Nonfiction Review: Seabiscuit

Laura Hillenbrand is my personal hero. She has the same immune dysfunction disease I have, yet she has written and published two best-selling nonfiction books requiring years of research, interviews, and writing that were both turned into top movies. She wrote her first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, while at her sickest and mostly bedridden and housebound. My husband and I both thought Unbroken, her second novel, was fantastic and powerful, and he enjoyed Seabiscuit. So why did I wait over ten years to finally read Seabiscuit while it waited patiently on my shelf? My only excuse is that I didn't think I'd be interested in reading about horse racing. But, as usual, Hillenbrand's enormous talent for storytelling pulled me in from the first pages and kept me rapt.

In June 1936, a horse trainer named Tom Smith met a three-year-old colt named Seabiscuit. Tom, who had learned about horses in the wild West and was known by the Indians there as the Lone Plainsman, didn't talk much, but he knew horses. He'd been in search of just the right horse for his employer, Charles Howard. Howard was now a wealthy Californian, but he'd come from the East in 1903 as a penniless bicycle repairman and made his fortune by getting into automobiles at just the right time. Seabiscuit didn't look like a winner to most people. His legs looked somewhat deformed and weak, and he had a bad reputation for a wild temperament. But Smith saw something in the horse, so he urged Howard to purchase him, which he did, for a bargain price. At that time, a short, muscled redhead named Red Pollard was 12 years into working as a jockey, and his career seemed to be over. Born into a large, boisterous Irish family in Canada in 1909, Red, whose real name was Johnny, had been through years of scraping by as a jockey and part-time prizefighter, two physically punishing careers. He'd had some wins early on as a jockey, but those years seemed to be behind him. After a terrible car crash in Detroit, Pollard and his agent, Yummy, dirty, injured, and out of cash, went to the local track where Yummy tried to get Red a job. Smith let Pollard meet Seabiscuit, Red offered the horse a sugar cube (the last thing in his pockets), and the man and horse immediately began to bond. The rest is quite literally history. By 1938, the number one name in newspapers across the nation wasn't Roosevelt or Hitler or Mussolini; it was Seabiscuit.

This isn't just a book about a horse. It's also about Howard, Smith, and Pollard, Seabiscuit's close-knit team, and many others surrounding them. Hillenbrand brilliantly portrays a time in history, and the unique relationships and events that made Seabiscuit such a household name. Most importantly, Seabiscuit's rise to fame was not a straight line, but a rocky road filled with enormous challenges. Pollard and Seabiscuit both faced unbelievable trials; at one point, it seemed certain that neither of them would ever race again. Hillenbrand's research is thorough and fascinating, but the key to this compelling book is how talented she is at telling a story, weaving together historic events, people, and horses into a propulsive narrative that is completely engrossing. I still have little interest in horses or horseracing, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book about a remarkable horse and his remarkable rider.

339 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

Check out the excellent movie adaptation of Seabiscuit.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (I should get extra credit for this book that sat on my shelf for 10 years!)

Nonfiction Reader Challenge

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by George Newbern, and/or download it from Audible. The audio sample is from the preface and the start of chapter one and provides a nice overview of why this story is so special.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

 

Or you can order Seabiscuit from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Nonfiction Review: The Sun Does Shine

I heard Nikki of the Red Dot Reads channel on YouTube rave about the memoir The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom, and Justice by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin. When I was planning for Nonfiction November, I discovered I had already downloaded the audio. Given Nikki's recommendation, I made sure to get to this audio book last month. And she was right! Wow, what a stunning, inspiring true story.

Anthony Ray Hinton, known as Ray, had gotten into a little trouble as a teen, but he was determined to get his life together and be a good man. By his twenties, in 1985, he was working steadily for a temp agency and living with his beloved mother, helping her take care of the house and yard. He was out mowing the grass one day when a police car drove up. In front of his mother, the police handcuffed him, arrested him, and drove him to the police station. He kept asking why they were arresting him, and finally, in the car, the detective told him they were arresting him for armed robbery and murder. Ray told them he was innocent and that he would never hurt anyone. He assumed this case of mistaken identity would be straightened out. But Ray was detained in prison, given a public defender, and convicted of two counts of capital murder. It didn't matter that security records showed he was at work at the time of the crime or that the bullets from his mother's gun, found in her house and not fired for decades, didn't match those from the murders. The judge sentenced Ray to death. Ray spent almost thirty years living on death row in a solitary cell, as one court after another upheld his verdict, and 54 of his fellow inmates were put to death. With the help of an incredible lawyer named Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, the U.S. Supreme Court finally overturned Ray's conviction, and he walked out of the prison in 2015.

