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  CC's Page Count 2012 - AUGUST Update

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  My list of 200 BOOKS READ IN 2011 can be found at:
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/417242/CCs-2011-YEAR-IN-REVIEW

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN JANUARY:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/417392/CCs-Page-Count-2012---JANUARY-Update

  1. WARDAY - Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka (515)
  2. WHITE HOUSE KIDS by Susan Edwards (159)
  3. GIDEON’S GIFT - Karen Kingsbury (99)
  4. JIM WHITEWOLF: The Life of a Kiowa Apache Indian - Charles S. Brant (141)
  5. STAR BRIGHT - Andrew M. Greeley (135)
  6. EARTH ABIDES - George R. Stewart (373)
  7. ENDANGERED PLEASURES - Barbara Holland (204, LP)
  8. AN OPTICAL ARTIST - Greg Roza (31)
  9. HUNGERFIELD AND OTHER POEMS - Robinson Jeffers (115)
  10. HITTING THE ROAD: The Art of the American Road Map - John Margolies (129)
  11. DARKNESS VISIBLE - William Styron (84)
  12. THE OREGON TRAIL - Francis Parkman (315)
  13. DIEGO RIVERA: The Shaping of an Artist (1889-1921) - Florence Arquin (143)
  14. CLOSE TO SHORE - Michael Capuzzo (137)
  15. BUFFALO GIRLS - Larry McMurtry (350)
  16. MY INVENTED COUNTRY - Isabel Allende (198)

  Oedipus Rex by Socrates (with commentary, 42 pages)
  The Tragedy of King Lear by William Shakespeare (w/comm. and read twice, 169 pages)
  The Wild Duck - Henrik Ibsen (w/comm. 69 pages)
  The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (w/comm. 50 pages)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 3,458

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN FEBRUARY:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/423594/CCs-Page-Count-2012---FEBRUARY-Update

  17. A STOLEN LIFE - Jaycee Dugard (273)
  18. RANCH OF DREAMS - Cleveland Amory (280, LP)
  19. THE SENSE OF WONDER - Rachel Carson (93)
  20. BUTTERNUT HOLLOW POND - Brian J. Heinz (31)
  21. BLUE POTATOES, ORANGE TOMATOES - Rosalind Creasy (39)
  22. HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET - Jamie Ford (500 LP)
  23. THE HOBBIT - J. R. R. Tolkien (330)
  24. DAY OF THE DEAD - Lois Lowery (48)
  25. BUFFALO FOR THE BROKEN HEART: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch - Dan O’Brien (262)
  26. EARTH, FIRE, WATER, AIR - Mary Hoffman (76)
  27. BLACKBERRY WINTER - Margaret Mead (296)
  28. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS - John Boyne (218)
  29. PAINTINGS FROM THE CAVE - Gary Paulsen (163)
  30. BLACK CHERRY BLUES - James Lee Burke (290)
  31. FATHER WATER, MOTHER WOODS - Gary Paulsen (158)
  32. NEW POEMS (1968-1970) - Pablo Neruda (76)

  THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA - a play by George Bernard Shaw (65)

  UNFINISHED: 4 books (465 pages read)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 7,121

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN MARCH:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/429425/CCs-Page-Count-2012---MARCH-Update

