In 1880s Texas after his father dies, Joey Shipman, 12, runs away from home to avoid being killed by his mother's lover who doesn't want Joey to inherit the ranch. Joey joins a band of outlaws and after many adventures returns to the ranch for a shootout to take possession of what is by right his.

In modern history, Muybridge has a significant role -- he captured the motion of the horse with his innovative technology, leading to motion pictures. The impact of recording motion is explored by Solnit as she studies Muybridge and his subsequent life, including the cultural and historical impact on a highly industrialized society.

"The stories in the inimitable Catherine Gammon's The Gunman and the Carnival -- loosely linked and set in Los Angeles, California -- center on women of various ages and backgrounds. Constructed around themes of solitude and connection, creation and destruction, love and loss, these sixteen stories unfold in a world haunted by individual and collective violence, systemic injustice, pandemic, and environmental duress: not with genre sensibilities of...