A new American journey.

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable.

The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck | Summary & Analysis Preview: Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey chronicles Rinker and his brother’s experiences reliving the journey taken by the original nineteenth-century travelers of the Oregon Trail. At the same time, the author goes through his own mental and emotional journey and comes to grips with a variety of issues, such as being a pack rat and his relationship with his father… PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Oregon Trail • Summary of book • Introduction to the Important People in the book • Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

The classic coming-of-age memoir from the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Oregon Trail, about a special time in every young adult’s life—the first “real” job out of college. Ask Rinker Buck about his first job, and you’ll get the enchanting and engaging account that not only captures the experience of being a “twenty-two-year-old with the maxed-out brain,” but also evokes a special time and place: the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts in the early 1970s. As a recent grad, Buck was determined to find his voice as a writer and every moment felt like a new world opening wide. His memoir First Job is, on its most basic level, the story of Buck’s years as a cub reporter at The Berkshire Eagle, a great country newspaper in its glory years. But on a deeper level, it is a story that serves as a paradigm for everyone’s first job. Buck’s tale introduces the mentors who guided him through a raw and anxious time, lovers who exposed him to new levels of intimacy, and adventures that could only have happened to a young man who didn’t know any better. From Buck’s impromptu job interview with the Eagle’s venerable and eccentric publisher, Pete Miller—who quizzed him on Civil War history—to his picaresque adventures on the front lines of the sexual revolution, to his exhilarating hikes along the purple-black Berkshire peaks with Roger Linscott, he reconstructs a magical time in his life, a time when nothing seemed impossible or out of reach. The first job experience and its meaning may be vastly underrated and misunderstood, but Buck shows that it is as timely and important as any other life passage. First jobs are our baptism into the real world, our immersion in to the real “stuff” of life. Everyone has a first job, and with rare storytelling power and emotions laid bare, Rinker Buck brings back just how it felt.

Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Oregon Trail* Summary of book* Introduction to the Important People in the book* Analysis of the Themes and Author's Style

The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck | Summary & Analysis Preview: Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey chronicles Rinker and his brother's experiences reliving the journey taken by the original nineteenth-century travelers of the Oregon Trail. At the same time, the author goes through his own mental and emotional journey and comes to grips with a variety of issues, such as being a pack rat and his relationship with his father... PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Oregon Trail * Summary of book * Introduction to the Important People in the book * Analysis of the Themes and Author's Style

Buck's epic account of traveling the length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way--in a covered wagon with a team of mules, an audacious journey that hasn't been attempted in a century--tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.