heart, curiosity, and capacity for forgiveness....Blue Desert [is] an exquisite, expansive, and transporting novel." -Hester Kaplan, author of The Tell "In sumptuously detailed prose, Celia Jeffries weaves a fascinating, troubling tale of cultures colliding. She lures us deep into the desert, deep into the past, and deep into her imagination. A wild, gripping story, well told!"-Debra Immergut, author of Captives and You, Again "Blue Desert sweeps us into Alice''s astounding modern odyssey, transporting us between Northern Africa and England, between childhood and old age, between the riveting external world and its secret internal workings. With sensual detail, Jeffries blurs the boundaries between countries, between violence and desire, suffering and compassion, art and reality, until we''re aching with the narrator to reach home..."  - Chris Jacox, author of Bears Dancing in the Northern Air, Yale Younger Poets'' Series  "This book will astound you."-Lesl├⌐a Newman, activist and author of I Wish My Father "An exquisite story about a woman finding her place, in the outer landscape of her surroundings as well as the inner landscape of her heart."-Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings "Blue Desert is a sweeping epic of family, adventure, love and the people and places that leave indelible marks on our hearts. Told in vivid, lyrical prose, and spanning decades, cultures, and continents, Blue Desert is a fierce, unflinching tale that is both deeply historical and uncannily relevant to our era. Beautifully written and deeply felt, Alice''s story of life in the Sahara desert among the Tuareg-and all that comes after-opens a window between two vastly different cultures that will enchant and transport readers."-Joy Baglio, Founder of Pioneer Valley Writing Workshop

Set in a sequestered part of Lake Champlain known as the Inland Sea, this book is about the people and families who have spent their lives there. Paul Brearley, part owner of Osprey Island, is a handsome, athletic, successful young minister with a beautiful wife and son. In 1990, he suddenly disappears, presumed drowned. Eighteen years later, in 2008, his body, shot dead, is found nearby propped up in a campground lean-to, as if resting from a long walk.The detective in charge, Fred Davis, is 53, divorced, and just two years from retirement. He knows the lake as well as anyone and dives in to solving Paul''s murder and disappearance. What was Paul doing for 18 years? Who shot him? As the investigation develops, Fred finds himself unraveling a web of small events that lead him back in time to a single moment, a boating accident in 1972. This is where our story begins. 

In the summer of 1978, Griffin-Nolan and a friend took to the road, hitchhiking from New York to California, on to New Orleans and back home to New York. As 2018 approached, the itch to hitch returned-but most people seemed to believe that this was now impossible. Griffin-Nolan decided to find out why nobody hitchhiked anymore. With a backpack, a hashtag, and a sign, he stuck out his thumb near his house, and let luck, and the road, take him where it would. Nobody Hitchhikes Anymore is an "act of loving rebellion" (Sean Kirst, Buffalo News) and a travelogue about a changing society and the people who lifted him up.