Norman Dietz
1) The rifle
Author
Publication Date
1995
Lexile Measure
1480L
Summary
A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.
Author
Publication Date
1985
Summary
In this collection of thirty zany stories, spoofing camping, fishing, and other outdoor recreational activities, McManus shares his hilarious wilderness misadventures. From facing an angry bear with an unloaded gun and the folly of running a boat while it's still on the trailer to not questioning the ingredients found in camp cookout cuisine and the best methods of catching grasshoppers, no one knows how to express Mother Nature's sense of humor like...
3) Old Yeller
Author
Series
Old Yeller volume 1
Publication Date
1956
Lexile Measure
910L
Summary
A timeless American classic and one of the most beloved children's books ever written, Old Yeller is a Newbery Honor Book that explores the poignant and unforgettable bond between a boy and the stray dog who becomes his loyal friend.
Author
Publication Date
1989
Summary
Patrick F. McManus's hilarious and comic stories of camping and other nature-oriented activities reach ridiculous proportions in The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw. From teaching his stepfather, the methods of madness behind farm work through his best friend's grandmother's fear of bears, McManus reveals that human behavior is even wilder than the wilderness.
5) Roughing it
Author
Publication Date
1872
Summary
Originally published over one hundred years ago, "Roughing It" tells the (almost) true story of Mark Twain's rollicking adventures across the United States. A hilarious account of how the author tried finding wealth in the rocks of Nevada, it was published before his most famous works and shows why he would grow to become one of the most beloved American writers of all time. The story follows many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to...
Author
Publication Date
2012
Summary
In 1948, a mysterious and charismatic man arrives in a small Virginia town carrying two suitcases; one contains his worldly possessions, the other is full of money. He soon inserts himself into the town's daily life, taking a job in the local butcher shop and befriending the owner and his wife and their son. But the passion that develops between the man and the wife of the town's wealthiest citizen sets in motion a series of events that not only upset...
Author
Publication Date
1994
Summary
Patrick McManus, the bestselling author of such hilarious books as A Fine and Pleasant Misery and Never Sniff a Gift Fish, now offers readers solid thoughts on the qualities that define leadership, beginning with the need to be tall, and much more, in this outrageous collection of short pieces that reveals his tortuous trip along the writer's path.
Author
Publication Date
1992
Summary
Let the world's funniest sportsman tickle your funny bone with quirky homespun stories and whimsical perspectives on life. Patrick F. McManus gently pokes fun at the oddities of sacred institutions like friendship, marriage, and even hunting and fishing. Soon his crazy theories start making sense, and you know you've crossed the border into McManus country, where life is a little lighter-and much more amusing. McManus initiates you into his world...
11) Lincoln
Author
Publication Date
1995
Summary
In the best-selling tradition of Truman, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer David Herbert Donald offers a new classic in American history and biography - a masterly account of how one man's extraordinary political acumen steered the Union to victory in the Civil War, and of how his soaring rhetoric gave meaning to that agonizing struggle for nationhood and equality. Donald spent 50 years studying Lincoln, tracing his rise from humble origins...
Author
Publication Date
1901
Lexile Measure
1080L
Summary
"The book relates the tale of Hank Morgan, an engineer from 19th century Hartford Connecticut, who is inexplicably transported to the early medieval England of King Arthur. While there he uses his knowledge of modern technology to appear as though he is a magician. Despite his best intentions, Hank?s attempts to modernize the past bring about a tragic end. A bittersweet depiction of the Arthurian legend through the eyes of a 19th century American..."...
13) Murphy's ambush
Author
Series
Publication Date
1995
Summary
Gary Paulsen, a Golden Spur award-winning author, collaborates with Brian Burks for this western-mystery tale of unlikely heroes and villains that is refreshingly free of gratuitous violence and sex. Life in Turrett, New Mexico was quiet until Travis Price rode into town bleeding and gravely wounded by an arrow. Paulsen and Burks serve up a vast and heroic vision of the Old West in this crisp, action-packed and suspenseful novel.
Author
Publication Date
1921
Lexile Measure
1170L
Summary
Tom Canty and Edward Tudor look alike, but their lives couldn't be more different. For Edward is a royal prince, heir to the throne, and Tom is a miserable pauper. Until one day, fate intervenes, and for a while each has to live the other's life.
15) The idiot
Author
Series
Publication Date
1887
Summary
"Just two years after completing Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky produced a second novel with a very different man at its center. In The Idiot, the saintly Prince Myshkin returns to Russia from a Swiss sanatorium and finds himself a stranger in a society obsessed with wealth, power, and sexual conquest. He soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with a notorious kept woman, Nastasya, and a beautiful young girl, Aglaya. Extortion and scandal escalate...
Author
Publication Date
1973
Summary
To live in a pristine land unchanged by man; to roam the wilderness through which few other humans have passed; to choose an idyllic site, cut trees, and build a log cabin; to be a self-sufficient craftsman, making what is needed from materials available; to be not at odds with the world, but content with one's own thoughts and company: thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. This book is a simple account of the day-by-day...
Author
Publication Date
2005
Summary
In a collection of brief autobiographical essays, the renowned novelist offers his views on art, politics, and everyday life in America. A Man Without a Country is Kurt Vonnegut's hilariously funny and razor-sharp look at life "If I die -- God forbid -- I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?"), art ("To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your...
Author
Publication Date
2010
Summary
The driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, which marked the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad, was only the beginning of the race for railroad dominance. In the aftermath of this building feat, dozens of railroads, each with aggressive empire builders at their helms, raced one another for the ultimate prize of a southern transcontinental route that was generally free of snow, shorter in distance, and gentler in...
19) James Madison
Author
Publication Date
2011
Lexile Measure
1090L
Summary
James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history, and his story, although all too often overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries, is integral to that of the nation. Madison helped to shape our country as perhaps no other Founder: collaborating on the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights, resisting government overreach by assembling one of the nation's first political parties (the Republicans, who became...
Author
Publication Date
2010
Summary
In a landmark work of deep scholarship and insight, Foner gives us a life of Lincoln as it intertwined with slavery, the defining issue of the time and the tragic hallmark of American history. The author demonstrates how Lincoln navigated a dynamic political landscape deftly, moving in measured steps, often on a path forged by abolitionists and radicals in his party, and that Lincoln's greatness lay in his capacity for moral and political growth.
