My husband likes this author, along with Louis L’Amour and. I can understand his liking the latterauthor but not his one. HHe Ain’t No Cormac McCarthy
My husband likes this author, along with Louis L’Amour and. I can understand his liking the latterauthor but not his one. He is too graphic in its violence, but hey, I think Cormac McCarthy is the best writer there is. Neither of us are like the people we read about in these books in that we are not violent. It is hard to understand why we read these books.
My idea of a western is A.B. Guthrie, who wrote on the same subjects as William W. Johnstone, or better yet, “The Lonesome Dove.” McCarthy’s three westerns did not cut it for me. Not lyrical enough. If you are going to kill someone, be poetic about it. It is McCarthy’s lyrical writing that I love, not the subject matter or the characters.
Still, I wanted to take a second try at Johnstone. I had read one of his other series about a man taking a wagon train out west, so I thought I would try his mountain man series since I liked A.B. Guthrie’s book about a mountain man. Well, here is what I thought of this book:
I did not like it. Preacher, not a real preacher, just a crass mountain man, rescues some white men and women that the Indians had taken captive when they attacked a wagon train. This was nice of him, but then he learns that they are Christians, and he finds he doesn’t like them because of their niceties. And he makes fun of them because of their stupidity. They know nothing about surviving in the wilderness. They don’t like Preacher because he is crass, and I agree with them, but I don’t like them because of their self-righteousness. Also, what is a book if you can’t stand any of the characters? The answer is, it is a Cormac McCarthy book, but at least it is poetic. Well, I did like a few characters in his books.
The book: (I gave it two and a half stars.) After Preacher saves the pilgrims who think they want to live in Oregon, a group of men who hate Preacher attack their camp. Mach man takes care of them. Sort of. They finally get to a fort, and the Blackfoot Indians attack the fort. They all have smallpox and plan to giving it to the white man who gave it to them in the first place. Now, listen to this: This book was written many years ago, way before Covid-19, but it is a lot like today. When Preacher learns that the Indians have smallpox, he tells the pilgrims, that are in their wagons outside of the fort, to come inside, to even get a smallpox scratch. (I looked up smallpox vaccine. It was created in 1798. For this information the book received one-half star.) Some of the pilgrims didn’t trust the vaccine so refused to take it. Some wanted to stay outside of the fort to protect their belongings. Buena suerte! Que Dios te acompane!
The next and last scene I wish to talk about is this: The pilgrims have left the fort in a wagon train, and the bad men that wish to kill Preacher are following behind. I expect more gory scenes. At least McCarthy never had gory scenes in his books. Like the Bible, if you want gory, you had to imagine it yourself.
There are 5 more hours of this book, and I am thinking that I have better things to do, like wash the dishes, feed the cats, or go to bed for another hour of sleep. I think I will also try a Raymond Feist book since my husband also likes him. Fantasy. But besides our love for Tolkien, I am not sure if we have any other books in common. (Update: I just asked my husband why he liked Johnstone, and he said that it really doesn't, that he is going to give his books to the library. He suggested I read "The Lonesome Gods" by L'Amour, so I will. He likes the things that he learns in L'Amour's books.)...more
I must be losing my sense of adventure because I used to think that I would like the pioneer life. Not now. Her trip by wagon trI'll Take Modern Times
I must be losing my sense of adventure because I used to think that I would like the pioneer life. Not now. Her trip by wagon train to Boise, Idaho was simple, as hearing her tell it. There was only one incident with Indians and one hard going on the trail, but if I say anymore the book would have been spoiled.
Then she got to Boise, and they set up housekeeping, first building a log home. One cold winter, sickness, and then hunger, with some of their animals dying, and I was gone.
The only other thing I got out of this book, was my conversation with my husband. Why didn’t pioneers make a shelter for animals against their house and let the heat from the fireplace enter into it to keep the animals warm? Some did, he said. He told me of a western that he had read, and the farmer placed his stable against the side of the house where the rock fireplace could heat the room. The rocks would give off a certain amount of heat, just enough to take the chill out of the air. You couldn’t do this with a large herd of cattle, just a milk cow, a few chickens, and a horse or two. I had even thought of a log barn, and then I read that they had made a chicken house out of logs.
