This book is for anyone interested in the history of Kansas and its railroads. In a series of 15 articles, the author tells of Kansas rail oddities such as a train robbery on the Frisco Railway in Andover, the construction of a nationally famous Rock Island Line bridge near Liberal, and the tragedy behind a grave site for six Kansas Pacific track workers near Victoria. There are stories of short lines and ghost railroads like the Scott City Northern, the St. Joseph & Topeka, and the Marion Belt & Chingawassa Springs. There's also a bibliography of the central Kansas railroad builder who...

As railroads crossed 1860s Kansas, laws were passed that would allow only one railroad to lay track across Indian Territory south to Texas. Three railroads, the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf; the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston; and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, raced to be first and to become a national line. The Race to Indian Territory recounts the story from early Kansas history. It tells of those important and interesting men involved in the race and the towns the tracks came to. It separates fact from legend, and reveals the race's surprising outcome.

"Kansas, 1874" recounts the interesting and important events of that tumultous year. 1874 in the Sunflower State was a time of the Wild West and of Indian attacks, but also of a rising poet and debates on temperance. It was the year the Mennonites first arrived, and when Abilene's T. C. Henry began to promote winter wheat as a good crop for Kansas farmers. Few other years in state history show Kansas in its transition from part of the frontier to its own identity so clearly."

To get out of debt, spacer Jake Bonner takes on two odd jobs. The first, chauffeur pop star Evvie Martini on her tour; the second, helping Daniel and Clarissa Rosen overthrow their planet's tyrannical ruler. Unfortunately for Jake, Evvie finds out about his second assignment and, hoping to advance her career, invites herself to the revolution. From there the absurdity grows for Jake and his band of "freedom fighters." Expert Assistance pokes fun at revolutions, pop culture, and some of the cliches of sci-fi.

It's the fall of 1983. David Chalmers is a high school senior who hangs around with a group of fellow science-fiction fans, but feels few attachments to them. Alison Hughes runs with the popular crowd, but she's as smart as she is pretty, and wonders if they're becoming predictable. Over the course of a few weeks events will cause David and Alison to think about what it means to be friends. Are friends just people you spend time with? What does it mean when you're someone's friend? Why should any of that be important?

In Naming the Dead, Robert Collins takes the reader into "the blind world here below," a world inhabited by sinners, saints, and strangers, who often are one and the same. From childhood playgrounds through the suffering of adulthood, the heart of the collection is made of eight elegies literally naming the dead and paying homage to some who have served as mentors and companions on the journey. We learn, then, that the only way to return home is to keep moving forward. Thus, the poet offers hope, however tentative, that those who enter the abyss might like Dante "ascend into the shining world...