Tuesday, May 24, 2005
1000 White Women
Excellent book! I'm going to use Kirkus review because he says it better than I can.
From Kirkus Reviews (300 pages)
Long, brisk, charming first novel about an 1875 treaty between Ulysses S. Grant and Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, by the sports reporter and author of the memoir A Hunter's Road (1992). Little Wolf comes to Washington and suggests to President Grant that peace between the Whites and Cheyenne could be established if the Cheyenne were given white women as wives, and that the tribe would agree to raise the children from such unions. The thought of miscegenation naturally enough astounds Grant, but he sees a certain wisdom in trading 1,000 white women for 1,000 horses, and he secretly approves the Brides For Indians treaty. He recruits women from jails, penitentiaries, debtors' prisons, and mental institutionsoffering full pardons or unconditional release. May Dodd, born to wealth in Chicago in 1850, had left home in her teens and become the mistress of her father's grain-elevator foreman. Her outraged father had her kidnaped, imprisoning her in a monstrous lunatic asylum. When Grant's offer arrives, she leaps at it and soon finds herself traveling west with hundreds of white and black would-be brides. All are indentured to the Cheyenne for two years, must produce children, and then will have the option of leaving. May, who keeps the journal we read, marries Little Wolf and lives in a crowded tipi with his two other wives, their children, and an old crone who enforces the rules. Reading about life among the Cheyenne is spellbinding, especially when the women show up the braves at arm-wrestling, foot-racing, bow-shooting, and gambling. Liquor raises its evil head, as it will, and reduces the braves to savagery. But the women recover, go out on the winter kill with their husbands, and accompany them to a trading post where they drive hard bargains and stop the usual cheating of the braves. Eventually, when the cavalry attacks the Cheyenne, mistakenly thinking they're Crazy Horse's Sioux, May is killed. An impressive historical, terse, convincing, and affecting. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Kirkus Reviews (300 pages)
Long, brisk, charming first novel about an 1875 treaty between Ulysses S. Grant and Little Wolf, chief of the Cheyenne nation, by the sports reporter and author of the memoir A Hunter's Road (1992). Little Wolf comes to Washington and suggests to President Grant that peace between the Whites and Cheyenne could be established if the Cheyenne were given white women as wives, and that the tribe would agree to raise the children from such unions. The thought of miscegenation naturally enough astounds Grant, but he sees a certain wisdom in trading 1,000 white women for 1,000 horses, and he secretly approves the Brides For Indians treaty. He recruits women from jails, penitentiaries, debtors' prisons, and mental institutionsoffering full pardons or unconditional release. May Dodd, born to wealth in Chicago in 1850, had left home in her teens and become the mistress of her father's grain-elevator foreman. Her outraged father had her kidnaped, imprisoning her in a monstrous lunatic asylum. When Grant's offer arrives, she leaps at it and soon finds herself traveling west with hundreds of white and black would-be brides. All are indentured to the Cheyenne for two years, must produce children, and then will have the option of leaving. May, who keeps the journal we read, marries Little Wolf and lives in a crowded tipi with his two other wives, their children, and an old crone who enforces the rules. Reading about life among the Cheyenne is spellbinding, especially when the women show up the braves at arm-wrestling, foot-racing, bow-shooting, and gambling. Liquor raises its evil head, as it will, and reduces the braves to savagery. But the women recover, go out on the winter kill with their husbands, and accompany them to a trading post where they drive hard bargains and stop the usual cheating of the braves. Eventually, when the cavalry attacks the Cheyenne, mistakenly thinking they're Crazy Horse's Sioux, May is killed. An impressive historical, terse, convincing, and affecting. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
3rd Degree
Patterson, apparently has a 3 series women detective novel thing going. This is the third.
3rd Degree is a fast paced, easy to read novel from the opening pages until the end. The plot begins when a townhouse goes up in flames and a note is discovered at the site. It became a controversial issue because no one could say for certain whether it is an arson/terrorist act or accident. But when more violence erupts in the city pointing to the August Spies group, it became clear who was behind the arson.
----I've noticed I'm not as into detective books anymore. Odd, because that's all I used to read until I became a member of May Co's book club.---
450 fast, 3-4 page chapter read.
Hmmmm. I know I've read more that I haven't blogged, now what were they?????
3rd Degree is a fast paced, easy to read novel from the opening pages until the end. The plot begins when a townhouse goes up in flames and a note is discovered at the site. It became a controversial issue because no one could say for certain whether it is an arson/terrorist act or accident. But when more violence erupts in the city pointing to the August Spies group, it became clear who was behind the arson.
----I've noticed I'm not as into detective books anymore. Odd, because that's all I used to read until I became a member of May Co's book club.---
450 fast, 3-4 page chapter read.
Hmmmm. I know I've read more that I haven't blogged, now what were they?????
Prep
Lee Fiora, an outstanding grammar school student in South Bend, Indiana, receives a scholarship to attend the prominent Ault School, a boarding school in Massachusetts. For the majority of students at Ault money is not an issue. As Lee learns, it is an issue that is simply not discussed among her fellow students. Lee is unsettled by the fact that she is no longer the outstanding student she was in Indiana. Prep is written in such an intimate style that you feel what Lee feels during her four years at Ault. Chapters are semester length so you get an in-depth view of Lee, her friends, and boarding school culture. Lee's struggles never end in trying to become comfortable at Ault, finding friends, maintaining her grades and seeking a boyfriend. Lee does give you a glimpse of their lives into the future. This novel gives us all something to relate to, the people and feelings we have known throughout our lives.
I saw a little bit of myself, and a little bit of Lisa in this book.
Maybe 300 pages.
I saw a little bit of myself, and a little bit of Lisa in this book.
Maybe 300 pages.
