Master Anderson's journey West
929070
I have to say that I'm extremely frustrated!! It's been a while since I've read a continuing story & that I must wait for the ending. I'm like a damn two year old!!  LMAO

Otherwise, OMG what a tale of Master Anderson's journey to LA. One thing that I really appreciate is just how true to himself he is. Love that in a man. I'm choosing to not give anything away, read & see. 

The continuing story of Brie & Sir is just heartbreaking. Brie is such a strong & committed sub & wife to Thane. I don't understand her not wanting their friends support, wish she'd let them in!!

Now the wait till December 5th, for Tono. UGH!!!  LOL Maybe I'll reread the previous Series that lead to this.

Enjoy!!
2478813
The Swede Sven Hedin was the last great explorer we will see on this well-traveled planet. Hedin was born in 1865 and this autobiography describes his life up until 1908.  Hedin's career was hardly finished, however, as he continued to traipse down the old Silk Road in Central Asia until the 1930s when he was 70 years old.

In a happy trait that should be copied by more auto-biographers, Hedin doesn't spend much time on his childhood.  By the third page of his narrative he is 20 years old and off to the Caucasus Mountains which only whets his appetite for the little-known peaks and deserts of Tibet and Central Asia.  He spent the years between 1893 and 1908 exploring these regions and filling in blank places on the map.

National Geographic's "Traveler" magazine put this book on its list of 100 best adventure books and, truly, the tales of Hedin's adventures make for good, exciting reading.  Hedin displays both charm and generosity in his account.  He traveled without the company of other Europeans and he enjoyed the companionship of his local helpers and the dogs he adopted along his way.  He draws many clever portraits of the people he met in his travels.  Hedin, however, was no mere adventurer.  He was a serious, sober scholar who produced dozens of scientific studies of his findings.

One of the most hair raising tales in the book concerns Hedin's  first expedition into the sands of the Takla Makhan (desert) of China in which he and his companions nearly died of thirst.  A second high point of the book is the account of his attempt to visit Lhasa, the forbidden capital of Tibet.  He failed after getting nearly to the gates of the city and was denied the honor of becoming the first foreigner to visit Lhasa in half a century.  Amidst the plethora of adventures, the stoic Swede brushes over incidents others would consider high -- or low -- points of their lives. "Fever kept me in Kashgar a long while" is his complete description of one serious illness.

The book is illustrated with many of Hedin's drawings, including his hand drawn maps.  I suggest that you read the book with a good modern map at hand so as to trace his routes with more precision as his constant tooing-and-froing can be confusing.

Smallchief
455512
I have a deep personal and idyllic passion for the western mountains, the old west and ranching. Reading Lonesome Dove allowed me to live as a ranch boss, a cowboy, and a camp cook all at once. The deep character portrayals are stunning, from smart and insightful - but somewhat lazy - Gus, to stoic, brave and deeply-burdened Cal. And then there is loyal Pea, sensitive Newt, cowardly and narcissistic Jake, and talented Dish. I felt sad when I finished this epic, but then quickly became deeply thankful for the western adventure I shared with the characters in this book. I feel like I need to talk with someone about, it moved me so, so that my Lonesome Dove journey can live on.
1179310
I enjoyed reading this 19th century adventure to the West ;
the main characters were outstanding.  Beautifully written
but novel could use better proof-reading, therefore 4 stars
(instead of 5).
2138445
Based on David Thompson's own account of his explorations of the western North American continent, this is a perceptive tale of hardship and adventure. Jack Nisbet has the intuitive ability to cut to the heart of the subject, not just how this area was discovered but how the discovery influenced the native people and the natural history of the area. His own brief but discerning anecdotes about his interactions with the land and its people provide counterpoint and context for the main narrative.
The writer follows the life of David Thompson from his birth in London in 1770 and his education at a charity school to his apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company and arrival in northern Canada. His major life work was to explore and map what became known as the interior of British Columbia, eastern Washington, western Montana and northern Oregon, focussed on the Columbia River and its tributaries. He crossed and re-crossed the Rocky Mountains through passes known only to native people and he established trading posts and trading relations with native people so he could supply the Hudson's Bay Company, and later the Northwest Company, with the furs they sought. Later in life he "retired" to montreal and later to Ontario where he became astronomer for the International Boundary Commission, guiding the U.S.-Canadian survey of the 49th parallel from Quebec, via the Great Lakes to Manitoba.
This is a story well told. It doesn't bog down in tedious detail yet still manages to convey the day- to-day routines as well as the excitement of discovery and the hardships faced by explorers in harsh terrain in an often bitter climate. The book has an immediacy and depth that are seldom realized together in an historical narrative.
1120539
Oh, how I love Nephi Anderson!  He writes as if this were his journey from the pre-existence to our celetial home.  His perspective of eternal bonds and friendships expand our earthly view and help us to understand the feeling of knowing someone or being there before.  I have read this book and given it away many times in my life in the church. Enjoy the panarama of a soul's travels in this easily readable and enjoyable book!
1186645
Whereas Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" got me interested in the early exploration of the American West, "Across the Wide Missouri" got me interested in the actual lives of the mountain man and fur trapper/traders, and how they also explored unknown regions of the west. Their day to day existence and survival amongst the Indians, dealing with the forces of nature, the early stages of Manifest Destiny, etc. were all to me mind boggling.  DeVoto brings to life the fur trade at the peak of its industry.  I must agree with a couple reviewers though on how the text does get somewhat wordy and complex, the list of characters involved is quite lengthy and one is always flipping back and forth to the maps and notes.  But this is what it takes to tell the whole story.  From his bibliography one can pick and choose which books are of interest to the reader and take it from there, that's what I have done.  I would recommend this book to those of you that are interested in this time period.
4396999
Townsend's journal of traveling across the plains and mountains to the Pacific in 1834 is not only an enjoyable read depicting life as such, but also an important historical narrative on names and events of the day.

