An adventurous, passionate historical novel about an eco-friendly balance between humans and nature.
An eco-novel focuses on the members of a multigenerational family and the Native Americans they work with to survive.
Environmental champions Titlow and Tinger channel their fierce allegiance to the ecological preservation movement into a book chronicling the lives of two emerging groups. In 1767, Native American Strong Bow, the son of tribal chief True Arrow, frets that he is unable to slaughter a deer due to his innate compassion for wild animals—particularly those nurturing their young—and despite his father teaching him that merciful killing is part of nature’s cycle. Dexterously interwoven in the novel is the legacy of Virginian Thaddeus Adams, a musket-toting wildlife trapper in the early 1800s who exhibits the same empathy when confronted with a grizzly bear at his Appalachian campsite and opts for a nonlethal deterrent. Both groups share this deeply rooted “mutual love and respect for the natural world,” and as the story progresses, the two daring families, including Thaddeus’ wife, Minerva, evolve. Their fierce love of nature withstands the challenges and complexities of the traveling life. As Thaddeus and his family’s wagon train plods westward past the Mississippi River, they collaborate with Apache tribes for survival. Later, as Caleb and Ethan, two of Thaddeus’ children, grow up instilled with their parents’ respect for nature, wild animals, and Native tribes, they begin independent lives in California Gold Rush–era San Francisco. Heavily atmospheric and decorated with lush, natural details, the story illustrates the beauty and dangers of the outside world through diverse characters who are fully realized and impressively well rounded. The tale also incorporates themes of nature’s resilience, poaching dangers, and wildlife habitat protections as well as the histories of two real-life figures: influential Scottish American naturalist John Muir and Everglades conservationist and suffragist Marjory Stoneman Douglas. In previous books (including Bird Brains, 2013), Titlow scrutinized bird behavior and seashells. Environmental respect and appreciation for biodiversity are threaded throughout this story. The “Mother Earth” planetary preservation message is palpable in an ambitious tale that moves into the climate change era and satisfyingly concludes with cautionary notes of hope and motivation. Readers of expansive, engrossing historical fiction will find much to savor here.
An adventurous, passionate historical novel about an eco-friendly balance between humans and nature.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2022
ISBN: 9781800745681
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A fascinating magic trick of a memoir that illuminates a woman's search for meaning.
A Cowlitz woman’s collection of interconnected essays on memory, nostalgia, and introspection, conveyed through personal history, popular culture, and magic.
Washuta begins with an account of her history with magic and witchcraft growing up. "The truth is I'm not a witch, exactly: I'm a person with prayers, a person who believes in spirits and plays with fire,” she writes. The author’s story is also one of personal healing, as she writes candidly about her abuse of alcohol, being misdiagnosed as bipolar, and suffering from PTSD. Across 10 interwoven essays that move through Washuta’s life, she uses popular-culture references—e.g., Fleetwood Mac, Twin Peaks, and the video game “Oregon Trail II”—as guideposts in her own journey of understanding the world and her place in it. Washuta shifts her focus frequently (perhaps too much for some readers), from the history of the Seattle area to an in-depth discussion of horror movies to her search for an anti-drinking educational video she though she saw as a teen. At the same time, she investigates the connections among magic, witchcraft, and her Native heritage. The book breaks from traditional memoir in intriguing ways, including footnotes that speak directly to readers and an essay that begins by focusing on Twin Peaks and then slowly begins to emulate it, moving back and forth through time and showing the changing nature of narrative across shifting time frames. Throughout, Washuta is consistently honest about her own past and opinions, and she is unafraid to directly question readers, demanding engagement with the text. “This book is a narrative,” she writes. “It has an arc. But the tension is not in what happened when I lived it; it’s in what happened when I wrote it. Like I already told you, this is not just a recounted story; I am trying to make something happen and record the process and results.”
A fascinating magic trick of a memoir that illuminates a woman's search for meaning.Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951142-39-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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