Central Kansas Library System

"When Rick Van Warner found himself searching abandoned buildings and dangerous streets looking for his missing son, he had no idea that the synthetic, pill-form heroin that had snared his teen was already killing so many. In the years of pain and heartache that followed as he tried to save his son from opioid addiction, Van Warner discovered what the American public is just now becoming aware of: opioids prescribed for even minor pain relief are...

An obesity and neuroscience researcher explores how food choices are often influenced by brain circuits that control survival instincts and draws on cutting-edge neuroscience to offer guidelines for eating well and maintaining a healthy weight. Even though we know better. we often eat too much. Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? No one wants to overeat. And certainly no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight,...

"Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their twelve children perfectly spanned the baby boom. There was a script for a family like the Galvins--hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony--and they all tried to play their parts. But behind the closed doors of the house on Hidden Valley Road was a far different reality: psychological breakdown,...

Ten years in the Army had changed Bart Layton -- but the town of Montrose had changed even more. Ryan Layton, Bart's tough old grandfather and owner of the prosperous Gabriel Mine, was in a state institution. The mine was being squandered by Bart's two drunken cousins with the help of Caleb Hewmark, a newcomer from Denver. And Bart's welcome home was a hail of lead. It didn't take long for Bart to discover the mine was being fleeced as part of Hewmark's...

"The thyroid is the new hot topic in health. Across age groups, from Baby Boomers (and their parents) to millennials, more and more people--women especially--are hearing that their thyroids are to blame for their fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, memory issues, aches and pains, insomnia, hair loss, hot flashes, sensitivity to cold, and more. Everyone wants to know how to free themselves from the thyroid trap. As the thyroid has gotten more and more...

An actress and producer who suffered from crippling, undiagnosed depression in her teens recounts her harrowing experience of psychological manipulation and abuse at a "therapeutic" boarding school where every moment was a test of survival, and shares how she was able to heal in the aftermath.

"Author and cultural historian Larry Len Peterson details the collision of European and Native American civilizations and the bloody aftermath that doomed a once-thriving people. Wide-ranging and brimming with fresh in- sights, American Trinity focuses on how the West was shaped by three implacable forces: Christian imperialism, Thomas Jefferson's Doctrine of Discovery, and George Armstrong Custer's hubris. As Peterson says, 'History is important....