A doctor's gold rush journey to California

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Arthur Parker

"The Monongahela River in western Pennsylvania, one of three rivers that meet at the Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh, has a rich history associated with the westward expansion of the nation during the colonial era and with the development of America as an industrial power beginning in the nineteenth century." "All this fascinating history is told here as the author rides in towboats along the Monongahela to experience life as it is still lived daily by those who work and play on the river. His anecdotes and interviews, along with a full panoply of illustrations new and old, help enliven the tale the river has to tell for those who want to remember its rich past and those who will have their lives affected by the river in the future."--BOOK JACKET.

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Emma Duncan

*(from the back cover)* *Economist* journalist Emma Duncan spent eight months in Pakistan analysing the rumbustious and often infuriatingly volatile society. She attended Benazir Bhutto's wedding, onterviewed General Zia, drank whisky with army officers under threat from fundamentalists, discussed democracy with tribal chiefs and the crime rate in Karachi with politicians. The result is a fascinating, first-hand portrait of a restless and exciting country on the brink of too many possible futures.

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Joyce Badgley Hunsaker

Provides paintings, photographs, newspaper articles, and fictionalized diaries of real people who traveled the Oregon Trail throughout the nineteenth century.

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Stephanie Elizondo Griest

Desperate to escape South Texas, Stephanie Elizondo Griest dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. So she headed to Russia looking for some excitement--commencing what would become a four-year, twelve-nation Communist bloc tour that shattered her preconceived notions of the "Evil Empire." In Around the Bloc, Griest relates her experiences as a volunteer at a children's shelter in Moscow, a propaganda polisher at the office of the Chinese Communist Party's English-language mouthpiece in Beijing, and a belly dancer among the rumba queens of Havana. She falls in love with an ex-soldier who narrowly avoided radiation cleanup duties at Chernobyl, hangs out with Cuban hip-hop artists, and comes to difficult realizations about the meaning of democracy. is the absorbing story of a young journalist driven by a desire to witness the effects of Communism. Along the way, she learns the Russian mathematical equation for buying dinner-party vodka (one bottle per guest, plus an extra), stumbles upon Beijing's underground gay scene, marches with 100,000 mothers demanding Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba, and gains a new appreciation for the Mexican culture she left behind.From the Trade Paperback edition.