That's a brief outline of the bare facts of Ray's unbelievable case, but there is so much more to this moving memoir. Hearing the story first-person--and particularly on audio (though read by a professional narrator)--was absolutely compelling and so powerful. If you read about Ray's case in a crime novel or saw it on a TV series, you'd say, "That's not realistic; that could never happen," but the stunning series of problems, issues, blatant racism, and outright lies that led to Ray's conviction really did happen. I've read other nonfiction books about wrongful convictions, but this one is special. It's not just about Ray and his case but about what it's like to live on death row. Ray befriends the other inmates (even though they are each isolated in solitary cells) and reaches out to them with compassion. He found purpose in connecting with others while on death row for a crime he didn't commit. It's heartbreaking and poignant but also very inspiring. This powerful memoir should be required reading for every U.S. citizen. I'm so glad I read it.

(I see there is also a version for Young Readers, so this book should be in every classroom, too!)

368 pages, St. Martin's Griffin

Macmillan Audio

To hear directly from Ray, listen to this powerful interview with Kate Bowler, from her Everything Happens podcast (one of my favorites for inspiration). He not only talks about his remarkable story but also his commitment to forgiveness.

Kate also recently interviewed Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer who finally got Ray released and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Nonfiction Reader Challenge (category - linked to a podcast)

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Alabama

Fall Into Reading Challenge - nonfiction

 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the foreward by Bryan Stevenson, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

    

 

Or you can order The Sun Does Shine from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: Licorice Pizza

Last weekend, with many of the shows we watch on cable on hiatus until the new year, we decided to watch a movie. We chose Licorice Pizza, a 2021 movie that was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture. It got a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was on my (very long!) list of movies I've been wanting to watch. We enjoyed this coming-of-age film set in the 1970's.

Gary, played by Cooper Hoffman (son of the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman), is a precocious fifteen-year-old in L.A. who's been working as an actor since he was a young child. One day at school, he spots a young woman he's never seen before. Alana, played by Alana Haim, is twenty-five and working for the photographer at school that day, but bold Gary asks her out. She eventually agrees to meet him for dinner (he's very persuasive) but emphasizes that it's just as friends. Despite their age differences, Gary is the one who is confident and knows exactly what he wants from life (plus he makes a lot more money than she does), which is appealing to Alana since she isn't sure what she wants to do, except that she does not want to work for a school photographer. Gary brings Alana into his world. It's clear he's in love with her, but they are just friends, though there is definitely some tension. They have many adventures together and apart, they talk and have fun and sometimes argue, and the two of them spend a lot of time together, often with Gary's friends, and get into all kinds of trouble. Gary starts a couple of businesses and helps Alana see the potential in her own life, though she eventually finds her own passion.

All of these exploits are set against the backdrop of 1973 L.A. And it's a whole lot of fun to accompany Gary and Alana on their explorations! The fashions, the colors, the cars, the current events, and the settings are all vibrant and entertaining. Accompanying all of that is a great 70's soundtrack. Though Gary and Alana are definitely the center of attention here (and both are excellent in their roles), the movie is filled with big-name cameos, including Sean Penn, Tom Waits, and Bradley Cooper. And did I mention it's funny? This movie has a great sense of humor. My husband described this movie as quirky (which is not always a compliment from him), and it is definitely a little weird. But I thoroughly enjoyed this nostalgic, enjoyable trip back in time that often left a smile on my face. It's not deep, but it's a whole lot of fun!

Licorice Pizza is currently available free on Amazon Prime and Paramount+, plus available for a fee on many other services.

It's Monday 12/12! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

And the calendar keeps hurtling toward Christmas! Remember when you were a kid, and it seemed to take SO long for Christmas to get here? Now, the time just flies by, and it feels like there is never enough time.

So, with that intro, you can probably tell, I am fully immersed in holiday preparations. I have to do most of my shopping online, and I think I am almost finished now. Just a few last things to pick up locally (like gift cards). So, that's a big relief! My husband and son brought our tree into the house yesterday and got it into its stand ... but then none of us had the energy to decorate it! We'll do it next weekend.

Oh, right, that's the big news. Our son tested positive for COVID on Thursday. He'd been congested and not feeling well since Sunday, but after two negative COVID tests, he figured it was just a cold. He tested again Thursday when he came home for dinner, and ... positive. Lesson learned: one (or two) negative test does NOT mean you don't have COVID! Luckily, he wasn't too sick, and so far, we are both in the clear, though I did test myself this weekend! A bit of understandable paranoia ...

