It's about rogue waves, some of which take days to reach shore, giving really serious, avid surfers time to book a ticket and fly to wherever this is happening, getting there in time to catch the 100 foot wave. Since he told me some of what he's read, I've seen on television waves that are 30 feet high, and I can't even imagine one 3 times that large. "The Wave" by Susan Casey, in case your interest is piqued.
My choice, although I'm not at all a history buff, is this one:
"The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. It's a highly readable book about the Dust Bowl years and the people who chose to stay rather than to migrate elsewhere. It brings to mind a couple of other books I've read on the subject.
If you've somehow missed "Grapes of Wrath", I highly recommend it. After we discussed it in our book group at the shop, one man felt it should be required reading for any new arrivals to California. In our travels through the San Joaquin Valley, there have been signs of the influence of people who moved here during those years. Country music, for one thing (Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and what is known as "The Bakersfield Sound". It's now a staple on breakfast menus, but I remember when biscuits and gravy struck us as a novelty in that area. Until the last few years, there was a restaurant, visible from the highway when we went over the Ridge Route...........called OKIE GIRL. The owners parents had come from Oklahoma and she was right proud of it
Here are some of the jackets I've pulled up that portray the trek to California:
The other book was a Newbery Medal winner, "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. Although written as a book for young people, it's a highly fascinating read. Written in prose poetry, it chronicles the people who chose to stay in the states affected by this environmental disaster.
We hope you'll care to share what book you're reading.
Oh Jane
ReplyDeleteMy favourite book of all time by my favourite author.
We detoured to Salinas especially and I had my photo taken whilst sat in his chair.