  33. THE CARPENTERED HEN - John Updike (82)
  34. THE TURN OF THE SCREW and THE LESSON OF THE MASTER- Henry James (208)
  35. WHEN THE WHIPPOORWILL - Marjorie Kinnans Rawlings (275)
  36. BEING PRESENT IN THE DARKNESS - Cheri Huber (123)
  37. WATCHING THE SPRING FESTIVAL - Frank Bidart (61)
  38. LOOKING FOR ALASKA - John Green (225)
  39. UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES OF JACKSONVILLE - Scott Maruna (151)
  40. THE DOG WHO CAME TO STAY - Hal Borland (192)
  41. STILLMEADOW AND SUGARBRIDGE - Gladys Taber & Barbara Webster (282)
  42. ZOO OF THE GODS: Animals in Myth, Legend & Fable - Anthony S. Mercatante (223)
  43. WOMEN IN AMERICAN INDIAN SOCIETY - Rayna Green (101)
  44. SKETCHING OUTDOORS IN SPRING - Jim Arnosky (48)
  45. REGGAE - Bob Brunning (31)
  46. MICHELANGELO- Jen Green (31)
  47. THE MORMON PIONEER TRAIL - Arlan Dean (24)
  48. THE WEARING OF THE GREEN: The Irish Rebellion (1916-1921) - Clifford Lindsey Alderman (181)
  49. A PRIMER FOR THE GRADUAL UNDERSTANDING OF GERTRUDE STEIN - Gertrude Stein (156)
  50. CATCH A FIRE: The Life of Bob Marley - Timothy White (391)
  51. LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS - Richard Louv (390)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 10,296

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN APRIL:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/436000/CCs-Page-Count-2012---APRIL-Update

  52. SISTER WOLF - Ann Arensberg (210)
  53. TWILIGHT - Stephenie Meyer (498)
  54. ONCE A WOLF - Stephen R. Swinburne (46)
  55. WILD DOG: The Wolves, Coyotes & Foxes of North America - Erwin Bauer (120)
  56. DOWN CUT SHIN CREEK - Kathi Appelt & Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer (55)
  57. DANCES WITH WOLVES - (383 LP)
  58. A WOLF AT THE TABLE - Augusten Burroughs (242)
  59. LA TOUR DREAMS OF THE WOLF GIRL - David Huddle (196)
  60. LET THE HURRICANE ROAR - Rose Wilder Lane (152)
  61. THE PENELOPIAD - Margaret Atwood (196)
  62. YOUNG WOLF - Jack London (258)
  63. THE KID’S ALLOWANCE BOOK - Amy Nathan (86)
  64. WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES: Myths & Stories of the Wild Woman Achetype - Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. (510)
  65. MURDER ON SAFARI - Elspeth Huxley (203)
  66. SHORT CHILDREN’S BOOKS (count as a single book - 192 pages total)
  67. GUITARS: From Start to Finish - Samuel G. Woods (31)
  Poetry FROM THE LITERATURE TEXTBOOK - THE EXPERIENCE OF LITERATURE- edited by Lionel Trilling (25 pages total)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 13,716

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN MAY:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/441538/CCs-Page-Count-2012---MAY-Update

  68. CELEBRATING TIME ALONE: Stories of Splendid Solitude - Lionel Fisher (192)
  69. WE LOOK LIKE MEN OF WAR - William R. Forstchen (188)
  70. LIVING INTROVERTED - Lee Ann Lambert (123)
  71. JIMMY BUFFETT & PHILOSOPHY: A Porpoise Driven Life - Scott L. Pratt, ed. (218)
  72. NEARLY NORMAL COOKING FOR GLUTEN-FREE EATING - Jules. E. D. Shepard (154)
  73. WHEAT-FREE COOKING -Rita Greer (128)
  74. ULTIMATE KID’S MONEY BOOK - Neale S. Godfrey (122)
  75. A PIRATE LOOKS AT FIFTY - Jimmy Buffett (458)
  76. SEINLANGUAGE - Jerry Seinfeld (180)
  77. FEAR - L. Ron Hubbard (188)
  78. THE RED HAT SOCIETY: Fun & Friendship After Fifty - Sue Ellen Cooper (432 LP)
  79. TO SIR, WITH LOVE - E. R. Braithwaite (189)
  80. JACK LONDON, SAILOR ON HORSEBACK - Irving Stone (329)

  81. Short children's books (count as one book, total 53 pages):
  QUERIDO DRAGON VA A LA BIBLIOTECA - Margaret Hillert (29)
  UNA VISITA A LA HUERTA DE MANZANAS - Patricia J. Murphy(24)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 16,670

