River of Dust

River of Dust

Author: Virginia Pye

Publisher: Unbridled Books

Published: 2013-05-14

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1609530942

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On the windswept plains of northwestern China, Mongol bandits swoop down upon an American missionary couple and steal their small child. The Reverend sets out in search of the boy and becomes lost in the rugged, corrupt countryside populated by opium dens, sly nomadic warlords and traveling circuses. This upright Midwestern minister develops a following among the Chinese peasants and is christened Ghost Man for what they perceive are his otherworldly powers. Grace, his young ingénue wife, pregnant with their second child, takes to her sick bed in the mission compound, where visions of her stolen child and lost husband begin to beckon to her from across the plains. The foreign couple’s savvy and dedicated Chinese servants, Ahcho and Mai Lin, accompany and eventually lead them through dangerous territory to find one another again. With their Christian beliefs sorely tested, their concept of fate expanded, and their physical health rapidly deteriorating, the Reverend and Grace may finally discover an understanding between them that is greater than the vast distance they have come.


Season of Flowers and Dust

Season of Flowers and Dust

Author: Gregg Mosson

Publisher:

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9781597130561

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Season of Flowers and Dust explores through poetry a seasonal cycle of fall, winter, and spring in the Pacific Northwest. The close observations found here in fall and spring poems and winter sonnets offer readers a strong engagement with the natural world.¿A tango of heart-stringsthrows an awning of notesbetween them and the night.Matt imagines he should go to river¿s edge,and dance, and watch.¿ ¿from ¿Descent Into Light¿¿Not since the writings of Robert Hass and Barbara Hurd has there been a poet who so tributes the natural world in poetry. Gregg Mosson follows the strange stars of our seasons with the attention of a birdwatcher and passion of a lover. His human responses create a brilliant tapestry of snow, sky, and leaf, detailed like an article of faith. Reverence to nature is as ancient as time, but what remains is the poet who touches this territory the way the wind sings our language.¿¿Grace CavalieriPoet and producer of ¿The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress¿ "Gregg Mosson¿s Season of Flowers and Dust carries me into a universal season, one with subtle sensuality and the veiled love and violence which life holds. These poems have just the right blend of spirit, light, darkness, and as Marianne Moore would say, `Real toads in imaginary gardens.¿ ¿¿Carol FranksPortland State University


City of Dust

City of Dust

Author: Gregg Andrews

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Published: 2002-09-20

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 082621424X

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Mark Twain's boyhood home of Hannibal, Missouri, often brings to mind romanticized images of Twain's fictional characters Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer exploring caves and fishing from the banks of the Mississippi River. In City of Dust, Gregg Andrews tells another story of the Hannibal area, the very real story of the exploitation and eventual destruction of Ilasco, Missouri, an industrial town created to serve the purposes of the Atlas Portland Cement Company. In this new edition, Andrews provides an introduction detailing the impact of this book since its initial publication in 1996. He writes of a new twist in the Ilasco saga, one that concerns the Continental Cement Company’s attempt, not unlike Atlas’s one hundred years earlier, to manipulate the sale of a piece of land near its plant in the town. He explores the uneasy relationship between preservationists and the plant’s CEO and officials in St. Louis; the growing movement to preserve Ilasco’s heritage, including the building of a monument to commemorate the early residents of the town; and the grassroots petition drive and letter-writing campaign that stopped the Continental Cement Company’s machinations.


A Dinosaur Named Ruth

A Dinosaur Named Ruth

Author: Julia Lyon

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 1534474633

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For fans of Shark Lady and from the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Dr. Fauci comes the incredible true story of a girl who discovered dinosaur bones in her own backyard and, after years of persistence, helped uncover one of the most exciting paleontological discoveries of our time. There’s an extraordinary secret hidden just beneath Ruth Mason’s feet. The year is 1905, and Ruth is a prairie girl living in South Dakota. She has no way of knowing that millions of years ago, her family farm was once home to scores of dinosaurs. Until one day, when Ruth starts finding clues to the past: strange rocks and rubble scattered all across her land. They’re dinosaur fossils—but she doesn’t know that yet, either. It will take many years of collecting these clues, and many, many questions, but Ruth’s curiosity will one day help uncover thousands of fossils all across her land. New York Times bestselling illustrator Alexandra Bye’s vibrant illustrations bring to life this inspiring and exciting debut picture book from award-winning journalist Julia Lyon.


A World From Dust

A World From Dust

Author: Ben McFarland

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-03-07

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0190275022

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A World From Dust describes how a set of chemical rules combined with the principles of evolution in order to create an environment in which life as we know it could unfold. Beginning with simple mathematics, these predictable rules led to the advent of the planet itself, as well as cells, organs and organelles, ecosystems, and increasingly complex life forms. McFarland provides an accessible discussion of a geological history as well, describing how the inorganic matter on Earth underwent chemical reactions with air and water, allowing for life to emerge from the world's first rocks. He traces the history of life all the way to modern neuroscience, and shows how the bioelectric signals that make up the human brain were formed. Most popular science books on the topic present either the physics of how the universe formed, or the biology of how complex life came about; this book's approach would be novel in that it condenses in an engaging way the chemistry that links the two fields. This book is an accessible and multidisciplinary look at how life on our planet came to be, and how it continues to develop and change even today. This book includes 40 illustrations by Gala Bent, print artist and studio faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, and Mary Anderson, medical illustrator.


Dust to Dust

Dust to Dust

Author: Benjamin Busch

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2012-03-20

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0062096788

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“A wonderful book, original in concept and stunningly written.” —Ward Just “Elegiac, funny, wistful, deep, and wonderfully human, Dust to Dust moved me to laughter and tears, sometimes simultaneously.” —Karl Marlantes, bestselling author of Matterhorn and What It Is Like to Go to War Tim O’Brien meets Annie Dillard in this remarkable memoir by debut author Benjamin Busch. Much more than a war memoir, Dust to Dust brilliantly explores the passage through a lifetime—a moving meditation on life and death, the adventures of childhood and revelations of adulthood. Seemingly ordinary things take on a breathtaking radiance when examined by this decorated Marine officer—veteran of two combat tours in Iraq—actor on the hit HBO series The Wire, and son of acclaimed novelist Frederick Busch. Above all, Benjamin Busch is a truly extraordinary new literary talent as evidenced by his exemplary debut, Dust to Dust—an original, emotionally powerful, and surprisingly refreshing take on an American soldier’s story.


The Dreamt Land

The Dreamt Land

Author: Mark Arax

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2019-05-21

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 1101875216

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A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.


More Tales from Dust River Gulch

More Tales from Dust River Gulch

Author: Tim Davis

Publisher: Western Adventure

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781579248550

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D. Saddlesoap and the other characters from Dust River Gulch are featured in six bold tales in this sequel to Tales from Dust River Gulch.


Crown of Dust

Crown of Dust

Author: Mary Volmer

Publisher: Soho Press

Published: 2010-11-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1569478627

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The gold rush has taken hold of the Wild West. Pioneers from around the country congregate in makeshift settlements like Motherlode in hopes of striking it rich. It’s here that Alex, disguised as a boy and on the run from her troubled past, is able to blend in among the rough and tumble prospectors living on little more than adrenaline and moonshine. Word spreads quickly when Alex becomes the first in Motherlode to strike gold. Outsiders pour in from wealthy east coast cities, primed to cash in on the discovery. But these opportunists from the outside world have no place in Motherlode and threaten to rip the town—and its residents—apart. Alex must fight to protect her buried secrets—and her life. And against the odds, it’s here, in this lawless outpost, that Alex is finally able to find friendship, redemption, and even love. From the Trade Paperback edition.