In a case of really bad timing, we are in the midst of re-doing our living room (where the tree goes!). Keep in mind our old furniture was 35 years old, so this is not a typical process for us! We ordered new furniture Labor Day weekend, but it was just delivered last week. There's still one piece left to be delivered, and the new blinds will have to wait until January because the tree goes in front of a window. But my husband did a fabulous job repairing the walls where some huge fabric-covered cornices used to be, and we are beginning to put the room back together. This is what it looked like mostly bare, with the two new pieces of furniture: 

 

New furniture!

And I did manage a short walk at the nature center last week:

Lovely day at our local nature center

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On the Blog

For the fourth week in a row, I only managed one book review. Somehow, I am always SO far behind by the end of the year! I may have to do what I did back in 2020, and do one December review post that includes all of my books read this month. So, last week's review:

Middle-Grade Review: History Comics - The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places by Falynn Koch - wonderful graphic nonfiction for all ages!

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On Video

 Nonfiction November Wrap-Up - a summary of the great nonfiction books I read last month

Friday Reads 12-9-22 - my quick weekly update on what I am reading 

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What We're Reading

I'm trying to clear my bookshelves of past gifts to get ready for new books for Christmas!

 

 

I finished Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel and loved it! I enjoyed her novels Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel and have been greatly anticipating this novel ever since its release earlier this year. It's not a sequel, but there are some characters and settings from The Glass Hotel that appear here. It's about time travel, which I LOVE, and it was just as fabulous as I expected! Timing ranges from 1912 to 2400, with different characters in each time encountering similar things and crossing paths with the same man. It was completely engrossing, thoroughly compelling, and my only complaint is that it wasn't long enough!

 

 

Now, I am reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I think I got it for my birthday ... last year! Also, it's my first Reid novel, after listening to everyone I know rave about her books for years now. Of course, I was immediately pulled into this story about a band in the 70's, and a young woman, Daisy, who joins the band. It is very immersive and hard to put down.

 

 

 

I am still listening to an outstanding book on audio, Horse by Geraldine Brooks. It's the choice for my neighborhood book group this week. Brooks is one of my favorite authors (along with Mandel and Hillenbrand). Ironically, having just finished Seabiscuit, Horse is also about a famous racehorse, though like Brooks' other books, it's historical fiction. It involves a painting of a horse and a horse museum skeleton, both recovered in 2019 by two different young people, and an enslaved Black boy in 1850 training a racehorse in Kentucky. From what I've read, most of the history of the horse and his owners is based on historical fact. As always with Brooks, this story that didn't sound interesting to me is told in a fascinating, gripping way.

 

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading The Verifiers by Jane Pek, an author I met at Booktopia. Jane sat at our table at dinner one night, so I got to know her a bit--she's excellent at book trivia! This is a classic mystery in a modern setting with an awesome female protagonist, with a hefty dose of humor, plus family drama. I thoroughly enjoyed it (you can read my review at the link), and he's liking it so far.

 

I think our son, 28, finished reading Spellmonger by Terry Mancour, the first book in the Spellmonger series. He's now reading the second book in that series, Warmage, and is enjoying the series.

 

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What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week?

Middle-Grade Review: The National Parks

I've enjoyed the books in the History Comics series of graphic nonfiction for middle-graders that I've read before, including The Roanoke Colony: America's First Mystery and The Great Chicago Fire. But its latest book, The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places by Falynn Koch, is my favorite so far! We are well past the age of its intended target audience, but both my husband and I enjoyed reading this informative, fun history of one of our favorite things, the U.S. National Parks.

The author, who has traveled extensively and visited many parks, provides a comprehensive history of the National Park Service and many of the individual parks. A retired Regional Director of the NPS, who worked in the parks for over 30 years, provides an interesting forward from a different perspective. As always with History Comics, there is a sense of fun throughout while learning. Here, the narrators are a Sasquatch (yup, really!), representing the parks, and an eagle, representing the American people. The eagle is dressed differently and wearing the year (in his hat or on a button, etc.) in each section, which helps keep track of where in history you are. Sasquatch explains to the eagle how the parks came to be, from Yosemite being named the very first state park in the 1850's through the establishment of the NPS through to some of the present-day issues facing the parks. The author doesn't shy away from difficult topics, like the fact that all of the parks are on land that was taken from Native Americans or the historic and continuing struggles between industry/business benefits and preservation goals. She explains them in ways that kids can understand. The book is illustrated with vibrant colors, beautifully depicting the parks, the people, and the wildlife. 

