Central Kansas Library System

Bryson shares his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail with a childhood friend. The two encounter eccentric characters, a blizzard, getting lost, and rude yuppies along the way.

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity. Publisher description for "The road"--"A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape...

Combines an account of Robert Louis Stevenson's experiences as he traveled from New York to California by train in 1879 and a description of the building and operation of railroads in nineteenth-century America.

Part memoir, part meditation, Vowell offers readers a roadmap that illuminates the myriad ways in which political assassinations have altered and shaped our nation's history.

An early-morning workout becomes an enchanting adventure when a record-holding swimmer reunites a baby whale and its mother. An inspiring, irresistible story for all ages, from the beloved author of Swimming to Antarctica. It's five o'clock in the morning and still dark. Swimming outside the wave break off the Catalina coast, training for her next long-distance swim (she has already crossed the English Channel twice), 17-year-old Lynne Cox senses...

The author begins his 1500-mile hike from New York to Louisiana with disdain for American lifestyles and ends it with a feeling of expectation and discovery.

Chronicles the hardships encountered by twelve American sailors who, in 1815, were shipwrecked on the coast of North Africa, captured, sold into slavery, and sent on a difficult odyssey through the perilous heart of the Sahara.

Nearing sixty, diagnosed with heart disease and feeling his mortality, Gary Paulsen buys his first Harley-Davidson and rides from his home in New Mexico to Alaska-and from the present into his past, through the landmarks of a singular life. Paulsen's journey is peopled with familiar faces, from the tough cop who saved him from juvenile delinquency to the prostitute whose career advice stopped him from quitting the army. And the work he does while...

Excerpts from the diary of a fourteen-year-old girl tell of her family's journey along the Oregon-California Trail during 1849-1850. Includes sidebars, activities, and a timeline related to the era.