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN JUNE:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/447930/CCs-Page-Count-2012---JUNE-Update

  82. A WEDDING IN HELL - Charles Simac (79)
  83. LOVE WINS: A Book About Heaven, Hell, & the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived - Rob Bell (198)
  84. THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE - Muriel Spark (187)
  85. MONTANA 1948 - Larry Watson (181)
  86. A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS - Robert Bolt (181)
  87. A PEN WARMED-UP IN HELL: Mark Twain in Protest - Frederick Anderson, editor (183)
  88. 100 CURRIER & IVES FAVORITES - Albert K. Baragwanath (160)
  89. CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE BITCH -Alison Arngrim (300)
  90. PLAIN AND SIMPLE: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish - Sue Bender (149)
  91. CANDIDE - Voltaire (146)
  92. RAMONA - Helen Hunt Jackson (424)
  93. TRUE LOVE - Robert Fulghum (213)
  94. THE SLAVE GIRL -Buchi Emecheta (179)
  95. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET - C. S. Lewis (158)
  96. SIDE EFFECTS - Woody Allen (149)
  97. A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT - Norman MacLean (217)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 19,774

  
  

  BOOKS READ IN JULY:
  My reviews can be found at
  http://www.shelfari.com/groups/48124/discussions/452091/CCs-Page-Count-2012---JULY-Update

  98. PHENOMENAL WOMAN: Four Poems Celebrating Women - Maya Angelou (22)
  99. ONE MINUTE FOR MYSELF - Spencer Johnson (112)
  100. THE CAT WHO HAD TWO LIVES - Sally Huxley (154)
  101.QUILTS FROM THE CIVIL WAR: Nine Projects, Historical Notes, Diary Entries - Barbara Brackman (125)
  102. THE PLEASURE OF PAINTING: Three Mediums (Oil, Watercolor, Acrylic) - Franklin Jones (127)
  103. NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: Six-Word Memoirs - edited by Smith magazine (219)
  104. MY EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY LIFE - Sissy Spacek (266)
  105. EIGHT MORTAL LADIES POSSESSED - Tennessee Williams (100)
  106. SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE - Howard Fast (191)
  107. CHAOS IN COLOR: The Story of a Studio - Dorothy Schulte Smith (80)
  108. STANDING FOR SOMETHING: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes - Gordon B. Hinckley (178)
  109. THE SACRED WHITE TURKEY - Frances Washburn (197)
  110. YOU CAN BE HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT: Five Principles Your Therapist Never Told You -Richard Carlson, PhD (141)

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 21,886

  CC started this discussion 11 months ago (edited). ( reply | permalink )

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  111. THE EIGHT IMMORTALS OF TAOISM - translated & edited by Kwok Man Ho & Joanne O’Brien (152)
  ©1990 This is a collection of legends and fables about the xian (immortals; transcendants; saints) of popular Taoism. Most of them are believed to have lived during the Tang or Song Dynasty. They are said to be able to bestow (or restore) life and destroy evil. The book’s introduction was rather lengthy (55 pages), but it was a good introduction to ancient Chinese culture, Taoism, and the Eight Immortals, who are still a popular element in secular Chinese culture and art. The stories themselves were short and easy to read.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 22,038

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  112. ON THE BEACH - Nevil Shute (280)
  ©1957 I put this book on my shelf when I joined Shelfari, because I was sure I’d read it as a teenager. After re-reading it, I’m not so sure. I owned the book back then, I remember. And I’m sure I started it many times but gave up because it starts a little slowly and as a teen, I was unfamiliar with the geography (Australia), the science, and the world politics it contained. I cannot imagine now that I read it before, because I don’t remember a thing about it.