An accomplished ornithologist, Townsend accompanied Nathaniel Wyeth and his seventy-man caravan of goods to the 1834 rendezvous and eventually established Ft. Hall in Idaho.  Also in this expedition was the famous botanist Thomas Nuttall.

The author is very descriptive and expressive of everything around him from geography; the natural world; Indian encounters, along with their living conditions and cultures, to the livelihood of being on the trail and surviving day to day.  He is meticulous and energetic in his writing.

An adventurous read and valuable to western history.
3912309
Interesting story of brothers looking out for each other, as they head west.  Trials  they encounter along the way. Some areas I skipped.
220421
What can one say about "Riders of the Purple Sage"? For as long as man has dreamed of the west, he has written about it or sought it out for himself. Yes, James Fennimore Cooper wrote about the "west". There were the Dime Novels and the Penny Dreadfuls of the 1800's written by such as Ned Buntline. Then an Eastener named Owen Wister created a character called "The Virginian" and Zane Grey had already written "Heritage of the Desert" but "Riders of the Purple Sage" would immortalize both the author and the genre of "westerns". From then on every "western" would be compared to this one. The ironic part is: Zane Grey never considered them to be "westerns"; they were romances, romantic adventures, romantic novels. And to be totally accurate, the word, "western" did not exist at the time this book was written; it did not come into use until 1927 at the earliest, so to insist Zane Grey was a "western" writer is suspect, at best. But "Riders of the Purple Sage" has everything a person has come to know and understand that belongs in a story of the west--the taciturn gunfighter; the woman in distress fighting a losing battle; great scenery; fast horses; and evil men. Yet "Riders" is more than that. It has sub-plots upon sub-plots that keep the reader wondering what is going to happen next, and this book "fills the bill". And, what most people don't know or realize today, Zane Grey wrote quite often from a woman's viewpoint, and does so in this book. At the time of ZG's greatest popularity more than half of his readership were women, and he was published in such magazines as, Cosmopolitan, Colliers, and Ladies Home Journal. If you have never read a "western" I whole-heartedly urge you to try this one. The Lone Star Ranger: What has traditionally been one of the best selling of Zane Grey's novels, and considered by some to be one of his best, I find far inferior to the two novels from which this book was created by the editors at Harper Brothers. The two novels, Last of the Duanes and Rangers of the Lone Star stand far above this book. There are too many missing events and characters in this version. The female love interest is completely missing in Part Two of the book and there are many other unanswered questions created by the melding of these two works. But, if one is to have a complete set of Zane Grey, then this book is collectable and readable; but NOT one of his best. It is however far superior to anything being published today. I'd say this book is average, or little below average. The Mysterious Rider perhaps would have been better titled, Beauty and the Beast, and I am not in any way being disparaging. Zane Grey used the same type of plot lines for many of his books, and then added an extra character to bring the book to its logical conclusion. A young girl, the adopted daughter of a wealthy rancher, is forced to marry the rancher's no-good, drunk of a son, while the young girl loves another cowboy as different from the son as could possibly be--a similar scenario is found in Heritage of the Desert. But here a "mysterious stranger" is on the scene to make things right. And we can all guess who this "mysterious stranger" is, can't we? If you can't guess, I'm not going to tell you and ruin the book. Still, having said that, this book is a good Zane Grey romance told as only the master of historical romance could tell it, and worth reading--even more than once.
2836337
I am originally from Anderson, IN, near Noblesville.  It is in incredible read because Kurt Meyers provided depth to his characters and his story line.  I especially enjoyed the comparisons of life between 1893 and the present day.  I totally agree with the author's opinion of the times and values lost to progress.  No doubt it is a mixed bag and gives one a great deal to think about.  I am ordering several more copies as Christmas presents.  My sister, who lives in Anderson and I are planning to map out the locations on my next trip back to Indiana.
Beckie Matyas, Monroe, WA
4485985
I found this account insightful not only for what the author describes, but for what he does not. He lived a rough life, but he also led quite a free adventurous existence.  The earlier journey of Lewis and Clark was admirable for its documentation and survey of lands in the West, but when it comes to difficulties, these traders continuously repeated journeys that were probably just as difficult as that of Lewis and Clark. On one such journey, the author mentions he had walked for 900 miles. It was nothing for these traders to build another boat if they found themselves without.