I think what got to me most was how little they owned. She slept of a straw bed, and yet another person had brought a feather bed. I would have had to have a feather bed. Then they had a few clothes, a few pots and pans, and a few dishes. This is called, “depravation of environment, I believe--a term I learned in collage. The more I listened to this woman, the more I appreciated what I had. I doubt if she even had a rocking chair for this old woman, and I know she didn’t have books on tape....more
Today seems like a great day to write a review for this book,, because it is pouring down rain, and in just a fewTrials of the Earth by Maary Hamilton
Today seems like a great day to write a review for this book,, because it is pouring down rain, and in just a few hours we have already had 4 inches of rain. So, I don’t see myself going outside since our book group has been cancelled due to flooding.
Our rain is much like the rain that Mary Hamilton had experienced while living in the Mississippi Delta. It caused her home to be flooded and destroyed. Only the rain she experienced lasted more than a few hours, which is not what I expect our rain to do.
This was Mary Hamilton’s autobiography, beginning from the time she married Frank Hamilton to her old age. While she outlived her husband, she never talked about her children’s lives after they were grown.
When living in the Mississippi Delta, her husband was a logger, and they lived in a house next to the river. What? When the rains came, and the waters rose, I couldn’t help but think of the wise man who built his house upon the rock, for as the rains came, she and her children, who were alone at that time, became trapped.
Due to her ability to write really well, she was able to turn her life into an adventure, although she would not have considered it an adventure at the time. So the story of her house being under water was quite interesting.
Since we live on a hill with very rocky soil, I don’t worry much about flooding, not that we were like the wise man; It just happened that way. So, as I said, I don’t worry much about flooding, although one weekend we had 9 inches of rain, the field next to us, was flooded, even covering our roto tiller with about a foot of water. My blackberry bushes also stood in water and never came back even though they love water, just not that much.
There are other stories like this in her book, but her life was only excitiing in parts of her book, and in the beginning it was so slow paced, that I almost gave up on it. Still, I knew that there had to be something to it causeed someone she knew to encourage her to write it all down.
She lived back in the 1860s when America was raw, and pioneers were still moving west. Her husband moved them around as well, going back and forth to Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi. At this time her husband was working at a logging company, and she worked as a cook for thosse loggers.
Then when they moved, she she made dresses for neighbors, making a dollar per dress. Opefull, tey provided te material and the thread. Then after moving again, she and her eihildren picked cotton.
None of this appeals to me as I would find it rather grueling since I don’t like repetitive work. I tried making crafts at one time along wit my friend, Mimi, wo then wanted me to make them to sell. I was already bored, so I passed.
Mary never complained, so perhaps she liked her life. Or perhaps she just didn’t wis to complain in her book.
Then they once lived by a prison, but that was short lived, because they didn’t wish for their children to grow up in that environment. Whenever a prisoner escaped, the children sometimes saw what happened to the men when they were captured.
When I was just out of high school, I moved to Vacaville, CA and lived alone in a small run down house near the Vacaville Prison. Not aving a car, I used to walk by the prisoners working in the fields when I was going to work as a car hop at the A&W Root Beer Stand. The prisoners all stared at me, and I was glad that they had shackles on their legs.
Then one day my boss sowed up at my ouse, and my husband to be was there. They took it that we were sleeping together, but we were not! Then they called my parents and told tem that I lived near te dangerous prison, and then they fired me. Ah, tose were the days!
Back to the book: At another time, Mary’s husband had moved them to the woods in Arkansas, and during this time her children played in those woods. One day some wild boars saw them and chased them up a tree, but it didn’t end there as this horrifying story with the boars continued. After their rescue, their parents still allowed them to play in the woods. Such was life back then. Parents did not try to protect their children as much as they do today. She didn’t mention being worried about them playing in the woods again, but I would have been beside myself. Still, I prefer the freedom that I had in my own childhood, as I roamed all over our small town, and I walked with my do to the river and the hills.
If my mother only knew of the times my siblings and I were almost killed, she may have worried about us too, as if she hadn’t worried too much about us anyway.
