"World's Toughest Motorcycle Riders"-long-distance motorcycling is not a pastime but an obsession. In this candid, eloquent, sharply observed book, Melissa Holbrook Pierson introduces us to this strange endeavor and the men and women who live to ride impossibly long distances, eating up road, almost without cease. And who find it nothing but fun. Perhaps the most determined of them is John Ryan, a magnetic, enigmatic man who loves nothing better than breaking records of amazing distance-at no small risk to himself and his health. But why? Pierson, who rediscovered the joys of motorcycling in the midst of a personal crisis, puts on her helmet and joins Ryan in his element in order to understand his singular desire and discipline, his passion and his obsession. The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing offers an intimate glimpse of an unusually independent yet supportive community as well as a revealing, unforgettable portrait of its most daring member. In electric, pitch-perfect prose, Pierson gives us rare insights into not only a subculture but also the deeply human craving for something more that drives it.

Years back, Melissa Holbrook Pierson brought home a border collie named Mercy, without a clue of how to get her to behave. Stunned after hiring a trainer whose immediate rapport with Mercy seemed magical, Pierson began delving into the techniques of positive reinforcement. She made her way to B. F. Skinner, the behavioral psychologist who started it all, the man who could train a pigeon to dance in minutes and whose research on how behavior is acquired has ramifications for military dolphin trainers, athletes, dancers, and, as he originally conceived, society at large. To learn more, Pierson met with a host of fascinating animal behaviorists, going behind the scenes to witness the relationships between trainers and animals at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and to the in-depth seminars at a Clicker Expo where all the dogs but hers seemed to be learning new tricks. The often startling story of what became of a pathbreaking scientist's work is interwoven with a more personal tale of how to understand the foreign species with whom we are privileged to live. Pierson draws surprising connections in her exploration of how kindness works to motivate all animals, including the human one.

"Thought-provoking.... A lovely testament to horses and women from all walks of life."—Karen Stone, Chicago Tribune

In a phenomenon too prevalent to be mere chance, little girls all over the Western world wake one day to find themselves completely taken over by the love of all things equine. Melissa Holbrook Pierson was one of those horse-crazy girls who later returned to riding with a new appreciation for the nature of horses. Melding memoir, sociology, history, anecdote, and a bit of prose poetry, Dark Horses and Black Beauties delves beneath the shallow hypotheses explaining women's connection to horses to look at how this communication with another animal opens us up to a new apprehension of the larger "natural" world.

"A fearless book: unflinching, honest, and kind."—Village Voice

"The play of her mind...is subtle and quick; coltish, one wants to say, and one would be right."—The New York Times, Richard Bernstein

"So beautifully written that it instantly captivates."—Newark Star-Ledger

"She muses to deep and lyrical effect in her new collection of slender and delicate essays on horses and women."—Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

"A meditation intended to dispel those tiresome Freudian theories aimed at the universal fascination women seem to have with horses."—The New York Times Book Review, Jillian Dunham

"A fearless book: unflinching, earnest, and kind."—Village Voice, Emily Jenkins

"This is a poignant, charming, and realistic book."—Maxine Kumin

"Whoever likes animals will love this book, and better yet, whoever seeks to fathom the mysterious relationships between ourselves and other species will be transported."—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

"As passionate as it is informative....Rich in history, romance, and charm, Pierson's devotion to horses is always engaging, and most of all, moving."—Brenda Peterson, co-editor of Intimate Nature: The Bond Between Women and Animals

"Pierson's...writing...is well suited to her subject, containing bits of breathless enthusiasm one moment and peaceful contemplation the next."—Publishers Weekly

In a book that is "a must for anyone who has loved a motorcycle" (Oliver Sacks), Melissa Pierson captures in vivid, writerly prose the mysterious attractions of motorcycling. She sifts through myth and hyperbole: misrepresentations about danger, about the type of people who ride and why they do so. The Perfect Vehicle is not a mere recitation of facts, nor is it a polemic or apologia. Its vivid historical accounts-the beginnings of the machine, the often hidden tradition of women who ride, the tale of the defiant ones who taunt death on the racetrack-are intertwined with Pierson's own story, which, in itself, shows that although you may think you know what kind of person rides a motorcycle, you probably don't.

Has the futureever more people with their houses, stores, roads, and sprawlbeen wrecking your past? Melissa Holbrook Pierson, with unalloyed insight, elucidates how it feels to lose that landscape of home. In the past twenty years, like countless towns it resembles, Akron, Ohio, has lost its singularity, and much of what native-daughter Pierson loves about it. She then moves to Hoboken, New Jersey, a forgotten appendage of New Yorkuntil stockbrokers discover it. Finally, she speaks of rural areas, telling of the thousands of upstate New Yorkers displaced by city reservoirs. A unique book uniquely of our moment: This is what it feels like to lose the place you love.