Desperate Passage

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick - ★★★★★

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth.

Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity."

A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

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OH. MY. GOODNESS. I don't typically read non-fiction, but I was intrigued by this one. I honestly knew nothing of the Donner Party except that they were pioneers, they got trapped, and they may or may not have eaten each other. So I thought I would read this and learn more about them. I have NEVER been so interested in history in my entire life. I found their story riveting. Sad, depressing, inspiring, appalling, and even humorous at times (though only in the beginning). If you don't know much about them, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. It reads easily, like fiction. (I normally have a hard time reading non-fiction because I find it boring and oftentimes awkwardly written.) Maybe it's because I'm a parent now, but the accounts of the children in the party were especially heartbreaking. I spent a lot of time being angry at what I believed were really stupid decisions that people made. There were so many opportunities for things to have turned out differently than they did. So the reader experiences a lot of dread because you know what's going to happen and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. It's not overly gruesome or graphic, so don't worry if you're squeamish. But there is a LOT of death, so just keep that in mind.

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Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson - ★★★☆☆

In a Ya-Ya Sisterhood for teens, Peaches combines three unforgettable heroines who have nothing in common but the troubles that have gotten them sentenced to a summer of peach picking at a Georgia orchard.

Leeda is a debutante dating wrong-side-of-the-tracks Rex.

Murphy, the wildest girl in Bridgewater, likes whichever side Rex is on.

Birdie is a dreamer whose passion for Girl Scout cookies is matched only by her love for a boy named Enrico.

When their worlds collide, The Breakfast Club meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in an entirely original and provocative story with a lush, captivating setting

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I have no experience with the Ya-Ya Sisterhood books, which everyone seems quick to compare these to. And I would in no way call these girls "heroines". They're just girls. Funny at times, incredibly stupid at times, often selfish, teenage girls. They make dumb choices, they fall in love, they fight, they make up, they grow as individuals and learn things about themselves...

It's an interesting story and a good read. Apparently, it's the first of a trilogy. I'd be interested to read the next two.