For examples: I had once saved my little sister from drowned, a friend of my brother’s saved him from drowning in a reservoir. Then there was the time that I was standing on the edge of a ravine pressing on the lip of the ravine, causing basketball-size pieces of dirt to fall into it.e. Of course, back th[]]]]]]]]]=en I never saw the danger of doing this. What would have happened if a much larger piece had broken off with me on it? And that is just a few of the dangers we managed to get ourselves into when we were kids.
What bothered me most about this book was how a few of Mary’s children died at a young age, not making it even to their teenage years. After one of her sons had died, one of her daughters wanted to go to heaven to be with him.
If any one of us had died when we were young, I can’t imagine that any one of us would have wanted to go to heaven to be with our so-called loved one. My older, whom I dearly love no, used to tell me to go play in the freeway, if not that, he would tell me to take a long walk on a short pier.
When my older brother moved out, I was excited because I got to have his bedroom, which I had coveted forever. It was a screened-in sleeping porch. And when I moved, my younger sister got my room and two of my Lanz dresses. She ruined tose dresses, which had actually be hand me downs frm my older sister. Still, they were ruined, and I was upset!!
I am sure that everyone in my family is glad that I didn’t take my brother’s dvice to play in the freeway evem though they had not wished to go to heaven with me had I fallen off that cliff.
I felt that Mary’s life was too hard. I would not have wished to have lived it, but maybe she enjoyed cooking for a large group of men, and perhaps she loved sewing every day, all day long. And maybe she found her life to be quite an adventure. If nothing else, she really enjoyed her children and felt them to be very precious to her. Perhaps, she just took life as it cme, and maybe many of us do the same. There were not many choices in the old west if you were a pioneer and didn’t live in town. That may even be true today. ...more
“I stood outside the sod house looking around at the prairie. Who could ever live in this desolate place? I stepped down into the dark Spoiler alert**
“I stood outside the sod house looking around at the prairie. Who could ever live in this desolate place? I stepped down into the dark kitch*en, a home with only one door and too few windows. Its walls had been plastered with old newsprint that had become yellowed and torn with age, its floor, dirt. Mr. and Mrs. Ed Brown had built this homestead in 1909. What was it like for them? I would have gone mad out here as some women, and even men, had. What was there to do other than sit in the kitchen’s darkness during the long winters listening to the wind blow over the prairies and the coyotes howl? –Jessaka, Badlands National Park 2014.
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Both photos are of Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s home.
The women came out west with their men. Or sometimes men had first built their homesteads and went looking for women back east. Sometimes they had lied to them about the conditions of their homesteads. I have a great ranch, and we have wonderful neighbors, a great doctor, and all the food you can eat. They got some women pregnant so they couldn’t run away when they pulled up to his so-called ranch. Being shoeless also helped keep them at home. What the women found instead of a nice big ranch and fun neighbors was loneliness, fear and isolation; seldom did they find a woman friend, because homesteads were built far from each other. Well, they could and did have babies, as I had said, and they had to stand along side their men and plow the land and watch their crops die. And then they also found starvation, death and insanity.
A pregnant woman’s husband plans to leave for a night or two, and she tells him that she is about to deliver her baby. He states that he must go, and that the baby was not his fault because “A man had his needs, and the Almighty had provided women for those needs.” “Well!” I would have said, “I am tired of having babies. Pretend I am not here. I assure you, there are other ways that God may have also intended.”
The woman delivered her own child, while her six children hid in their bedroom as told. Then she walked barefoot into the snow to the outhouse and tossed her newborn into its putrid sewage below, headfirst. She had lost her mind or in some odd way, perhaps she found it.
Another woman, whose husband had also left her alone, had to face four wolves that had come howling at her door and had managed to get inside, breaking a window and dropping down from the roof. She kills them but she, too, loses her mind. Men in this book never lose their minds; they are strong men, although often liars. The scene with the wolves was my first inkling that this book may become even more incredible than it had just now become. Wolves fear humans and seldom attack unless they have rabies. They just do not hunt humans as in this story. This is the consensus of Rick Lambaugh who has studied wolves and has written books about them. It is also the consensus of others. What were wolves like before they feared man? I only know that they had become tame around cavemen because the cavemen would throw out their left over meat bones, which the wolves would devour. They also ate the caveman’s scat, keeping the campsite clean. But I would also imagine that they would have begun to fear men later on, as soon as they set eyes on each other, and the wolf was looking down the barrel of a rifle.
