Staff Picks
At FriesenPress, we celebrate each and every book we help our authors publish. Here are some of our team’s recent favourites – happy reading!
Radically Wild
True Tales of Adventure, Wilderness Survival, and Hard Lessons by
Scott Sunderwald
What happens when wilderness runs in your veins? From a wild child hunting for frogs and foraging for mushrooms to a seasoned mountain man working in the rugged Northern Rockies, Scott Sunderwald’s life is a thrilling testament to adventure, survival, and nature’s transformative power. He's survived a lightning strike, savage wild boars, terrifying rock climbs, and run-ins with aggressive bears. Each hilarious escapade and near-death experience has taught him one thing: the wilderness doesn’t just test your limits—it shapes your soul. Whether he's scrambling on a mountaintop, hunting for his next meal in the backcountry, or trying not to freeze to death, Scott’s tales are filled with humor, heart, and a call to stay wild. A well-respected outdoor educator, Scott’s adventures are more than just stories; they are a journey into the heart of nature’s most unpredictable, life-altering moments. Whether you're a bushcraft junkie or someone who dreams of epic adventures in nature, Scott’s stories will inspire you to embrace the freedom of the great outdoors—and live Radically Wild.
Dry
A Holistic Guide to Sjogren’s Disease by
Wendy Presant
If you’ve been diagnosed with—or suspect you may have—Sjögren's disease, you might feel helpless or overwhelmed, and you almost certainly feel dry and sore and too exhausted to sort out all the information coming at you. The mental load of managing a chronic illness can be intense, especially since you’ll often need to be your own expert and your own advocate. This book is about to become your new best friend. Wendy Presant—who lives with Sjögren's disease—breaks down what Sjögren's is, how it’s diagnosed, and the difference between trying to “cure” something incurable and healing to the point where you can start living again. Presant explores clinical treatments and complementary lifestyle changes that can help soothe your symptoms and fight off flare-ups. She describes the kind of people you’ll want in your corner—everyone from a rheumatologist to a naturopath—and explains their roles in treating Sjögren's disease. Finally, she shares her own lifestyle and the non-pharmacological options she uses to manage her symptoms. An autoimmune diagnosis can be a terrifying thing. But you don’t have to face it alone or unarmed: Dry: A Holistic Guide to Sjögren’s Disease is here to place the tools for living with Sjögren's into your hands.
Crossing A Threshold
by
Ian Garrioch
Image making itself, can become a tool for learning similar to the reading of a book. The acquisition of the basic skills required for the paint/draw process are outlined as they aid the artist/reader in building awareness. Image search and process unite to philosophically change one’s point of view about life. In Crossing A Threshold, artist Ian Garrioch unpacks visual language, this other mode of knowing. Through a gathering of his paintings and text, he charts a journey through the visual alphabet, including colour, shape, and value. Decades of thought about life, art, history, the environment and political trends solidify into points of view—all this and more is explored through over seventy images of the artist’s work accompanying the text. Crossing A Threshold will be of interest to anyone that is curious about journeys in general. It is a personal journey with pictures about the trip. A travelogue. Young artists may find that it helps them solidify their journey no matter which path they eventually choose. For those that just like art, it is another point of view in that genre. Art is not just an object, but rather it is a highway searched for new places to see and know.
Oscar the Oyster
by
Penny Repstock
Oscar the Oyster can’t swim through the open sea like a shark or fly over the water like a seagull. In fact, he can’t move at all—he is stuck to a rock in a tide pool. He had always been happy and proud of the home he’d made there for himself until one day a mean hermit crab mocks him and he begins to feel less confident and starts to worry about what other creatures think of him. Luckily for Oscar, he meets a couple of new friends who remind him that it’s what’s inside that counts. Samantha the sea snail and Stanley the starfish both have their own limitations, but together they discover that treasure isn’t something you find buried at the bottom of the ocean; the real treasure is found in the love they have for themselves and each other. Full of heart, friendship, and important lessons about empathy and kindness. Oscar the Oyster is a perfect book to share with kids who are ready to come out of their own “shells” and learn to appreciate what makes them special.