Sample pages from History Comics: The National Parks

I always enjoy History Comics and always learn a lot. In this case, because we love to visit national parks, I assumed I already knew most of it, but I learned so much from reading this book. I'd start to tell my husband some intriguing fact about the parks, and he'd laugh and say he'd read that, too! We both kept picking up the book to read more. Like much of history, parts of this story are pretty complicated or even dull, like the arguments between differing factions about how to use the parks and the passing of bills in Congress. Koch keeps things moving forward and interesting, though. The eagle serves as a stand-in for the kid audience and asks questions of Sasquatch during the more complex parts. And seeing the year somewhere on the eagle in each part helped me keep track of things. As always, humor is also built into the book to make learning fun. Both kids and adults alike will enjoy this book and learn from it!

120 pages, First Second

P.S. I also just noticed that there is a national park mystery series for middle-grade readers! Book 1 is Mystery in Rocky Mountain National Park -  I'll have to check these out!

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

2022 Alphabet Soup - N

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - category Geography

Diversity Challenge

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

 

Or you can order The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 12/5! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

I am now in the "exhausted and panicking" phase of the holiday season - fa la la la la! My to-do list overfloweth. I bought about 80% of my gifts online on Cyber Monday, but I still need to make up my book list and head to my local independent bookstore to place an order. The big thing weighing on me right now is finishing up all my photo gifts so that they will be made up and shipped to me (and in some cases then mailed out) in time for Christmas. I love giving photo ornaments, calendars, and photo books, but it is a lot of work to put them together. This year I found a REALLY cool gift that I know will be loved, but it's an involved process! Then, there's mailing, wrapping, sending cards, planning food, etc. 'Tis the season!

Here are my highlights from last week:

I was finally well enough to meet one of my closest friends for a walk at our local nature center. I hadn't seen her in 6 months!! We talked nonstop for over an hour and still aren't fully caught up. We promised to stay in touch better. It was wonderful to see her, reconnect, and to be outdoors and walking again.

We watched this Great Blue Heron catch & eat a vole!

Reflections in the creek

Reunited!

On Sunday, my husband, our younger son, and I cut down our Christmas tree. The tree farm we've been going to since the boys were very young (complete with hayride, real reindeer, and free kettle corn) is now so busy that they were sold out and closed for the season by Saturday! So, for the second year, we went to a different tree farm. They have a huge selection, so we found a great tree. We also watched The Snowman during lunch, another old tradition, to officially kick off the season.

Searching for a perfect tree!

 

Found it!

__________

On the Blog

Just time for one review last week:

Nonfiction Review: Walden by Henry David Thoreau - I enjoyed this classic filled with beautiful observation and writing about nature 

I also want to share a post from my chronic illness blog:

Gifts Created by and for Spoonies - this is a great list of handcrafted gifts (books, jewelry, clothing, and much more) created by those with various chronic health problems ("spoonies"). Some gifts are made specifically for others with chronic illnesses or disabilities, like migraine and MS, but lots of the gifts are beautifully handmade items appropriate for anyone on your list!

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On Video:

I posted two short videos last week: 

The E-Reader Book Tag - all about my my e-reader & e-book reading habits 

 Friday Reads 12/2/22 - a quick overview of the books I just finished & the ones I was just starting

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What We're Reading

 

I finished Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, and it was outstanding! Hillenbrand is my personal hero. She is an amazingly talented writer, but she also has the same immune disorder I have, ME/CFS, and has written remarkable books with horrible disabilities (great interview with her from Stanford Medicine). She wrote much of Seabiscuit while lying down on her back in bed, with her eyes closed because her vertigo was so bad, writing with a pencil on a pad of paper! My husband and I both loved Unbroken, and he loved reading Seabiscuit, but I kept thinking I just wasn't interested in horse racing. Well, of course, her in-depth research and incredible story-telling talent shine through! This excellent book that reads like a novel is gripping and fascinating.

 

With Nonfiction November (and all my other seasonal themes) behind me,  I dove into Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I loved her novels Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel and have been greatly anticipating this novel ever since its release earlier this year. It's not a sequel, but there are some characters and settings from The Glass Hotel that appear here. It's about time travel, which I LOVE, and so far it is just as fabulous as I expected! Timing ranges from 1912 to 2400, with different characters in each time encountering similar things and crossing paths with the same man. It's completely engrossing so far, and my only complaint is that it's not long enough, and I am already halfway through it!