But since I was somewhat entertained, I continued reading. Briggs and a strong woman named Mary Cuddy were the Homesmen, taking four insane women back east to a town where their families could come and pick them up to take them home with them. History never said what had really happened with women like this. Perhaps, they were thrown into jail, or murdered or allowed to walk away and die. While many men could deal with the desolation of the west, they could not deal with a mad woman.
Then just over half way through the book, Mary Cuddy, who could almost outdo a man in anything, began to display incredulous behavior by whining because she had fallen in love with Briggs, who was not a good catch. He would have been like catching a stinkin’ catfish that you would have wished to throw back into the river. Her whining behavior just about caused me to put the book down before even I went insane. It was just so out of character. Even her helplessness around the camp site got to me. Perhaps love can make some strong woman act goofy. I don’t know. Still, I continued with the book. Then when I saw that the story was falling apart in my hands, I took up skimming the book, which is how I saved my sanity.
Anyway, I almost didn’t’\t care what happened to any of them. I can only say that Briggs did a jig at the end of the book. He danced in the star and moonlight and howled at the moon.
“Occasionally a lone tree seemed to have planted itself on the plain and grown to full majesty. How it was there was a riddle without an answer, unless by bird dropping.”
Some men out on the plains were like that tree....more
I loved this series when I read them around ten years ago. My favorite was The Long Winter.
A few years ago I went Fried Apples and a Lesson in Racism
I loved this series when I read them around ten years ago. My favorite was The Long Winter.
A few years ago I went to visit her home in Missouri with my sister and niece. She had two houses, but I must say I loved the Sears and Roebuck one best. The other one had a wonderful antique mint green stove in it that I would have loved to have owned, except I think that it would not be easy to bake in, and maybe it used wood for fuel. My ex mother-in-law had a wood burning one once when she was renting a house in the country. It heated the entire house. She didn’t bake much, so she didn’t have to worry about getting the fire just right.
I read this book again because I had heard that it contained racist remarks. I must not have noticed it before. So, Laura Ingalls and her family take off in a covered wagon for parts unknown. Laura asked for a papoose, like another child would ask for a puppy. Her mother exclaims, “I don’t like Indians. No, you cannot have a papoose.” Why would Laura even think of owning a papoose? I suppose it was just a childish whim. And then her father talks about how the government is going to push back or kill the Indians, so they don’t have to worry.
So now, what was once an adorable story about pioneers that all children love; to an adult, can become a political issue, as it was in the book, Killers of the Flower Moon that came out after I read this book. This conversation was mentioned in it in detail.
The fact of racism in this book doesn’t ruin it for me, and I am American Indian, but I had a German father. I had a friend who was Indian, but she didn’t like pioneer stories, which was understandable. Me, I love them. I have another friend who loves them too, and she is married to a Native American and may be part Indian. So I asked members of our book group if they liked pioneer stories, some of us are Indian or part Indian. One wanted nothing to do with them because the white man had murdered the Indians. Three of us liked them because they were survival books and fun reading; They were history. We felt that other countries had to deal with these things as well. Then some of us who were Indian had family who came to America in the early days. Now as to the racist comment, I like what one of the group members said, “They were being honest with their feelings, and they were afraid of the Indians,” and I might add, “They should have been. Not all Indians were friendly.” And Indians had sometimes warred with each other, taking food from another tribe when there was a drought, kidnapping children, etc.
This doesn’t make it right what the Europeans did by coming to here, just as it isn’t right for any nation to colonize or destroy other nations. I just hope that kids who read these books will get a lesson from their parents on racism, as it would be a good way to teach them.
Here is an interesting recipe that could have been used by the Ingalls on the trail:
Fried Apples Fry 4 slices of bacon. Remove bacon. Slice apples and add to hot bacon grease. Brown on each side. Serve. Now whenever I fry apples, I used real butter, but if I used bacon grease, I would eat the bacon along with the apples.
