April 2019: The Wonderful Emptiness

“That was my country – terrible wind and a wonderful emptiness.”
Georgia O’Keefe

“I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world, which could not be very far away. The light and air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would only be sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the tawny hawks, which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass.”
Willa Cather, My Antonia

“We were at sea – there is no other adequate expression – on the plains of Nebraska. It was a world almost without feature, an empty sky and empty earth.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

The theme for this month’s Reading Through Time are historical books set in the Central Heartland of North America. This vast area is often designated at “The Great Plains”, lying west of the Mississippi River in the United States and east of the Rocky Mountains in both the U.S. and Canada. It includes the states of Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, as well as parts of the states of Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. In Canada it is the southern portions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Each state and area has it’s own distinct history but also there are themes that they all have in common such as the early pioneering days, how the Indigenous People were dealt with, what happened when oil was discovered in the early 1900’s, the dust bowl and migrations of the 1930’s, along with weather related and other disastrous events.

Some books, both fiction and non-fiction, that touch on these themes are:

Giant by Edna Ferber
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake
The Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynn
The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskins
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew

There are many more books that are set in America’s central plains and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone is going to read.

Love, LOVE, this theme! It's an area I love to read in. And I'm happy to say that I've read six of the titles on your suggestions list! I'm leaning toward Ride the Wind and Citizens Creek for this challenge.

Personal notes -
News of the World is a short work for those looking to fit in an extra, though it does not have as rich a sense of place as other works of hers which I've read (which would probably also work for this challenge) - Enemy Women (Missouri), Stormy Weather (Texas oil fields) and The Color of Lightning (Oklahoma and Texas). She writes with a very strong sense of place, and good story lines and characters, too.

One of my favorite reads which fits this challenge is: Under This Unbroken Sky (1930s Alberta) - very rich sense of place, character, and culture.

I am planning on reading The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee, The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles and Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

>2 countrylife: Cindy, I am picking up book bullets from you right and left. I took a few over on your September thread and have added Under This Unbroken Sky from this thread. :)

Lovely theme!

Another favorite theme. I'm so happy to be a part of this group!

>4 MissWatson: and >5 marell: Glad everyone likes it, it's definitely one of my favorite areas to read about.

So many great works from which to choose! I've always wanted to read the Willa Cather series so I may just start by reading O Pioneers!. I also have several books related to Little House I could read, most notably, Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder which is really her own notes and annotations. I could spend a year on this category!

This will be a good time to reread Giants in the Earth by O. E. Rolvaag, which I read many years ago in high school, and have been meaning to reread. I also have not read My Antonia by Willa Cather. I'll probably skip on Laura Ingalls Wilder since I reread her Little House books in 2017 along with a couple biographies/analyses of her work then and at the beginning of 2018 published commemorating the 150 anniversary of her 1867 birth.

I've read the first five Little House books, so I think I'll finish them up in the second volume of the Library of America. I also want to read Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser (who edited the 2-volume LoA edition).

I didn't much at all care for the earlier books, but the series seemed to pick up with Mary's blindness.

Just looking at this now. I might pick up the next in the "Little House" series (need to double check which one is next for me!), but I'll take a closer look and see what other options I have, as well.

I’ve had Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors by Stephen E. Ambrose on my bookshelf for a long time and have never read it. It was given to me by my husband’s favorite uncle and friend who passed away Tuesday. He loved literature and in his later years would send me boxes full of books he had enjoyed reading. This is the perfect time to read a book by this great author. Thank you, Uncle Bud!

The pictures for the theme are wonderful.

One of my fav books in this theme is A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

I read A Wilder Rose which is the "fictionalized" biography of Rose Wilder Lane. I was surprised to find that she was actually much more involved in the writing of the Little House Books that I had suspected. In fact, without her re-writes or editing the Little House Books would not have become a reality as they were rejected outright when her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder sent them to the publishers. Rose was an author in her own right, writing over 75 books and articles on her own, many published in well respected magazines. Most of the action in this book takes place in Mansfield, Missouri, where both her parents lived and died. Rose left for several years traveling to San Francisco, Albania, and her favorite-New York, where she eventually retired. Rose was not a fan of the farm.

>13 Tess_W: Wow, that's really interesting!

I don't have much on the shelves for this theme. I tend to avoid the areas described in books and in reality. I think that Only a Few Bones may fit the theme so I will try that one.

O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather The story of French/Bohemian immigrants to the American West in the late 19th century. I have read much about western settlement and this book did not live up to it's hype. This was mostly a book about interpersonal relationships and not about actual settlement. By this time they had mechanized farming (except tractors) and telephones; not really pioneers, in my mind. This certainly was not on the level of The Little House Books or Sara Donati books. This was my 2nd (and last) Cather book I've read that really wasn't interesting. 198 pages

I have just completed Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann which details the murders of Osage Indians on their oil-rich Oklahoma reservation during the early 1920s. A fascinating story.

