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Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat (Viking) tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals including the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in Berlin.
History at its finest! Brown uses great skill, detail, and atmosphere to dust off the story of the Donner party in this enthralling read. High adventure, suspense, and drama combine with tragedy to make this outstanding work as readable as a novel. Recommended by Michal D., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In April of 1846, Sarah Graves was twenty-one and in love with a young man who played the violin. But she was torn. Her mother, father, and eight siblings were about to disappear over the western horizon forever, bound for California. Sarah could not bear to see them go out of her life, and so days before the planned departure she married the young man with the violin, and the two of them threw their lot in with the rest of Sarah's family. On April 12, they rolled out of the yard of their homestead in three ox-drawn wagons.
Seven months later, after joining a party of emigrants led by George Donner, Sarah and her family arrived at Truckee Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains just as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. After a series of desperate attempts to cross the mountains, the party improvised cabins and slaughtered what remained of their emaciated livestock. By early December they were beginning to starve.
Sarah's father, a Vermonter, was the only member of the party familiar with snowshoes. Under his instruction, fifteen sets of snowshoes were hastily constructed from oxbows and rawhide, and on December 15, Sarah and fourteen other relatively young, healthy people set out for California on foot, hoping to get relief for the others. Over the next thirty-two days they endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.
In this gripping narrative, Daniel James Brown takes the reader along on every painful footstep of Sarah's journey. Along the way, he weaves into the story revealing insights garnered from a variety of modern scientific perspectives–psychology, physiology, forensics, and archaeology–producing a tale that is not only spell-binding but richly informative.
Review:
"Brown delivers a skillful, suspenseful study of the Donner Party....A moving man-against-nature tragedy that still resonates today." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"Brown's work gracefully balances graphic depictions of extreme privation with humanizing glimpses of the emigrants' everyday hopes and fears. Brown also skillfully weaves relevant historical, cultural, and scientific information into his chronicle, creating a rich and contextualized background." Library Journal
In this powerful story, Brown delivers an unforgettable portrait of the heroism, heartbreak, and horror of a pioneer family's perilous journey west from Illinois to California. b&w photo insert.
Daniel James Brown is the author of the widely acclaimed Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894. He lives in the country east of Redmond, Washington, with his wife and two daughters.
lesherb, January 3, 2010 (view all comments by lesherb)
Being in the heat of a Floridian summer, the author was able to transport this reader to the frigid clime of the Sierra Mountains of the 19th century.
Only knowing the gory details of the Donner Party, I was interested to know the human story. What propelled these people onto this fateful trek? Who survived and how did they manage?
Being introduced to Sarah Graves put me in the story instead of just merely watching it unfold, removed by miles and years. I shivered at night with my new companions, mourned their losses, and willed them onto their destination.
If you are like me and are more apt to appreciate history when the participants are introduced to you, rather than watched from afar, then this book will not disappoint. You will appreciate their strengths and their weaknesses, their bright ideas and their ignorance.
It is cliché to claim not to be able to put a book down but this is one of those books. What really caused me to use a bookmark and return instead of consuming it in one sitting was my desire to read it for as long as possible. It is a rare day when I find something I enjoy reading so much, I put it down for later, to savor it so it lasts as long as possible. This is one of those books.
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride
Used Hardcover
Daniel James Brown
0 stars -
0 reviews
$5.95
In Stock
Product details
352 pages
William Morrow & Company -
English9780061348105
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Michal D.,
History at its finest! Brown uses great skill, detail, and atmosphere to dust off the story of the Donner party in this enthralling read. High adventure, suspense, and drama combine with tragedy to make this outstanding work as readable as a novel.
by Michal D.
"Review"
by Kirkus Reviews,
"Brown delivers a skillful, suspenseful study of the Donner Party....A moving man-against-nature tragedy that still resonates today."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"Brown's work gracefully balances graphic depictions of extreme privation with humanizing glimpses of the emigrants' everyday hopes and fears. Brown also skillfully weaves relevant historical, cultural, and scientific information into his chronicle, creating a rich and contextualized background."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
In this powerful story, Brown delivers an unforgettable portrait of the heroism, heartbreak, and horror of a pioneer family's perilous journey west from Illinois to California. b&w photo insert.
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