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The Fair and the Falls: Spokane's Expo '74 : Transforming an American Environment
This definitive history of Spokane, its people, and the first-ever Environmental World's Fair is based on interviews with over 200 citizens and reviews of thousands of pages of records.
627 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2024
Pros: it was FASCINATING to learn the history of Spokane since I didn't grow up here, and it was really interesting to read about Expo 74 since they just did a celebration marking 50 years since it happened, and since I recently read Devil in the White City about the Chicago World's Fair. The history part was very comprehensive at the beginning of Spokane's history and then went fast to get us to the decade or so before the fair. I would have loved a bit more of that history, but it was still really interesting.
Cons: this book is LONG. The newer edition is about 200 pages shorter because they took out the index and made it paperback, but it was still a good 13+ hour read, and I'm a fast reader. It's legit like reading a textbook. This also needed a good editor. I was a little surprised that he said people in the English department at EWU were his copy-editors. Maybe they cleaned up some of the worst spelling and grammar mistakes, but it still needed help. The most egregious issue was the confusion between a hyphen and an em dash. When one uses hyphens to indicate an aside--and this man loved his asides--it makes the sentences very difficult to follow, and I found myself rereading a lot to understand what was happening. But there were also anecdotes that were repeated, a couple of times on the same page, and there were quotes and stories from interviewees that were so similar that only one needed to be included. Also, it just felt like some information was repeated because of how he organized the chapters. It didn't have to be this long.
Overall, this has increased my appreciation of where we now call home and the Expo we just celebrated, and some of the stories were genuinely funny and/or interesting, but this is by no means a quick read and needs som professional editing help. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars.
Cons: this book is LONG. The newer edition is about 200 pages shorter because they took out the index and made it paperback, but it was still a good 13+ hour read, and I'm a fast reader. It's legit like reading a textbook. This also needed a good editor. I was a little surprised that he said people in the English department at EWU were his copy-editors. Maybe they cleaned up some of the worst spelling and grammar mistakes, but it still needed help. The most egregious issue was the confusion between a hyphen and an em dash. When one uses hyphens to indicate an aside--and this man loved his asides--it makes the sentences very difficult to follow, and I found myself rereading a lot to understand what was happening. But there were also anecdotes that were repeated, a couple of times on the same page, and there were quotes and stories from interviewees that were so similar that only one needed to be included. Also, it just felt like some information was repeated because of how he organized the chapters. It didn't have to be this long.
Overall, this has increased my appreciation of where we now call home and the Expo we just celebrated, and some of the stories were genuinely funny and/or interesting, but this is by no means a quick read and needs som professional editing help. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars.
April 12, 2018
Very well written book, if a bit long.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews