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Just read this again for the second time: The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan.
It really is hard to believe the sheer misery people went through during the great dust bowl disaster. The book details why, and how, it all happened, and how many people suffered during it. Well worth a read.
"The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived—those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave—Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression"
It really is hard to believe the sheer misery people went through during the great dust bowl disaster. The book details why, and how, it all happened, and how many people suffered during it. Well worth a read.
"The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived—those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave—Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression"
King Herald said:
Just read this again for the second time: The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan.
It really is hard to believe the sheer misery people went through during the great dust bowl disaster. The book details why, and how, it all happened, and how many people suffered during it. Well worth a read.
"The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived—those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave—Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression"
I wonder how this compares to The Grapes of Wrath. I know that's fiction but depressing all the same. It really is hard to believe the sheer misery people went through during the great dust bowl disaster. The book details why, and how, it all happened, and how many people suffered during it. Well worth a read.
"The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived—those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave—Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression"
g3org3y said:
Finished this, thought it ok, imo not his best. He does (almost) the entire journey using public transport citing his hate of cars and driving as the reason. Fair enough, however he then spends too much of the book complaining about infrequent trains and buses, waiting at stations, generally rubbish service etc. For me it detracted from what was otherwise a decent book. Even Bryson thought Bradford was a s
thole.
Just started this, Begbie's back!
Just starting this on audiobook. First hour or so and its ok without being brilliant. Sort of on a par with A Decent Ride and glue for me, rather than the lofty heights of skag boys and train spotting. thole.Just started this, Begbie's back!
You will enjoy it - a fascinating (if borderline bonkers ) man of very firm opinions; he'd seen it all and doen most of it . Anybody whose idea of Christmas is taking a racing car on the road for an extended drive is alright by me.
Just finished 1971 by David Hepworth . If you are of a certain age and were in your late teens or early twenties and loved music in 1971 this book is for you- funny , detailed and superbly researched it evokes the scruffyness of the time but also reminded me just how important music was to so many of us then. Still is ,actually - even if I don't listen to ..ahem.. The Edgar Broughton Band any more.
Just finished 1971 by David Hepworth . If you are of a certain age and were in your late teens or early twenties and loved music in 1971 this book is for you- funny , detailed and superbly researched it evokes the scruffyness of the time but also reminded me just how important music was to so many of us then. Still is ,actually - even if I don't listen to ..ahem.. The Edgar Broughton Band any more.
The Half Life of Joshua Jones by Danny Scheinamann.
I was really looking forward to his latest book. It's been too long since Random Acts, and I didn't read that until 10 years ago.
it is well written and I enjoyed it but the much covered denouement is made rather obvious in the first few pages. It was still worth reading and I enjoyed it. However, I would imagine few would miss it. I am wondering whether the reader was expected to get it.
It's a bit like Walter's The Ice House where the hero tells you the answer at the beginning.
I was really looking forward to his latest book. It's been too long since Random Acts, and I didn't read that until 10 years ago.
it is well written and I enjoyed it but the much covered denouement is made rather obvious in the first few pages. It was still worth reading and I enjoyed it. However, I would imagine few would miss it. I am wondering whether the reader was expected to get it.
It's a bit like Walter's The Ice House where the hero tells you the answer at the beginning.
Just now reading On The Beach by Nevil Shute. I read most of his books as a teenager but somehow missed this, his most famous.
The 1950's writing style takes a little getting used to but the book is sobering in it's vision of a post apocalyptic world where those left, just a few hundred thousand in Australia, are totally resigned to the death that is moving inexorably towards them. A disturbing but good read.
The 1950's writing style takes a little getting used to but the book is sobering in it's vision of a post apocalyptic world where those left, just a few hundred thousand in Australia, are totally resigned to the death that is moving inexorably towards them. A disturbing but good read.
g3org3y said:
^Sounds interesting. I quite enjoy post apocalyptic literature. Added to my Amazon basket. 
I read a great book years ago called "Down to a sunless sea" by David Graham. Also post apocalyptic and a very good read. If you can find an early edition it has the original (grim) ending. The later version had a different (happier) ending.g3org3y said:
^Sounds interesting. I quite enjoy post apocalyptic literature. Added to my Amazon basket.
John Wyndham wrote two cracking ones: The Triffids, well know of course. And then his best adventure story in my opinion, The Chrysalids.Take care when ordering, there are edited Wyndham books, presumably for children, and these are vastly inferior.
unrepentant said:
I read a great book years ago called "Down to a sunless sea" by David Graham. Also post apocalyptic and a very good read. If you can find an early edition it has the original (grim) ending. The later version had a different (happier) ending.
Thanks for this, will check it out.Derek Smith said:
John Wyndham wrote two cracking ones: The Triffids, well know of course. And then his best adventure story in my opinion, The Chrysalids.
Big fan of Wyndham. My favourite is The Kraken Wakes. g3org3y said:
unrepentant said:
I read a great book years ago called "Down to a sunless sea" by David Graham. Also post apocalyptic and a very good read. If you can find an early edition it has the original (grim) ending. The later version had a different (happier) ending.
Thanks for this, will check it out.Derek Smith said:
John Wyndham wrote two cracking ones: The Triffids, well know of course. And then his best adventure story in my opinion, The Chrysalids.
Big fan of Wyndham. My favourite is The Kraken Wakes. I used to 'go out with' a girl who was an scifi fan who introduced me to Wyndham, and other things. She liked Triffids, Chrysalids, Lichen and Kraken because they had strong females. Years later I mentioned this to a social worker and got taken to task, saying that Wyndham was sexist. We had quite a row and it became apparent that she had not read the books but was merely quoting something she'd been told. I assumed this was her colleagues who felt this way.
It was bewildering. I rather fancied Rosalind, she had bottle. As did Josalyn and Phyll, and for Lichen, the hero was female (forgot her name).
So I finished the fourth in the Aubrey Maturin series last night - and another cracking read although at times the narrative control of the battle for the harbour seemed to be a bit more muddled than previously.
a small matter.
so what next....the most recent bill bryson or the tome that is Pillars of the Earth by Ken follett seems to get a lot of raps on here....
i'm going to be a land lubber for a while and pass on book five for now
a small matter.
so what next....the most recent bill bryson or the tome that is Pillars of the Earth by Ken follett seems to get a lot of raps on here....
i'm going to be a land lubber for a while and pass on book five for now
Nom de ploom said:
so what next....the most recent bill bryson
Recently read this (The Road to Little Dribbling), one of his best to date. Similar to his earlier travel books but with just a bit of 'grumpy old man/Victor Meldrew' attitude thrown in. Only downside for me(I'm Scottish) was that it tailed out towards the end with only a token handful of pages given to the Scottish part of his trip. I'd rather he had cut it shorter missing out Scotland and the North of England to be picked up in a later book.I've just read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. The 'almost unbelieveable' true story of Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian who survived a plane crash in the Pacific in ww2, survived for 47 days on a raft with no supplies, captured and made a POW and abused by the Japanese, then after beating the personal demons that these experiences caused, went on to spend the rest of his life as an evangelist. It was written in the style that makes me normally hate biographies, plodding through the events chronologically like a primary school kid's story, but somehow this one held me to read all 416 pages in one sitting.
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