The Girl Who Flew Over the Honeysuckle Hedge
Her Lifelong Journey of Coping and Healing with C-PTSD by
J. Lauren Sangster
“I am brave in ways I no longer thought possible as my resilient part continues to move me forward… I know true triumph of the human spirit.” At five-years-old, young Janet raised out of her body and flew over a honeysuckle hedge. It was this dreamlike experience offering her mind momentary respite from the dysfunction and abuse surrounding her that began her difficult life journey toward healing. In this riveting memoir, J. Lauren Sangster tells her personal story of surviving childhood sexual abuse, family dysfunction and violence. Trying to escape her past with a new identity as Lauren in New York, she discovers love and heartbreak with a man of Hungarian nobility and his whirlwind high society life in Newport, Rhode Island, then endures abuse and torture while held captive by a philatelist deep in the French Alps. Amid the darkness, and still haunted by childhood trauma, Lauren manages to survive and finds support with a circle of trusted friends back in New York… and even finds love again. J. Lauren Sangster’s memoir is a testament to remarkable resilience during her journey to cope and heal with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD). Writing with humility, compassion, and a sense of humor, she provides an unfiltered examination of how her traumatized mind works while finding joy in friends, love, music, silly riddles, a pet dachshund, and learning to live authentically as she discovers new ways to heal more deeply, thus offering the reader hope that they, too, may triumph over trauma.
The Lost American Dream
by
Lawrence Panasci
What does it mean to belong in a country built on both opportunity and exclusion? The Lost American Dream confronts this question with heart, humour, and unflinching insight. From the working-class streets of 1950s Rome, New York, to the ivy-covered halls of Georgetown University, this sweeping novel follows one young Italian-American man’s search for identity and purpose in an America divided by class, culture, and war. As the Vietnam draft looms, Enrico pivots from mathematics to medicine, a decision that propels him into the elite world of American academia and into the orbit of Athena, a brilliant physician with roots in Boston’s old-money aristocracy. Their lives intertwine against a backdrop of privilege and restlessness, where Enrico must reconcile his humble beginnings with the glittering but hollow circles he now inhabits. With a clear-eyed view of America’s contradictions, this deeply personal novel explores love, ambition, and the eternal questions of identity and purpose. Inspired by true events, The Lost American Dream is a sweeping and soulful coming-of-age tale steeped in cultural heritage and quiet revelation.
Starseeds of Rhyn
by
Sarah Legh-Jones
The planet of Rhyn is home to the wickets, peaceful creatures whose creativity and spiritual connection with nature more than make up for their lack of technological savvy. But despair grows in Rhyn as a sickness of the soul takes root in the wicket youth. The source of the darkness? The thraknid, malevolent alien creatures who manipulate their prey and feed upon their pain and suffering. …but the thraknid are not the only alien visitors to Rhyn. Following interdimensional travel and a rough landing, two otherworldly beings who don’t know who they are or where they came from strike up an unexpected friendship with the young wicket Leela. This meeting begins a journey toward Leela’s inner transformation and the confrontation with a traumatic wound she doesn’t yet understand, a journey that may be Rhyn’s only hope for healing spiritually and surviving the thraknid invasion.
23 Dates with My Dead Dad
by
Corey McAuliffe and Spirit
What if death is not an ending, but a doorway to a more profound connection? When Corey McAuliffe’s father died, she thought their cherished monthly dates would end forever. But when the number 23 began appearing everywhere—on receipts, clocks, and even trail markers—Corey realized her father was still reaching out. What followed was a journey unlike anything she could have imagined. Through unexpected signs, quiet spiritual practices, and moments of startling synchronicity, Corey discovered a way to keep the conversation going with her dad—whether on nature hikes, winding city streets, or road trips that felt guided by something more than chance. Along the way, she faced the challenges of a pandemic, a PhD defense, and a life-altering diagnosis, each moment further illuminated by her father’s presence and wisdom from beyond the veil. From unraveling questions she’d carried for her entire life to finally tracing her family’s roots in Ireland, Corey’s story is one of self-discovery, wonder, and healing. With warmth, humor, and unflinching honesty, 23 Dates with My Dead Dad invites us to see grief not as a final goodbye, but as an opportunity to love and listen to our departed loved ones in new, unexpected ways.