 

I am also listening to an outstanding book on audio, Horse by Geraldine Brooks. It's the choice for my neighborhood book group next week. I haven't been able to attend since May, so I am excited to go next week. Brooks is one of my favorite authors (along with Mandel and Hillenbrand!). Ironically, having just finished Seabiscuit, Horse is also about a famous racehorse, though like Brooks' other books, it's historical fiction. So far, it involves a painting of a horse and a horse museum skeleton, both recovered in 2019 by two different young people, and an enslaved Black boy in 1850 training a racehorse in Kentucky. It's already fascinating and compelling.

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading The Verifiers by Jane Pek, an author I met at Booktopia. Jane sat at our table at dinner one night, so I got to know her a bit--she's excellent at book trivia! This is a classic mystery in a modern setting with an awesome female protagonist, with a hefty dose of humor, plus family drama. I thoroughly enjoyed it (you can read my review at the link), and he's liking it so far.

 

 

 

I think our son, 28, finished reading Spellmonger by Terry Mancour, the first book in the Spellmonger series. He's now reading the second book in that series, Warmage, and is enjoying the series.

 

 __________

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week?

Nonfiction Review: Walden

This spring, I read Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck, a beautifully-written memoir about the author taking six walks (really, five walks and one canoe trip) that Thoreau described in his books and journals. The memoir included excerpts of Thoreau's writing, and that inspired me to finally read Thoreau for myself. Walden by Henry David Thoreau was my first book read for Nonfiction November, and while it was a bit of a rocky start, I ended up enjoying this chronicle of his time spent in an isolated cabin he built himself, on the shores of Walden Pond in Massachusetts.

Walden begins with a 73-page chapter titled Economy, in which he explains why he wrote the book. Unfortunately, he goes on to complain, criticize, and ... well, rant about the "modern" ways of living in general and how people wouldn't need to spend their lives earning money if they would just stop buying so much unnecessary stuff (my husband's new favorite word is frippery). He's got a point, but I was relieved when that very long chapter finally ended, and he moved onto his time actually living in the cabin at Walden. As I had hoped, he beautifully describes how he immersed himself in the natural world. He talks about how he spent his time, what it was like to live in the small, rustic cabin (he lived there for two years but condensed the narrative into a single year), and his detailed observations of nature. He portrays every aspect of the natural world: the trees and plants, the pond itself, and birds, animals, and insects living around and with him. His narrative moves through each season of a year, sharing how this small ecosystem around him changed and the varying beauty in the different seasons. In one chapter, his very apt descriptions of the bizarre way a squirrel moves had me laughing out loud and reading the section to my husband.

As I mentioned, in that first section--and occasionally in later chapters--Thoreau gets wrapped up in criticizing the way others live. He comes across as arrogant and privileged in those parts (clearly, he himself has never actually been poor or had any real responsibilities). Thankfully, the rest of the book, about three-quarters of it, were as I had hoped, with beautiful nature writing and in-depth observations of the natural world. I love the outdoors and have myself experienced many times the sense of peace and joy that come from being immersed in nature, so I could relate to his experiences living at Walden. In fact, I read part of this book while camping, sitting outside with my book in the woods, overlooking a small lake; I highly recommend reading this outdoors if you can. I loved his descriptions of the seasonal changes, the sights and sounds of nature, and his experience of solitude. My book is filled with dog-eared pages of beautiful passages I wanted to come back to. His writing--about nature and about simple living--often touched me and made me think. I loved this description of the changing colors in fall:

"Already, by the first of September, I had seen two or three small maples turned scarlet across the pond, beneath where the white stems of three aspens diverged, at the point of a promontory, next the water. Ah, many a tale their color told! And gradually from week to week the character of each tree came out, and it admired itself reflected in the smooth mirror of the lake. Each morning the manager of this gallery substituted some new picture, distinguished by more brilliant or harmonious coloring, for the old upon the walls."

I read another short passage about fall in one of my Friday Reads videos, if you want to listen. It's a dense book that took me two weeks to read, but I thoroughly enjoyed most of it and am glad to have finally experienced Thoreau for myself. If you'd like a taste of his writing in a much shorter book that is delightful on its own, I recommend Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck. Or just skip over the ranty bits in Walden and immerse yourself in the beauty of Thoreau's Walden Pond.

384 pages, Clydesdale Classics

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Back to the Classics - Classic set in a place you'd like to visit

Nonfiction Reader Challenge

Fall Into Reading Challenge - Classic

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the beginning of the books as he described why he wrote it, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

     

 

 

Or you can order Walden from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.