Download or read book Hopping Freight Trains in America written by Duffy Littlejohn and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A charming mix of how-to, RR love and operation. Short of the "bible," Armstong's The Railroad--What It Is..., this is the best work on the history, development, use and function of track, rolling stock, signals that we've found outside the textbooks. Jargon is explained (including a 45 p. glossary). Fine, fun, informative book. Published by Sand River Press, 1319 14th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Riding the Rails written by Errol Lincoln Uys and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-06 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through letters and photographs, profiles teenagers who hopped the freight trains during the Great Depression in order to find adventure, seek employment, or escape poverty.

Download or read book The Sunset Route written by Carrot Quinn and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unforgettable story of one woman who leaves behind her hardscrabble childhood in Alaska to travel the country via freight train—a beautiful memoir about forgiveness, self-discovery, and the redemptive power of nature, perfect for fans of Wild or Educated. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER • “An urgent read. A courageous life. Quinn’s story burns through us and bleeds beauty on every page.”—Noé Álvarez, author of Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land After a childhood marked by neglect, poverty, and periods of homelessness, with a mother who believed herself to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, Carrot Quinn moved out on her own. She found a sense of belonging among straight-edge anarchists who taught her how to traverse the country by freight trains, sleep in fields under the stars, and feed herself by foraging in dumpsters. Her new life was one of thrilling adventure and freedom, but still she was haunted by the ghosts of her lonely and traumatic childhood. The Sunset Route is a powerful and brazenly honest adventure memoir set in the unseen corners of the United States—in the Alaskan cold, on trains rattling through forests and deserts, as well as in low-income apartments and crowded punk houses—following a remarkable protagonist who has witnessed more tragedy than she thought she could ever endure and who must learn to heal her own heart. Ultimately, it is a meditation on the natural world as a spiritual anchor, and on the ways that forgiveness can set us free.

Download or read book Rolling Nowhere written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hopping a freight in the St. Louis rail yards, Ted Conover0́4winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award0́4embarks on his dream trip, traveling the rails with "the knights of the road." Equipped with rummage store clothing, a bedroll, and his notebooks, Conover immerses himself in the peculiar culture of the hobo, where handshakes and intoductions are foreign, but where everyone knows where the Sally (Salvation Army) and the Willy (Goodwill) are. Along the way he encounters unexpected charity (a former cop goes out of his way to offer Conover a dollar) and indignities (what do you do when there are no public bathrooms?) and learns how to survive on the road.But above all, Conover gets to know the men and women who, for one reason or another, live this life. There's Lonny, who accepts that there are some towns he can't enter before dark because he's black, and Pistol Pete, a cowboy who claims his son is a doctor and his daughter a ballerina, and Sheba Sheila Sheils, who's built herself a house out of old tires. By turns resourceful and desperate, generous and mistrusting, independent and communal, philosophical and profoundly cynical, the tramps Conover meets show him a segment of humanity outside society, neither wholly romantic nor wholly tragic, and very much like the rest of us.

Download or read book Hobo Sapien written by Wayne Iverson and published by Robert Reed Publishers. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Garrison Keillor meets Jack Kerouac meets Mahatma Gandhi in this wry, roadwise scripture. Hobo Sapien is a series of freight train parables born out of the author's twelve-plus years riding freight trains, combined with lessons learned in his seven-year stint as a Self-Realization Fellowship monk, plus the added bonus of fascinating railroad history. Non-fiction readers buy books to learn something, for reference, or to be entertained. Hobo Sapien fills all three bills. Readers will get a unique immersion into the underground world of the hobo. The spiritual takes are written with a subtle humor that helps the medicine go down. It is not your parent's self-help book.Armchair adventurers, rail fans, spiritual seekers, and academia nuts will all gather intriguing information from this missive. It is vastly different from other hobo books because of its unparalleled combination of adventure, rail history, humor, and spirituality. The author's background is also unique and varied. Not many hobos have gone from Yale to rail or from hunk to monk.

Download or read book Someplace Like America written by Dale Maharidge and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Updated edition with a new preface and afterword"--Cover.

Download or read book Enrique s Journey written by Sonia Nazario and published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2013 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of a boy who sets out with absolutely nothing to find his mother who went to the US from Honduras to look for work.

Download or read book Graphic the Valley written by Peter Brown Hoffmeister and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tenaya has never left Yosemite Valley. He was born in a car by the Merced River, and grew up in a hidden camp with his parents, surviving on fish, acorns, and unfinished food thrown away by the park's millions of tourists. But despite its splendor, Tenaya's Yosemite is a visceral place of opposites, at once beautiful, dangerous, and violent. When he meets Lucy, a young woman from the south side of the park, Tenaya must choose between this new relationship and the Valley, terrorism and legend, the sacred versus the material. In this modern retelling of Samson and Delilah, Graphic the Valley explores mythical strength, worldly greed, love, lust, and epic destruction. Set entirely in the majestic Yosemite Valley, Hoffmeister recalls Edward Abbey's vivid sense of place and urgent call for preservation of one of the world's most spectacular sites.

Download or read book The Sellout written by Paul Beatty and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Man Booker Prize Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction Winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature New York Times Bestseller Los Angeles Times Bestseller Named One of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek, The Denver Post, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly Named a "Must-Read" by Flavorwire and New York Magazine's "Vulture" Blog A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant. Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral. Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.

