John Peter > Recent Status Updates

I've reead the first paragraph of the first chapter, then gone back, looked at the maps of Iraq and Baghdad, and then begun reading the first paragraphs of the "intrologue," or forward. I'll be reading this book mornings before work and during lunch hour, at the very least. I see the book is dedicated to his mother. (Today's Mothers' Day). Have got the feeling this will be riveting.

I just cracked open the book, which arrived by Parcel Post a couple of days ago. I heard a review of the book on NPR's business program, the one by Kai Rizdahl. I was determined to get this book which tells about four young men and their "heroic quest to Save Your Privacy from Facebook." So when I had been paid, last week, I got on the Amazon web pages by smart phone and ordered this. On the back cover is praise.

I have attention deficit, so at times it is hard for me to get into a book. Especially true when I have other things that are demanding to be done, crowding me, insistently calling out for me to spring into action. However, before I give this book away, I would like to read some of it at least. My first acquaintance with Joan Didion's work was reading her writing about the conflicts in El Salvador in the 80's.

Well worth reading!

Worth reading.

Writing from the Great Plains, now. He had a great bar scene, where a man was compelled by some middle aged woman to go pretend to threaten the author for "looking" at the woman.

I lost my place in the book on Kindle Fire! That's never happened to me before. I've been reading of Least-Heat Moon's journey northward in California, through Oregon, into Washington, then eastward along the Olympia River. Now I'm using the Maps ap on my Android to look at the locations he describes in relief.

The author has been exploring the blu highways from Missouri to the Atlantic coast to the Cajun communities, then through Texas, New Mexico, and now Arizona. He really does a good job of visiting off-the-beaten-path places and describing them and the people he meets.

Least Heat-Moon has been chronicling his road trip and adventures throughout the Carolinas and Georgia, in the latest chapters I've read. I was very interested in his description of an old fort on the Cherokee Trail in South Carolina. Also, he describes a visit to a restaurant called Swamp Guinea in Georgia.

I cannot tell what page I am on, since I'm reading this on a Kindle, and the bottom of the page reads Loc 1134. It is the start of Chapter 12. The author has come to North Carolina, and is at Fort Raleigh. He has described the lowlands in which cotton has become displaced by tobacco, and the coastal fishing and tourist communities. This is a very good book to read if you don't have much time at any given chance.

There are so many good poems in this book. I would share one, but I worry about the copyright. Let me just say that on page 255, there is an excellent poem by Wendell Berry, "The first time I remember waking up," which you should read yourself.

Actually, I started reading this book over a week ago. It's a gripping read, with action starting after a few pages. The battle scenes are very dramatic, though the points of views are many and balanced. Mark Bowden even includes testimony from Somali sources, and describes how they perceived the Rangers and US involvement. I am reminded of Homer's descriptions of violence and heroism.

The chapter I'm on now, "Wonsevu," is about the Kaw First People, the indigenous people of what became Kansas. The author starts with quotes and passages from sources that tell of how the Kaw were perceived, what they did, and what others did to them. Sad. Yet I'm glad to know there are some survivors, even though the language is dead.

Am reading now about the quadrant of the county named after the community that is there, almost a ghost town, Elk. It's obvious from reading this that Least Heat-Moon passed years and walked miles in researching this book.

Just finished Elmdale, Chapter VIII of the book. This chapter comprises sections on quotes setting up the chapter, a little history of the community of Elmdale, a conversation with students about their lives and dreams,a whole section devoted to the cottonwood tree, and some history of Osage Hill. In this last section of the chapter, there's an interesting biography on F.W. Hockaday, who did a road number system.

What most impresses me recently in reading this is the chapter titled "Underneath the Overburden," where the author writes about the layers of ancient limestone and fossils, and the quarrying of the stone. He even interviews an old quarryman to learn about the techniques for extracting the stone, and what was it like to be a quarryman. Now in the section titled
Elmdale, students at a high school tell their hopes.

What most impresses me recently in reading this is the chapter titled "Underneath the Overburden," where the author writes about the layers of ancient limestone and fossils, and the quarrying of the stone. He even interviews an old quarryman to learn about the techniques for extracting the stone, and what was it like to be a quarryman. Now in the section titled
Elmdale, students at a high school tell their hopes.

What most impresses me recently in reading this is the chapter titled "Underneath the Overburden," where the author writes about the layers of ancient limestone and fossils, and the quarrying of the stone. He even interviews an old quarryman to learn about the techniques for extracting the stone, and what was it like to be a quarryman. Now in the section titled
Elmdale, students at a high school tell their hopes.

What most impresses me recently in reading this is the chapter titled "Underneath the Overburden," where the author writes about the layers of ancient limestone and fossils, and the quarrying of the stone. He even interviews an old quarryman to learn about the techniques for extracting the stone, and what was it like to be a quarryman. Now in the section titled
Elmdale, students at a high school tell their hopes.

What most impresses me recently in reading this is the chapter titled "Underneath the Overburden," where the author writes about the layers of ancient limestone and fossils, and the quarrying of the stone. He even interviews an old quarryman to learn about the techniques for extracting the stone, and what was it like to be a quarryman. Now in the section titled
Elmdale, students at a high school tell their hopes.

I read about Least Heat-Moon's journey by foot in the Matfield Green sector of Chase County. He was looking for the railroad bed of a mythical Orient line, a way to the West Coast so businessmen could go to China. Also read about the shanties the Mexicans lived in. They worked on the railroad, and got housing which was quite primitive but afforded them a foothold in the US. Also about plants of the prairie. Read it!

William Least Heat-Moon calls his book PrairyErth (a deep map) because it is about the soil and the prairie, but also about the rock beneath it, the people who traverse it, and how they interact. He also delves into the history of Chase County and the Kansas Flint Hills, by quoting those who have written about the prairie in Kansas. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a map of that sector of the county. Read!

By now, I've been through several sectors of the county, this parcel of prairie and rivers, hills and valleys. The author makes the land and its people come alive, right out of the book.

William Trogden, who writes under the nom-de-plume William Least Heat-Moon, tells the natural history and describes the social ecology of a county in Kansas' Flint Hills, Chase County. In the beginning of the book, he shows a map of the county with the different towns, waterways, and highways. He then proceeds to recount the story, one village or town at a time.