>17 DeltaQueen50: I second your enthusiasm for Killers of the Flower Moon. I actually read it twice because I read it when it first was published and then again for book club. I am not a re-reader, but I was surprised to enjoy it as much the second time through! I have many on my list that would fit this category, but not sure which ones I will get to this month. I'm considering News of the World or The Master Butcher's Singing Club which satisfies the between war years as well.
I'll update later in the month.

>18 beebeereads: There are so many details to absorb with Killers of the Flower Moon that I can certainly see that a second read would be beneficial. I haven't read The Master Butcher's Singing Club, but I highly recommend News of the World, it was a wonderful read.

I just finished "News of the World" and didn't even think about listing here. I thought it was set too far south for this category. I did enjoy it very much!

>20 cfk: I think a great deal of Texas is considered part of the central plains as so would count for this theme. I loved News of the World and right now I am happily engaged in another Paulette Jiles book, The Color of Lightning which is shaping up to be another stellar read from this author.

Set in Northern Texas and Oklahoma, The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles was an excellent read. I have loved all three of the books by this author that I have read. Although this is a novel, she based it on the real life of freed slave, Britt Johnson whose family is kidnapped by the Kiowa/Comanche and his efforts to bring his family home.

I completed O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. While My Antonia is still my favorite Cather, I enjoyed this account of second generation settlers. Cather's spare sentences can be so beautifully descriptive of the plains.

>2 countrylife: I also enjoyed News of the World (sometimes a short book is really welcomed) but am really looking forward to reading some of the author's other books. Paulette Jiles has a great writing style.

>12 cindydavid4: I'll second your thoughts about A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. I read it during 2016 and thought it was a hidden gem among the public domain books.

>17 DeltaQueen50: >18 beebeereads: Killers of the Flower Moon just became available through my library, so I will see how much I can read before the end of April. (Actually, it was chosen for our local library's group discussion in May.) I am glad to hear you both liked the book. :)

By the Shores of Silver Lake / Laura Ingalls Wilder
4 stars

Laura and her family are heading West. Laura and Pa are excited, though Ma is a bit hesitant, but Pa has promised they will find a homestead and settle down, and the girls can go to school.

This is such a great series! There were some beautiful descriptions of the Prairies (there were also some “extra” descriptions (of the prairie and other things) as Laura was Mary’s eyes, as Mary had recently gone blind after a bout with scarlet fever). I also really enjoyed the building of the town. You just don’t think about what it takes to start from scratch with no one else around and to watch a town be built from nothing!

>23 clue: : My Antonia remains my favorite Cather, too!

The books I completed for The Great Plains were:
A Quilt for Christmas, Sandra Dallas (1860s Kansas)
On the Great Plains, Paul Lederer (19th century Dakota Territory)
The Round House, Louise Erdrich (1988 North Dakota)

>26 countrylife: Such a great collection!

I won't get it finished before the end of the month, but I picked up the second in a trilogy by Jeff Guinn about the American West and this one is set in Dodge City, Kansas and eventually will move to the plains of northern Texas. It's called Buffalo Trail and I am really enjoying it.

I finally got around to These were the Sioux by Mari Sandoz. The name intrigued me as I knew it to be Swiss. A very short book, but instructive.

>29 MissWatson: I've read a couple of Mari Sandoz's books. Her Cheyenne Autumn is very good.

>26 countrylife: What did you think of A Quilt for Christmas? I have the audio sitting on my kindle but won't have time for it this month. Maybe it will work for another theme.

I am still working on Killers of the Flower Moon. It is well written but also dark and highly detailed. Currently, I am having problems staying motivated to finish it. I will try to get through the majority of it before the upcoming library due date.

>30 DeltaQueen50: I made a note of some titles, thanks for the recommendation.

Crazy Horse and Custer was very well researched, I thought. It is quite long and though packed with a lot of information, it is a great read from start to finish. The traditions and beliefs of the Native Americans, especially the Sioux, of course, were especially interesting. I liked the way the author showed the parallels not only between Crazy Horse and Custer but between the Indians and the Army and U.S. government.

The book portrayed neither Crazy Horse or Custer as idols or villains. There are many fascinating characters in this story. The descriptions of that then, and in many places still, wide open country were breathtaking.

Around 2002, we visited the Little Big Horn and I’ve never forgotten it. Since then they have included Native American memorials. I hope to go back someday. The site and the book are highly recommended.