  The book was a slow starter for me, but once the story got going, I couldn’t put it down. It’s the 50s version of what the aftermath of an all-out, global nuclear war would be like. The large number of atomic bombs fell only in the Northern Hemisphere and quickly wiped out the population of that half of the globe. It took a couple years for the killer radioactive fall-out to make it to the Southern Hemisphere, so life goes on Down Under. But everyone knows that it’s coming.

  Even though the story is by now hopelessly out-dated, it was a good, pre-computer-age guess of what waiting for one’s last day on earth might be like for the last souls left alive after a nuclear holocaust. Recommended with 4 stars.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 22,318

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  113. IT HAPPENED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - Noelle Sullivan (119)
  ©1996 It would take a mighty thick book to cover the entire history of Southern California. This is a thin book with fascinating, but short, condensed tellings of some thirty events dating from 1600 to 1996. Enjoyable.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 22,437

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  114. CRAZY HORSE - Larry McMurtry (141)
  ©1999 A concise biography about the great Oglala Sioux warrior who fought (bravely, but unsuccessfully) for his people’s right to freedom on their own land in the Black Hills, which the government was trying to take from them so that it could be mined for gold. He was a prominent figure in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, however little actual factual data is available about his life. McMurtry does a fine job sorting legend from fact and presenting us with a heroic figure from the Indian Wars of the second half of the 19th century.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 22,578

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  115. BLACK ELK SPEAKS: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by Black Elk (as told through John G. Neihardt) (244)
  ©1932 I didn’t realize that the last time I went to the library I picked up so many books about Native Americans. By sheer coincidence I chose this one and Larry McMurtry’s Crazy Horse, not realizing that these two Indians were contemporaries during the time of the Indian Wars that ended with the annihilation of the bison that the tribes depended on and forcing them off their lands and onto reservations.

  Black Elk, a young cousin of Crazy Horse, had a great vision when he was only nine years old, which led him to become a medicine man before he was 20. He was illiterate and unable to understand English, so the stories he tells are through an interpreter and written down by the author in 1931. The book tells of his early life during the time of the big change, when white settlers were moving across the plains in vast numbers, and the U.S. Cavalry was in charge of keeping them and the miners seeking the gold of the Black Hills safe. So many broken treaties by the U.S. government led to the bitter Indian Wars.

  This book was both beautiful in its Native American mysticism and heartbreaking in it’s violence and despair. There was one uproariously funny story about an Indian brave of the tribe trying to win the heart and hand of a beautiful young maiden. Black Elk also related stories of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the betrayal, arrest and killing Crazy Horse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

  Black Elk was a truly wise old man who said: “You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round…The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. …Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. …Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and they were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.

  But the Wasichus [white men] have put us in these square boxes [cabins and shacks]. Our power is gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us anymore. You can look at our boys and see how it was with us. When we were living by the power of the circle in the way we should, boys were men at twelve or thirteen years of age. But now it takes them very much longer to mature.”

  This book should be required reading in high school history classes, so future generations will always remember how disgracefully the Native Americans were treated by land- and resource-hungry whites and the U.S. government. It, like slavery, is a bloody blot on our nation’s history that I’m sure many people would rather forget.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 22,822

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  Read for the Sun of a Beach Challenge:

  116. THE DAY THE SUN WENT DOWN - Darryl Babe Wilson (178)
  ©1998
  In 1947, when the author was only seven years old, one in a family of 9 children, his mother and baby brother were killed in an accident. His father, laid off from his job at the local slaughterhouse, steadily drowned his sorrow in alcohol and was unable to care for his brood. So the Wilson children were made wards of the state of California, split up, and sent to different foster homes.

  The family was from the Achumawe and Atsugewi tribes of the Falls River/Pit River region of northern California. Just like the treachery and deceit dealt to the Plains Indians of Crazy Horse’s day, these 20th century Native Americans were forced off their lands by white land speculators and developers, with the blessing and aid of their government in Washington DC.

