Ocean State Libraries

"To escape from his violent and drunken father, a 13-year-old boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Huckleberry Finn, fakes his own death and floats away on a raft down the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave.In a series of unforgettable adventures narrated by Huck, they encounter a cross-section of characters from slave-hunters, and con men to feuding aristocrats.This was the first major American novel to be written in the vernacular, a dark and...

"The beloved author of Terms of Endearment, Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry presents Sin Killer, the first installment of a major four-volume series. Set in the 1830s, Sin Killer traces the perilous voyage of the Berrybenders, a family of English aristocrats, as they make their way across the wild American continent. Listeners from all walks of life are sure to relish this masterpiece of the old West filled with a cast of unique characters."...

In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank-not only on the map but in our knowledge. President Thomas Jefferson keenly understood that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward and that a national "Voyage of Discovery" must be mounted to determine the nature and accessibility of the frontier. He commissioned his young secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an intelligence-gathering...

Shortly after Meriweather Lewis reached St. Louis in 1803 to plan for his voyage to the Pacific with William Clark, he prepared his first packet of flora and fauna from west of the Mississippi and dispatched it to President Jefferson. The cuttings, which were later planted in Philadelphia and Virginia, were supplied by Lewis's new French friend, Pierre Chouteau, who took them from a tree growing in the garden of his mansion. One of the best-known...

" Laura Rose White is one of the most gifted riverboat pilots on the Missouri River--her late father taught her and her brother Joe everything he knew, and even named their family's riverboat after her. But in 1867, the idea of a "skirt" being a captain is unheard of. At least until Joe takes ill and dies in the middle of a trip, leaving Laura grieving and halfway upriver with a full cargo. She successfully takes charge of the crew and expertly guides...

A bereaved father begins a journey down the river that has been all but inseperable from his life. Traveling from Nebraska to New Orleans, he finds the past seeping into his thoughts and dreams.