Showing results by narrator "Marlin May" in All Categories

Conflicted hearts search for human connection upon waters and vivid landscapes. Randolf, a Susquehanna ferryman, is piloting an Amish wedding party in the title story of this collection, “Nunc Stans—A Ferry Tale.” But mid-river, the ferry snags on a low dam, and a frightened mare bolts from the deck. As Randolf tries to save the ferry, he’s forced to confront his own remorse in a haunting reflection of a couple’s grief, guilt, and awakenings in the aftermath of a stillbirth.

Robert Dean Emslie (1859–1943) spent fifty-six of his eighty-four years in professional baseball—eight as a player and forty-nine as an umpire. When arm problems ended his career as a Major League pitcher, he turned to umpiring, serving in that capacity for thirty-five seasons, then as an umpire supervisor for thirteen years. Emslie endured the rough-and-tumble umpire-baiting 1890s, the Deadball era, injuries from thrown and batted balls, physical and verbal assaults from players and fans, and criticism in the press.

Scouting has been called pro baseball’s personalized way of renewing itself from year to year and a pathway to the game’s past. It takes a very special person to be a baseball scout: normal family life is out of the question because travel is a constant companion. Scouts have the difficult task of not only discovering and signing new players but envisioning the trajectory of raw talent into the future. But the place of the traditional scout has become increasingly dire.

St. Petersburg, Russia’s Window to the West. Thirteen-year-old tomboy Rian Krieger has run away to Russia to help her uncle and cousin build a railroad for Tsar Nicholas I. But there’s a problem: Rian is posing as her uncle’s coachman, a boy. The Tsar takes note of Rian’s bravery and resourcefulness and asks her (meaning orders her, for a request from the Tsar of All the Russias is, in fact, a command) to spend her days in his palace as companion to Grand Duke Konstantin, his ten-year-old son. Philadelphia, U.S.A, the “Workshop of the World.

The Colorado Trail in Crisis addresses the sweeping transformation of western forests and wilderness ecosystems affected by climate change. This book is equal parts trail journal and synthesis of natural and human history. Karl Ford uses research on climate impacts to forests, wildlife, hydrology, and more to stress the urgent need for an action plan to reduce greenhouse gases and save forests and watersheds.

This comprehensive account of California’s numerous and perilous natural disasters explores how a unique combination of forces has affected Californians throughout the state's history and carries a sobering message about our short disaster memories. California has more natural hazards per square mile than any other state, but this hasn’t deterred people from moving here. Entire California towns and regions frequently contend with destruction caused by earthquakes, floods, landslides and debris flows, and sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

Beyond Barron, the second volume of a memoir initiated by the publication of Back to Barron (in 2008), encompasses captivating humor and telling detail to narrate the story of author Van Tassel and his wife’s life together and their kindred careers. It focuses on schools and colleges and universities attended, taught at, and visited; homes purchased, built, modified, and redecorated; vehicles and pets acquired; and travels and forms of recreation that served as accompaniments to their academic careers and enhancements of family life.

Lew Wallace, a fascinating and multitalented historical figure, has consistently been overlooked and lost in academia, articles, and modern books. When he has been discussed, he has often been misrepresented and misunderstood. This is partly due to the sordid and profoundly controversial period in the United States during his lifetime. Yet, Lew wrote one of the most successful and influential novels of the 19th Century. The story he created, and the high-profile controversies he was intimately involved in, have lived on in numerous movies and television programs.

College junior Ethan Trousock has his own problems: professor Bourman's history exam, parental aging, dating dry spells. The devastating oil spill that blanketed his university's coastline half a century before and led to the birth of the modern environmental movement is ancient history. Until one night when an ocean portal transports him back to 1969.