  Interspersed with stories of the author’s boyhood are the customs and rituals of his people, as well as his bitterness over the breakup of his family. He wrote this book so that the culture and language of his people would not be forgotten. Another book about an indigenous people tragically and wrongfully displaced from the life and land they loved. Very good autobiography.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,000

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  117. ANDY CATLETT: Early Travels - Wendell Berry (140)
  ©2006 I’ve read a lot of modern YA fiction in the past (mostly during the 90s when I was still reading to my son), but I’ve pretty much given up on that genre because so many of the books published for young adults today are spoiled (for me anyway) by a reliance on sex, violence, filthy language, disrespect, apathy, drugs, etc. for their plots. I prefer to read about the children of yesteryear, when this negative subject matter was not a factor.

  Andy Catlett grew up during WW2, a bit before my time, but I really connected with his story and found so many similarities with life as it was when I was growing up during the 50’s and 60’s. Andy’s story bridges the change between the agrarian world of horse-drawn transportation and the arrival of the horseless carriage, town life, and commercialism.

  When Andy was nine, he was allowed to travel alone by bus for an after-Christmas visit with both sets of his grandparents. As an old man, he recalls his days of innocence and wonder, and his grandparents: the old-fashioned farming Catletts and the more modern town folk, the Feltners. All of this takes place in and around a small town called Port William.

  Wendell Berry is one of my favorite poets. I was surprised to learn (from someone here on Shelfari…sorry I don’t remember who, but thanks for the tip) that he has also written excellent fiction, with many of his novels centering on the residents of Port William. I’m looking forward to reading as many of these books as I can get my hands on, because his prose is as exquisite as his poetry.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,140

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  118. LOOKING BACK - Lois Lowry (181)
  ©1998 This is the most enchanting and unique memoir I’ve ever read. The very popular children’s book author (she wrote The Giver) is often asked where the ideas for her stories come from. So she opens her family photo album and shares with the reader her inspiration.

  There are recent photos of her grandchildren, not-so-recent ones of her 4 children, and old ones of herself and her sister and brother as kids, as well as her parents and grandparents from way back. Lowry is a talented photographer, as was her father, so the photography is stunningly beautiful. She gives commentaries on the pictures, relating them to characters in her books, as well as excerpts from those stories. This is a quick and delightful look into the life of an author, and also a testimony to the love of books and the importance of parents reading to their children.

  Read this! If you don’t enjoy it as much as I did, I’ll eat my bookmark!

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,321

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  119. 60s! - John & Gordon Javna (221)
  ©1983 This coffee-table type book was just the ticket for a zany Magic Carpet Ride back to my youth! Full of facts and photos of the culture of the “Make Love --- Not War” era, it takes a humorous look at the toys we played with, the cereal we ate, the cars we drove, the TV shows and movies we watched, the music and dances we grooved to, the threads we wore, the hair we grew long, the drugs we did or didn’t experiment with, the beer we guzzled, the sports stars we idolized. Also covered were the politics, the generation-gap problems, assassinations, war in Vietnam, moon landing, and other stuff we may have forgotten about.

  For better or worse, the decade of the 60s rang in the modern age with crass consumerism, relaxed sexual mores, and outrageous hedonism. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember. If you’re too young to have lived it, you may not believe your eyes. But then again, nothing is all that surprising in today’s world. But, for me anyway, this book was a gas!

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,542

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  120. HANNAH COULTER - Wendell Berry (186)
  ©2004 This is a novel about family and community. It’s also a love story about a young woman who was a bride twice. After WW2 claims the life of her newly-wedded husband (leaving her a pregnant widow), she marries another young man from her area who made it home from the war, and they carry on the farming way of life that they were born to.

  As an old woman twice-widowed, nearing the end of her own days, Hannah looks back on her life and reflects on the memories of her girlhood, her first love, her grief at losing him in the war, the birth of her daughter, her long marriage to a good farmer, the two sons born to them, the hardships and rewards of farming, and the family and friends living nearby who all help each other during the seasonal work of their farms.