Since fur traders and the companies who employed them were interested more in trade with indigenous peoples than with taking land and destroying resources, the relationship the author describes with American Indians is one of both mutual trust and mistrust. Larpenteur is a simple man, who married an indigenous woman, had children with her, and learned some of the native culture. However he was also often away from his family for his trading. He describes various tragedies to either himself, his family, or to his fellow traders simply as facts and considers it unseemly and indulgent to delve into personal matters or to convey much emotion on any of these matters. He set out to write a factual account of his life, and that's what he did. Sometimes it is difficult to keep straight all the names of people in the fur trade, but the setting of those times is still well conveyed.

Of course this account is not a complete history of the times, but it offers interesting perspectives. In the last chapter, he provides an insightful opinion of how the government managed Indian Affairs, sending one incompetent agent after another from Washington, and posting forts in the most desirable lands, thereby forcing Indians to live elsewhere. The government interacted so little with indigenous peoples as to have no insight into the culture. In the second to last chapter the author offers his own observations of Indian culture, which he observed had simpler rules than his own but seemed to work pretty well.

The account describes an adventurous, dangerous life, in which men lived by their wits. Women pretty much lived a separate life from these traders, and their exclusion from most of his recollections is another aspect of the historical perspective. I read this account simply for what it is, one man's recollection of a harsh but productive life in a specific historical time, and I was fascinated.
2099072
This book is really about adventures in the West at the start of the 20th century, although the frame of the story is practicing medicine in small-town Central Oregon. A country doctor in those days quickly became enmeshed in the life of the town. He, or sometimes she, witnessed all the crises, heard much of the gossip, treated everyone from a veritable cowpoke to outlaws on the run to the mayor and the occasional celebrity.

This book was originally published in 1940, and were fortunate that Oregon State University Press brought it forward in its series Northwest Reprints in 1996. It reads just as fresh today, brimming with the enthusiasm of a young doctor starting his practice in an almost brand-new town, todays Bend, Oregon. Heres a sample: I was so interested in the booming town, so fascinated with the wild west country, so enmeshed in the dizzy whirl of my practice, with its endless problems and responsibilities, that Spring flew by before I was aware of it.

Dr. Urling C. Coe recounts his steep learning curve dealing with country living and country notions of medicine. Most everything was a challenge. Travelling for hours in a buggy or on horseback to assist with childbirth, dealing with a typhoid epidemic in a community that had few houses much less sanitary outhouses (people relied on privy vaults, sometimes), and even less idea of infection control. He notes the difficulty of treating patients with high fevers. There was no refrigeration. Ice was scarce and hard to get, requiring a trip to caves fourteen miles outside of town. Once there one had to chop ice out of the floor of the caves, hoist it to the surface, and then haul it to town.

Coe dealt with prostitution on the frontier, horse thieves, and especially the ignorance and  suspicion about New Medicine. He found acceptance of the methods of doctoring he learned in school were often foreign in the town and outlying areas. Coe remained in what was really a post-frontier outpost until 1918, when he relocated to Portland.  His reminiscences easily provide a practical appreciation of living in the Far West as more civilization took hold. He sheds light on appreciation for the land and its beauty, but he also adopts local sensibilities that the lands resources should be extracted and developed for economic security.

I wish that Coe would have included more dates to track his progress, and an Index would have greatly served research of this volume as a primary source.

Michael Helquist, author, MARIE EQUI: Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions.
1825423
Dr Anderson is the man. Went to school with him at Arizona. Can not put this book down. Mitchell Reid.
1832489
Beautifully written, this book requires time and patience. There are passages of exquisite descriptions of nature interspersed throughout a tale of people of grit and grim determination. This book put me in the journey and I felt the privations in a way I never have realized before. I grew up with westward expansion tv. This is no little house on the prairie tale.
3501939
This is a wonderful insightful book. It is a pleasure to make this
Journey with Will as he traverses America.
2639692
Thrilling and detailed  tale of the  Old West. Danny Vance is a young man working his family's farm in Missouri when the discovery of gold  lures him to leave everything he knows and join a friend to become prospectors. Richard Roux takes the reader step by step through the process of preparing and then traveling on the trip of a lifetime. He recounts the dangers and disappointments of the trail, the triumphs and friendships. Most do not become rich on gold, but the by-product that built the west. Restaurants, freight operators, merchants did indeed find their fortune servicing the new populations that grew from the influx of dreamers. Descriptive and colorful, Roux includes all kinds of westerners telling the backstories of the hardships of the Asians and Native populations. Danny does make an enemy on the trip and this livens the plot, leaving the ending unresolved and ensuring there will be more tales to share of the wild west.