Download or read book The Autobiography of a Super tramp written by William Henry Davies and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Enrique s Journey written by Sonia Nazario and published by Random House. This book was released on 2007-01-02 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An astonishing story that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, now updated with a new Epilogue and Afterword, photos of Enrique and his family, an author interview, and more—the definitive edition of a classic of contemporary America Based on the Los Angeles Times newspaper series that won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for feature writing and another for feature photography, this page-turner about the power of family is a popular text in classrooms and a touchstone for communities across the country to engage in meaningful discussions about this essential American subject. Enrique’s Journey recounts the unforgettable quest of a Honduran boy looking for his mother, eleven years after she is forced to leave her starving family to find work in the United States. Braving unimaginable peril, often clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains, Enrique travels through hostile worlds full of thugs, bandits, and corrupt cops. But he pushes forward, relying on his wit, courage, hope, and the kindness of strangers. As Isabel Allende writes: “This is a twenty-first-century Odyssey. If you are going to read only one nonfiction book this year, it has to be this one.” Praise for Enrique’s Journey “Magnificent . . . Enrique’s Journey is about love. It’s about family. It’s about home.”—The Washington Post Book World “[A] searing report from the immigration frontlines . . . as harrowing as it is heartbreaking.”—People (four stars) “Stunning . . . As an adventure narrative alone, Enrique’s Journey is a worthy read. . . . Nazario’s impressive piece of reporting [turns] the current immigration controversy from a political story into a personal one.”—Entertainment Weekly “Gripping and harrowing . . . a story begging to be told.”—The Christian Science Monitor “[A] prodigious feat of reporting . . . [Sonia Nazario is] amazingly thorough and intrepid.”—Newsday

Download or read book Abandoned Cars written by Tim Lane and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2010-05-25 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandoned Cars is Tim Lane’s first collection of graphic short stories, noirish narratives that are united by their exploration of the great American mythological drama by way of the desperate and haunted characters that populate its pages. Lane’s characters exist on the margins of society―alienated, floating in the void between hope and despair, confused but introspective.

Download or read book In the Volcano s Mouth written by Miriam Bird Greenberg and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2016-11-18 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2015 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize Miriam Bird Greenberg's stunning first collection, which roves across a lush, haunting rural America both real and imagined, observed from railyards and roadsides, evokes the world of myth ("I'd spent my childhood / in a house made of bees; on hot days honey // dripped through cracks in the ceiling," she writes). Yet these capacious, exquisitely tensioned poems are rooted in Greenberg's experiences hitchhiking and hopping freight trains across North America, or draw from her informal interviews with contemporary nomads, hobos, and others living on society's edges. Beneath their surface runs a current of violence, whether at the hands of fate or men: she writes "Everyone knows // what happens to women // who hitchhike, constantly // trying a door to the other world made of lake / bottom or low forest, abandoned house // even wild animals / have rejected." The result is a queering of On the Road, a feminist Frank Stanford at once vulnerable and canny. Richly textured, In the Volcano's Mouth is an extraordinary portrait of life on the enchanted margins.

Download or read book The Selected Works of T S Spivet written by Reif Larsen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the pleasures of McDonald's, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science's inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut. Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.

Download or read book Hobo written by Eddy Joe Cotton and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an arresting mix of homespun wisdom, gritty realism, and poignant self-examination, and set against the backdrop of a young man's coming of age, Hobo is a modern examination of one of America's oldest and most revered folk heroes. A free spirit, Zebu Recchia's mother set out on her own when her son was only two years old. Left behind, the tight family unit of father and son grew up to be more like brothers than parent and child. Such an intense relationship created struggles and pain--but also a form of independence that gave both men the mettle to face life alone when necessary. When Zebu was nineteen, he left behind his "hippie on a Harley" father in a brickyard on a cold winter day in Denver, Colorado, and set out with three things he knew he could rely on: strong boots, a warm coat, and a will to roam. He took off down the road at sunset with his thumb out and a keen desire to see the world on his own terms. His goal was to end up in Mexico. It had always been his father's mecca of personal freedom and absolute beauty, and so it became his, too. When Zebu jumped his first train, he was forever changed. His passion for the rails and the hobo way of life transformed him into Eddy Joe Cotton, a young hobo-in-training. Crisscrossing the countryside with a motley band of companions and mentors, Eddy Joe learns both the dark and the beautiful sides of life on the road. Always headed vaguely toward Mexico, Eddy Joe slowly realizes that the experience of the journey is far more important than the thrill of reaching the destination. Hobo is a celebration of the cultural and historical significance of the hobo in American society. It's also the story of what Eddy Joe learned on the rails, and of the fascinating, worldly-wise men who became his teachers. Eddy Joe Cotton paints a multilayered portrait of this strangely enduring lifestyle--of the men who ride the trains, the tricks of the trade, the vocabulary they use, the places they camp, the train yards they avoid, the gear they are sure to carry, and the stories and lessons each one imparts. Told in Eddy Joe's infectious and original voice, Hobo is a heartfelt exploration of a fascinating subculture, and of one man's place in a world that has all but been forgotten.

Download or read book Train written by Tom Zoellner and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic and revelatory narrative of the most important transportation technology of the modern world In his wide-ranging and entertaining new book, Tom Zoellner—coauthor of the New York Times–bestselling An Ordinary Man—travels the globe to tell the story of the sociological and economic impact of the railway technology that transformed the world—and could very well change it again. From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the Japanese-style bullet trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of this most indispensable form of travel. A masterful narrative history, Train also explores the sleek elegance of railroads and their hypnotizing rhythms, and explains how locomotives became living symbols of sex, death, power, and romance.

Download or read book Freight Train Graffiti written by Roger Gastman and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2006-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As dazzling as the art it celebrates, this volume is packed with 1,000 full-color illustrations and features in-depth interviews with more than 125 train artists and "writers" to provide unprecedented perspective into graffiti.