Akron Public Library

Backlands continues the story of Patrick Kerney; his ex-wife, Emma; and their young son, Matthew, shortly after the tragic battlefield death of their eldest son, CJ, at the end of World War I. Scarred by the loss of an older brother he idolized, estranged from a father he barely knows, and deeply troubled by the failing health of a mother he adores, eight-year-old Matthew is suddenly and irrevocably forced to set aside his childhood and take on responsibilities...

"For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dreams blind him to the greed that the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors. Baring the fallacy of the American dream-that wealth erases all problems-Steinbeck's classic illustrates our fall from innocence."--Pub.desc.

Two priests, friends since their childhood in France, set out to establish the new Roman Catholic diocese in the American Southwest

Madeline's brother Alfred struggles to make ends meet. Madeline is overwhelmed by the refreshing experience in the open ranches, mountains, and plains away from city life. The handsome cowboy Gene Stewart is a welcome distraction, too. After some difficult times adjusting to life as a cowgirl, Madeline embraces her new life. She buys land of her own to settle down. At the same time, she finds out that cowboys can be tamed and danger is never far...

Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tía Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

Presents a photographic introduction to pyramids, explaining what they are, discussing how and when they were built, examining the purpose of pyramids, and looking at different pyramids around the world.

Orlando Sackett got to Texas with a damn good idea of the whereabouts of buried gold across the border in Mexico. In Mexico he had bad luck. His party had to run for it, and when Lando stood rear guard they pulled out and left him. Six years in a Mexican prison put muscles in his arms, fire in his heart and pure recklessness in his head. He survived by using his skills as a boxer and by making three vows. One was to find the men who betrayed him....

He came out of Malpais, the terrible volcanic badlands where nothing can live, riding a giant red stallion no other man could put a hand to. His boots were polished, his speech was gentle, but his guns were quick and smooth as silk. He shot first and talked later.

John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick--a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins--encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance.