Overdue Library Books

I love Pearls Before Swine, this comic. Love, love, love.

On my TBR short list

I've got several classics high on my TBR list.

The Virginian by Owen Wister


The Virginian is set just down the road. It's one of those books that I feel as a Wyomingite, I need to read.

Silas Marner by George Eliot

And, for when I'm feeling really motivated: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I have good intentions with it, but it'll probably sit on my shelf for years.

Letter of a Woman Homesteader

There are a number of books that I feel like I need to read as a Wyomingite. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart was one of those books.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader is not a novel or memoir, it's the actual letters Stewart wrote to a friend after she moved to western Wyoming in the early 1900s. The letters tell the story of her arrival and subsequent years. For me, the book was kind of slow. However, I highlighted line after line because so much of what Elinore wrote spoke to me. (yay for Kindle highlighting!)

"The quaking aspens were just beginning to turn yellow; everywhere the purple asters were a blaze of glory except where the rabbit-bush grew in clumps, waving its feathery plumes of gold. Over it all, the sky was so deeply blue, with little, airy, white clouds drifting lazily along."

"All westerns are likable, with the possible exception of Greasy Pete."

"I can think of nothing that would give me more happiness than to bring the west and its people to others who could not otherwise enjoy them. If I could only take them from whatever is worrying them and give them this bracing mountain air, glimpses of the scenery, the smell of the pines and sage."

The Day the World Came to Town

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon The Day the World Came to Town, but I'm glad I did. I've had it on my shelf for awhile, and finally picked it up for the 10 year anniversary of September 11th.

This year I didn't watch any of the tv coverage, though I did read some stories and look at pictures on the internet. I really didn't want to bring back all the sadness. So why would I pick up a book about 9/11 you ask.

The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede was about 9/11, but a good side-- how the people in Newfoundland, Canada came together to help people whose planes were grounded survive a few days marooned in the Atlantic.

When the US closed airspace because of the attacks, planes flying into the US were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland. Residents of Gander and surrounding towns opend up their homes and helped in every way imaginable to host the stranded travelers.

The Day the World Came to Town was a heart warming piece of the larger tragedy of 9/11. It was nice to read this as a way to remember that day instead of watching the towers fall on tv over and over again. It's definitely worth picking up, though save it for next Sept 11 when you need to see some good in people.