Thirty-five years ago, when "searching for America" was not yet the cliche it has since become, Steinbeck hit the highways with his French poodle, Charley. In a custom-built camper he named Rosinante after Don Quixote's steed, the two traveled the country--10,000 miles and 34 states. Their varied experiences comprise several slices of small-town, back-roads Americana. Steinbeck laments the rise of plastic-covered everything, the vacuousness of "sad...

"The story of the Astors is an extraordinary but true tale of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention--and of cunning, determination, hard work, hubris, infighting, and greed. One of the wealthiest men to have ever lived, John Jacob Astor first arrived in New York in 1783 and built a fortune through a ruthless expansion of his beaver trapping business, which he grew into an empire through real estate that enriched him at the expense of Manhattan's...

From the perils of French dentistry to the eating habits of the Australian kookaburra, from the squat-style toilets of Beijing to the particular wilderness of a North Carolina Costco, we learn about the absurdity and delight of a curious traveler's experiences. Whether railing against the habits of litterers in the English countryside or marveling over a disembodied human arm in a taxidermist's shop, Sedaris takes us on side-splitting adventures that...

In her early thirties, [the author] had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want - husband, country home, successful career - but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This ... is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Presents the memoir of a magazine writer's yearlong travels across the world in search of pleasure, guidance,...

Josh Sundquist was an energetic and inquisitive nine-year-old when he was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a virulent cancer that eventually claimed his left leg. His extraordinary journey takes him from his small southern town--with his father, an aspiring pastor questioning his faith, and his mother, a rigidly conservative homeschool teacher--through a dizzying array of hospitals, on to high school, and then to the mountains, where Josh learns to...

In this second Planet of the apes film, apes battle human mutants who survived a nuclear blast many years before.

When there is an assassination attempt on US President Allan Trumbull, his trusted confidant, Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, is wrongfully accused and taken into custody. After escaping from capture, he becomes a man on the run and must evade his own agency and outsmart the FBI in order to find the real threat to the president. Desperate to uncover the truth, Banning turns to unlikely allies to help clear his name, keep his family from harm, and...

Needy is a reserved bookworm. Her best friend is Jennifer, a conceited cheerleader. The two share little in common. They share even less in common when Jennifer mysteriously gains an appetite for human blood after a disastrous fire at a local bar. Soon, Needy's male classmates are steadily killed off in gruesome attacks and she must uncover the truth behind her friend's transformation and find a way to stop the bloodthirsty rampage before it reaches...

Incorporating interviews and rare archival video, this documentary chronicles U.S. Congressman John Lewis's 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action relating to civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health care reform, and immigration. Using present-day interviews with Lewis, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 80, the film explores his childhood experiences, his inspiring family, and his meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....

"September 1861: All is not as it seems. With these cryptic words, a shocking secret passed down from president to president comes to rest in the hands of Abraham Lincoln. And as the first bloody clashes of the Civil War unfold, Lincoln alone must decide how best to use this volatile knowledge: save thousands of American lives, or keep the young nation from being torn apart forever? The present: In Utah, the fabled remains of Mormon pioneers whose...