All The Things You Never Knew/Certain Things You Ought To Know

Book excerpt: "So maybe it's the stakes. If you kiss me in the snow, I will always wait for you to call first. If you trek out alone into the rugged wilderness to avenge your honor, I am coming in after you." This combined collection of short stories and literary essays by Amber L. Carter gives voice to what we wish those who made their way into our hearts could have known...and what we still need to know for ourselves after they've made their way out again. With the glittering twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the quiet woods of northwest Wisconsin serving as a backdrop to her chronicles of "pounding love and crashing pain and that pretty ache", Carter's keen and unflinching observations of the intricacies of the human heart - mixed with a complex vulnerability and a delightfully wry humor - make each piece both intensely absorbing and startlingly familiar.