What a courageous and fascinating woman. Clara and her family were sold into slavery, each being separated. The family that bought her treated her witWhat a courageous and fascinating woman. Clara and her family were sold into slavery, each being separated. The family that bought her treated her with dignity, as much as a slave can have in such a situation. When she was freed by her master, she wanted to find her only remaining family member, a daughter. She spend many of her years working at a business that she created, a laundry business, saved her money and began searching for her daughter. It is a short but powerful story.
The author has written many pioneer stories in the 99 cent range--short but worthwhile reads. ...more
Pioneer story? I guess, but it is more of who survived on the trip out west and who didn't. This wasn't what I would call a fun read; instead what shePioneer story? I guess, but it is more of who survived on the trip out west and who didn't. This wasn't what I would call a fun read; instead what she went through, and what the people went through was horrendous. It isn't even a story that tells you what it was like traveling or how the people survived, but it was more of a story of who died, who got killed and why. I bought it for 99 cents on kindle, and it was worth the read for historical reasons. ...more
I bought this book for free on kindle, and for once a free book was really worth every dime. I wanted to read about Nebraska ever since seeing Willa CI bought this book for free on kindle, and for once a free book was really worth every dime. I wanted to read about Nebraska ever since seeing Willa Cather's childhood home in Red Cloud, Nebraska and then seeing a sod home in the Badlands. When taking our trip across the prairies I wondered how anyone could travel for months across land that was nothing but prairie. The cornfields that it had become were bad enough, but actually the flowers would have been really nice and calming. The Wildlife Reserve near Valentine. NE was just beautiful as the flowers were still in bloom and it was August.
The sod house we saw was in the badlands. It was barren, even the land around it was barren. I thought, "No way could I have lived like this." and one women in this book said just as much.
The stories in this book were actually highlights of people's lives in the 1800s, and I loved them but would have really loved to have read a diary of a woman who lived in the sod house in the Badlands, as I just can't imagine it.
“Fallen trees were everywhere and we had to avoid the branches, which was powerful hard to do. Besides, it was quite dusky among the trees long before“Fallen trees were everywhere and we had to avoid the branches, which was powerful hard to do. Besides, it was quite dusky among the trees long before night, but it was all so grand and awe-inspiring. Occasionally there was an opening through which we could see the snowy peaks, seemingly just beyond us, toward which we were headed.But when you get among such grandeur you get to feel how little you are and how foolish is human endeavor, except that which reunites us with the mighty force called god. I was plumb uncomfortable, because all my own efforts have always been just to make the best of everything and to take things as they come.”
One of my friends sent me her worn out copy of this book as a loaner, because she believed it was such a great book. When it arrived it was so worn out from so many hands reading it. I loved it, so I suggested it for our book group and read it again.
What makes this story so good? First, it is a true story written in the very early 1900s by a woman who had lost her husband and had then taken on a job as a housekeeper for a rancher in Wyoming. Along with the job, she had purchased land next to her new boss, intending to homestead it. She then began writing eloquent letters to her former boss, letters that were filled with adventure, as well as her life on the ranch.
What makes this story so good is the fact that she didn’t talk about mundane things, instead she had adventures, but a few things are mundane, like talking about the food they are eating, no so mundane to me. I knew that I would have had to develop a taste for venision, for example, but some of the meals were really good.
Then there is a story of her taking her young daughter on a camping trip when she knew that it could snow. They spent the night 30 miles from home, sleeping under a tree whose branches came to the ground. The idea was squeeze between the branches, blocking out access to wild animals like bears or cougars. Good luck, especially since she had built a campfire and was cooking their dinner, which could have attracted bears. When they woke up the next morning snow had covered the ground. This is when I began questioning her common sense, but then people have questioned my own over the years when I was on my own adventures. So now they had to find their way home. A 30 mile rope connected to her home would have been a good idea. Ha. Books like this remind me of The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder or Thirty Six Hours of Hell by E.N. Coones. And right now I am thinking of the -100 degree windchill factor in New Hampshire and wondering how people and their livestock are surviving, and then wondering how they would keep their homes warm.
Other stories in this book were just not fascinating but caring as well. Taking food to a starving family, and then on Christmas taking food to the sheepherders in the area, which would make this a good Christmas book.
So, if you get a chance check this book out as well as the other two that I have mentioned....more
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