  The author, a noted peace and environmental activist, who has been neither a woman nor a soldier, skillfully weaves a tale of some of the families living in the farming community of Port William, Kentucky before and after the two world wars. He writes very convincingly from a farm wife’s point of view, and he gives a realistic glimpse of the hell we call “war.” In the end he has contrasted the old-time way of life on the small family farms of yesteryear with today’s mechanized, technological agriculture of modern mega-farming.

  His descriptions of the land and the people who love it are superb. As Hannah says goodbye to so many of family and friends, as they pass away in their own due time, the author seems also to be saying goodbye to a good way of life that has all but passed away too.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,728

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  121. REMEMBERING - Wendell Berry (124)
  ©1988 In yet another novel from Berry’s fictional farming community of Port William, Kentucky, Andy Catlett is a grown man now, a husband and a father. He has been to college and tried city life, but has brought his family back to live among his neighbors around Port William. He’s having a hard time adjusting to life with only one hand when he loses his right one in a farm accident. He’s also depressed by the way modern mega-farming is destroying the way of life for small family farms across the nation. He’s a confused and unhappy man with his marriage on the rocks.

  While he’s away in San Francisco attending an agriculture convention, he does a lot of remembering of the good old days and a lot of lonely soul-searching.

  I thought the best part of the book was his reminiscence of when he was sent to interview a big-time farmer for the magazine, Scientific Farming, that he used to work for. The man farms 2,000 acres (which he has accumulated by buying out his neighbors as their small farms went under), all in corn, with not a fence, garden, woodlot, animal, or tree on the place. Instead he owns a herd of machines. He has a huge house decorated in the latest style, which he and his wife are rarely home to enjoy, as she has to work too. He also has ulcers from his stressful life of bossing employees, upkeep of all his machinery, bookkeeping, dealing with his creditors and his mountain of debt.

  After he leaves the interview, Andy happens upon an Amish farmer plowing a field with a couple horses. He stops to chat and the farmer invites him to make a few rounds of the field with the horses and plow. When the farmer invites him to join the family at the noon meal, Andy finds out a lot about the Amish way of life. A man and wife with five children make a living for themselves on 80 acres, with no mechanization and without going and staying in debt. Twenty-five families of Amish could farm and thrive in community with their neighbors on the 2,000 acres that one man (and his ulcer) farms with huge, expensive machinery, bank loans that will never be paid off, and dependence on the mega-rich oil, fertilizer and chemical companies, while robbing the land of its natural fertility and destroying the habitats of both the wildlife and the small farmers who either have to “get big or get out.”

  This book was deeper and more philosophical than the other two I read about the folks of Port William. I can certainly relate to all the author is trying to say because my husband, in his retirement, is working for a widow who is struggling to keep her 2,000-acre farm from going under. I applaud Berry’s efforts to educate the public on the importance of smaller, sustainable agriculture and organic farming techniques. But is anyone listening?

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 23,852

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  122. SETTLED IN THE WILD - Susan Hand Shetterly (240)
  ©2010 What a great book with which to follow my reading of three novels by Wendell Berry. If you love beautiful, descriptive nature writing, this memoir surely fits the bill.

  She and her young family moved to the wilds of Maine in 1971, in the midst of the back-to-the-land movement. But unlike so many idealistic young people who did the same during that time but later left, she “settled” there for good, and made her living writing for magazines like Yankee, Down East, Audubon and Birder’s World. She became a wild bird rescue expert and nursed many hurt or sick birds back to health and released the back into the wild.

