triscuit807's review against another edition
4.0
Not the travelogue that I was hoping it was, but it fits the category "read a nonfiction book" (PopSugar 2015) for my2016 Reading Challenge. Austin published this in 1903 and it's a lyrical paean to the American West, specifically the sparsely settled dry lands. The book is actually a series of interrelated essays. My favorites were the ones about several Native Americans know to her: a Shoshone medicine man and a Paiute basket weaver.
kathleenitpdx's review
3.0
Mary Austin lived in the Owens Valley of California in the early years of the 20th century. This book is essays about the flora, fauna, and weather of the area. This was a time when Indians still clung to the ways of the land; miners still looked for veins and pockets; stages still connected towns to railroads; and feuds were sometimes settled with guns.
The book is a little challenging to read. Austen uses an archaic, formal sentence structure and some words that seem to be unique to her. But it is easy to come toa love of the land of little rain and its denizens through Austen's words.
The book is a little challenging to read. Austen uses an archaic, formal sentence structure and some words that seem to be unique to her. But it is easy to come toa love of the land of little rain and its denizens through Austen's words.
loppear's review
3.0
Naturalist admiration of the eastern Mid-Sierras, highlight essays are Water Trails of the Ceriso, The Mesa Trail, and Nurslings of the Sky.
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