 |
Clark Atkinson, Resource Teacher at Liberty Learning
Center. On In These Hills, a compilation (editor unknown):
This book is a history of the Livermore, Colorado area, a ranching
area in Northern Colorado almost on the border between Colorado
and Wyoming. I grew up there, so it's just interesting to me--from
a personal point of view--to read about these ranchers I've known
my whole life, from the point of view of someone who doesn't know
them...to see the descriptions of these people and how they fit
with what I know to be real. It's pretty much a historical account:
when did Europeans get there, what did they find when they arrived,
what was it about the land that attracted the ranchers initially,
and what's happened over the years. Livermore used to be a stage
stop on the way up a river canyon; but finally they blasted a
hole and made a tunnel through the canyon so people didn't have
to take that circuitous route anymore, making Livermore less important.
Some of it seems accurate, but there's a glorification of some
of the people that's amusing because I know a more human and sordid
side of them. It's interesting to see how history does that to
people: takes somebody who's made a lot of money and maybe has
made a contribution to a worthy cause here and there, but in general
was scuz. Turns out they're remembered for the good and not the
bad.
David Hancocks, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Executive
Director. On Undaunted Courage, by Stephen E. Ambrose:
As an immigrant, I've had to play catch-up on the history of the
United States. British schools, for example, tell the story of
the War of Independence quite differently. Unfortunately, the
remarkable stories of America's history are told too often by
either bores or braggarts. A rare exception is this book, which
I have been sipping on slowly the past few weeks. It recounts
the story of Lewis and Clark's exploration across the continent,
and does it in a deceptively easy style, painting such clear pictures
that the memories stay vivid. It tells an honest and unromantic
version of the journey, the hardships, the motives, the frailties
and strengths of the people involved, and the world of that era.
I am particularly enjoying the parts dealing with the American
Indians. For once, they seem like real human beings. Also notable
is the realization that, yet again, America faced a critical stage
in its history led by astonishingly unusual and stalwart people.
It's filled with little tidbits of information; apparently they
were each eating 12 pounds of meat a day, crossing the plains,
and starving at that.
Greg Colburn, Chef at B&B Café. On The Diaries
of Jane Somers, by Doris Lessing. There are actually
two books, but both of them deal with a woman named Jane Somers,
a woman in her late 40s in England. She's a magazine editor for
a fashion magazine, like a fashion maven. The book deals with
her awakening to an emotional life and relationships with people
around her that she never had before. She meets a very old, decrepit
woman in a shop, and she suddenly helps her out by buying her
food and takes her home, which is an amazing mess. She can obviously
barely take care of herself. So she becomes attached to this old
woman, which horrifies her, but she also can't seem to refuse
helping this woman out. She returns time after time. Doris Lessing
is very good at pinning down and describing deterioration and
evolution of emotional states--states of being, ways of being,
people's consciousness--as they change, often radically. I think
a lot of times we're not able to track these things as closely
as she does to be able to put any understanding behind them. We
just kind of go through things at times, and we don't have the
opportunity or the awareness to observe what they're about. When
you read someone who can write about this as well as Lessing,
it helps you fine tune your own perceptions.
|
 |