  Her writing is as observant and descriptive as that of Annie Dillard and Rachel Carson. I really enjoyed the essays she has collected into one volume. My favorite was the one in which she tells of an injured snake that she had nursed back to health, only to have it one day get loose in the house. I’ve had snakes loose in my house too, so I know what that’s like.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 24,092

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  123. EVEN THE STARS LOOK LONESOME - Maya Angelou (145)
  ©1997 Another great book of memoirs and opinions by the incomparable Maya Angelou. I love the title. The essay I liked best was called “Danger in Denial,” in which she gives a good tongue-lashing to hip-hop rap stars for describing black women (which includes their mothers, grandmothers, sisters and other female friends and family) as ho’s and bitches:

  We were stolen and sold from the African continent together. We crouched together in the barracoons, without enough air to share between us. We lay, back to belly in the filthy hatches of slave ships, in one another’s excrement, menstrual blood and urine. We were hosed down and oiled to give sheen to our skin, then stood together on auction blocks and were sold together. …”

  I only wish I could have listened to the CD-book instead. I would love to hear her read her book in her rich, smooth, authoritative voice.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 24,237

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  124. JOHN STEINBECK: America’s Author - Donne Florence (125)
  ©2000 This concise and well-written Juv-Bio is from the People to Know series. My library relocated it to the adult non-fiction floor because kids weren’t checking it out. It’s a pity. He’s one of my favorite authors, and I first read him as a kid with The Red Pony. Maybe they aren’t teaching about the classics and their authors anymore in school.

  That said, I must admit that although I’ve read most of the Steinbeck I can get my hands on, I knew very little about the man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. I learned a lot from this book about the life and times of John Steinbeck. I’ll be reading more of his work that I still haven’t got around to yet. A fascinating life, for sure.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 24,362

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  125. FARM: A History and Celebration of the American Farmer - Gary Paulsen (125)
  ©1977 Gary Paulsen is a favorite author of mine. I read all those Hatchet books of his to my son when he was little. I’ve enjoyed a number of his books for us adults too. And I enjoyed this one very much too.

  It covers the history of farming up until the 1970s. The author devotes the first chapter to the first farmers: the Native Americans. Then he talks about the hardships of the first European settlers, and how the Revolutionary War impacted farmers. He includes chapters on the history of livestock in this country, as well as the different types of power and tools that farmers have had to work with through the ages. He describes how early American farm families lived (survived) and how they were unified in their small communities with the church as their social center. He goes on to point out how times are changing, so farming techniques must change too, because America feeds the rest of the world.

  From there our opinions diverge a bit, but maybe that’s because he was writing from a 1977 perspective and I’m reading it 35 years into the future.

  So be aware: the book is somewhat dated. Although I did learn a lot about early agriculture in America, and would recommend it to those interested for that reason.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 24,487

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  126. LINCOLN AND ANN RUTLEDGE AND THE PIONEERS OF NEW SALEM - William Henry Herndon (50)
  © 1945 This little book contains a lecture given by Abraham Lincoln’s junior law partner, William Henry Herndon in 1866, a little over a year after the President’s death. By then newspapers were clamoring for any first-hand information about the assassinated President, and the people were making him not just a hero, but a demigod. Herndon wanted to present Lincoln as a man, just like any other, and points to his humble years of living and working in the village on New Salem, Illinois as what really “made” the man who was to be our 16th President of the United States of America.

  Ann Rutledge, a young lady of New Salem, was Lincoln’s first, and possibly only, true love. Herndon tells their tragic story: Ann found herself engaged to two men at the same time: Lincoln and John McNamar. She fretted and worried about this, stopped eating, couldn’t sleep, and died, in her run-down condition, of a fever (probably typhoid), when she was 22. Herndon goes on to tell how terribly Lincoln suffered a depression that came close to insanity when he lost her.

  What I really enjoyed was the author’s detailed description of the pioneer village of New Salem and the way of life of its citizens. I don’t live all that far from New Salem State Park, with its reconstructed village of log cabins, so I’ve visited there many times. As I read Herndon’s description of it, I could easily visualize it because I’d been there.

  This is part of the story of Lincoln’s early life, straight from the mouth of a friend and business partner who knew him well.

  TOTAL PAGES TO DATE: 24,537

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