book report #1

One of my ideas for the new year is to keep track of what I'm reading on my blog. My current book, Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne, I borrowed from a friend. The narrative is 319 pages and I'm only on 97. Because it has a history textbook quality with lots of names and dates that are slippery to my gray matter it has been more like an assignment rather than the reward that most books I read tend to be. However, there is just enough story flavor that I have been able to push myself and actually enjoy a different genera.

The beginning pages have covered the years in our nation's history where the Europeans were advancing west into Comanche (Texas) land. The story line is repetitive; the whites indiscriminately slaughtering large numbers of natives (both friend and foe) in an effort to settle the land and the natives savagely retaliating against the small white settlements, brutally torturing both those they kill and those they capture.

In my Midwest days I may not have forced myself through this book but relocating in Arizona and rubbing elbows with so many that have native blood pumping through their veins has highlighted for me the importance of my understanding this tragic part of our nations past.