From the Stacks
By Carol Ann Robb, PPL Reference Librarian
The Big Kansas Road Trip is in full swing — hopefully the weather is cooperating — but what about after Sunday when the travelers return home? Well, then you can start your Big Kansas Read Trip!
There are so many books you can pick up that will take you across our state. Of course, there are those by Marci Penner and Wendee Rowe: “8 Wonders of Kansas Guidebook” and “Kansas Guidebook for Explorers” which are a must for anyone road tripping across Kansas.
A recent addition is “100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die.” The author, Roxie Yonkey, will be at the library on Saturday between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. to sell and sign copies of her book (and no doubt talk with folks about must see locations).
Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy “Kansas Trail Guide” by Jonathan Conard, along with the 2022 Official Travel Guide, “Kansas to the Stars,” (which you can pick up at the library—one of the official BKRT Information Centers this weekend).
Of course, there are non-travel guides that can give readers a taste of history and sense of place of an area. For SEK, there’s nothing like like reading “Kansas Bootleggers” and “Kansas Temperance” by local author Ken Peak. Or pick up Don Gutteridge’s “From the Gas House Gang to the Go-Go Sox: my 50 Years Plus in Big League Baseball.” Novels set in the area include “Moon Over Manifest” by Clare Vanderpool (based on Frontenac and available in Large Print and in the Youth Services department) and, of course, “Chicken Sisters,” by KJ Dell’Antonia (just be prepared for a chicken craving afterwards afterwards).
You can visit other parts of the state simply by picking up a good read. Go north with “Persian Pickle Club” by Sandra Dallas or way out west with Nancy Pickard’s “Scent of Rain and Lightning.” Laura Moriarty can take you to Wichita (and Cherryvale) in “The Chaperone,” and Max McCoy has novels set in Coffeyville, Dodge City, and Lawrence and takes the reader across the entire state in “Elevations.”
Read tripping takes less planning (and money!) and requires just one short jaunt to the library to pick up your map(s) and you can travel many miles in just a short amount of time. Come on in and let us be your travel guide.