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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This book was another buddy read with my dad. This has been on my shelves for YEARS, so picking this as a buddy read and reading a chapter a week was the perfect motivator to get through this. This is a deep history/reading/map of Chase County in Kansas. Heat-Moon divides the county with a grid and takes each sector as the focus for a chapter. My dad and I both grew up in Kansas, but neither of us has spent much time in Chase County. Along the way we learned about pack rats, Cottonwood trees, Sam Wood, Knute Rockne, native prairie grasses, and so much more.
Incredibly rewarding. Heat-Moon is a fantastic writer who makes thoughtful and surprising connections, and regularly writes paragraphs that stop me in my tracks. So good.
Incredibly rewarding. Heat-Moon is a fantastic writer who makes thoughtful and surprising connections, and regularly writes paragraphs that stop me in my tracks. So good.
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
I loved this book. I've tried half a dozen long-winded review-type paragraphs, but none do it justice. Sometimes a book just comes along that is the right thing at the right time, and it's just pure indulgent pleasure to read.
If i could find any fault at all in PrairyErth, I would have placed the last chapters first, to put the settlement of Chase County in perspective w/r/t those who had inhabited it for millenia prior to white colonization. I'm sure that in '91 when it was published there was calculation in placing those chapters as an elegiac ending, but those haunting quotes will color any reread of the text, and would have been powerful at the beginning.
Q: 5
E: 5
I: 5
5x5 + 5 = 30
This is the only 30 I have ever given.
If i could find any fault at all in PrairyErth, I would have placed the last chapters first, to put the settlement of Chase County in perspective w/r/t those who had inhabited it for millenia prior to white colonization. I'm sure that in '91 when it was published there was calculation in placing those chapters as an elegiac ending, but those haunting quotes will color any reread of the text, and would have been powerful at the beginning.
Q: 5
E: 5
I: 5
5x5 + 5 = 30
This is the only 30 I have ever given.
I admit, I had driven through Kansas prior to reading this book and thought, "flat nothingness." After reading PrairyErth, I had the opportunity to drive through Chase County and visit the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (established after the book was published, which appropriately can be found in their gift shop), and I held a whole new appreciation for the beauty and life of the prairie lands. In WLHM's tome, his "deep map" is truly that -- digging into the geography, history and even dreamtime of this small, easily dismissable county. Native history, pioneer development, murders, plane crashes, floods, wildlife, plantlife -- each of the 12 county quadrants receives a similarly structured chapter, and yet the author does not limit his creativity and explores every thought. A valuable read.
"Gods may rise from oceans and clouds, but I've heard of none rising from grasses, and this is peculiar because, unlike oceans or heavens, grasslands so evidently die and are reborn, and because, although less evidently, they are the place where our kind was made."
"Gods may rise from oceans and clouds, but I've heard of none rising from grasses, and this is peculiar because, unlike oceans or heavens, grasslands so evidently die and are reborn, and because, although less evidently, they are the place where our kind was made."
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
This is truly a non-fiction epic. Least Heat-Moon takes us on a deep journey into the soul of a single county in Kansas. Through his beautiful writing and the varied styles he uses in many of the chapters, I really felt a love and a deep sorrow for this county, which isn't so different from many other rural counties in the west.