“The Explorers,” by Amanda Blows (William Morrow)
The subtitle of “The Explorers” is “A New History of America in Ten Expeditions.” It’s an odd description, because several of the 10 aren’t really explorers, and others aren’t exploring America. That aside, the book is a list of people who’ve made a mark as pioneers.
The book starts with two who actually are explorers, and well-known: Sacagawea and Jim Beckwourth. What new can you say about them? Included is Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wasn’t an explorer but a woman who followed first her family and then her husband to homes across the West. Her Little House books enchanted scores of school children and still do.
Among the most interesting people featured is William Sheppard, an African-American who went to Africa as a missionary in 1890. Known in the Congo as the “black white man,” Shepard not only ministered to the Africans but also learned their language and acted as an interpreter, wrote down one of the African languages, explored unknown parts of the continent and preserved many artifacts. Later, as he realized the brutal treatment of the Africans by the Belgian government, he became a human rights activist.
Equally interesting is Florence Merriam Baily, a conservationist who brought national attention to the decline of America’s bird population. She promoted bird watching, opposed hunting protected birds and railed against women wearing hats with real bird parts on them.
Others included are John Muir, conservationist Florence Merriam Baily, geographer Harriet Chalmers Adams, Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride. Their bios are intertwined with details about the times and places in which they lived and worked.
“Death Valley Duel,” by Scott Graham (Torrey House Press)
In No. 9 of Graham’s National Park mystery series, Chuck Bender’s stepdaughter Carmelita is competing in the grueling Whitney to Death 150, an ultra trail running race — 150 miles through scorching desert, high mountains and Death Valley, with only 40 runners and just two teenagers competing. The teens are Carmelita, 17, an unknown competing in her first race, and Margot Chatten, 17, a well-known endurance runner whose jerk of a father-manager is hyping her performance.
Carmelita’s sister Rosie documents the race. Chuck, an archaeologist, is part of the crew, but he’s also working for a native rights foundation, looking for evidence of a man killed a hundred years before. He focuses on the race, however, after one of the racers dies suddenly, then a collection of rattlesnakes goes after the runners. Knowing something is afoot, he keeps an eye on Margot’s father. He tells Carmelita she doesn’t have to finish, but she’s stubborn and vows to keep going.
“Death Valley Duel” is the most focused of the National Park mysteries, and probably Graham’s best. His detailed descriptions of the race and the runners will keep readers wondering to the end.
“Cast Away,” by Kase Johnstun (Torrey House Press)
Veronica and her grand-nephew Chuy are Mexican immigrants who come to the U.S. 70 years apart in this intriguing novel. Veronica falls for a worthless American poet in 1923. Pregnant, she goes with him to Seattle, where she is abused, loses her baby and escapes. (In a nice little act of revenge, Veronica takes his poetry with her and throws it, page by page, into the ocean.)
She winds up in an immigrant community of railroad workers at the edge of the Great Salt Lake, where she finds acceptance and love. Still, life isn’t through with Veronica, and she leaves after a harrowing experience.
Chuy arrives with his family in 1990, moving in with the withered Veronica. The family strikes out on its own, but when the father is deported, Veronica moves in to help the mother. When the mother, too, is sent back to Mexico, the sharp-tongued old crone and teenage nephew are left with only each other. Chuy’s improbable goal is to win $1 million in an American TV reality show so that he can pay legal costs to bring his parents back to America.
“Cast Away” is an engaging story of two disparate characters who must forge a bond if the young boy is to make it in the United States.
