The Song of the Lark (Willa Cather, 1915)

Cather remains a favorite author, though I'm noticing that I'm not quite as enthusiastic when re-reading some of her novels. But still excellent, highly recommended. 

Quick Gemini summary:  "The Song of the Lark is Willa Cather's 1915 novel about Thea Kronborg, a Swedish-American woman from a small Colorado town who rises to become a famous opera singer, inspired by the real-life soprano Olive Fremstad. The story traces her journey from childhood in the fictional town of Moonstone, through Chicago, to the Metropolitan Opera, focusing on her artistic development, ambition, and the sacrifices she makes, all set against the backdrop of the American West. It is considered the second book in Cather's "Prairie Trilogy," following O Pioneers! and preceding My Ántonia."

I like several of the characters - Dr. Archie; Ray Kennedy (his final scene is well done); Spanish Johnny; Wunsch; Fred Ottenberg comes along. 

Thea spends time in the southwest US recuperating (from some illness) during one summer, arriving by train in Flagstaff and hanging out in a not-too-distant canyonland that has Native American ruins. Cather clearly appreciates our part of the world; we had just visited Chinle a couple weeks prior so this resonated.

Discussions of musical performance and art, I think it works.  

Blood and Thunder - Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West (Hampton Sides, 2006)

If you're interested in the American West, this book is well worth reading.

Helping put Mexican War, conquest of CA, Santa Fe Trail in context.   Kearney, Fremont, Benton - names I've often heard but lose track of.

Overlap with Lamy of Santa Fe.

AZ as pretty much just outback throughout this period - not very important to the story line.

Descriptions of first detailed surveys; names attached to places rather randomly, so many have stuck (unfortunate but not unusual).

First artist sketches of desert, canyons.  Initial difficulties in seeing beauty - which then was equated with productive land, or Hudson River School lushness.

Indian wars - not solvable.  Longstanding enmity with Mexicans and between tribes.  Lots of awful behavior but current criticism of this period probably would benefit from more reading.   

Bosque Redondo - I finally understand where it was, why such a disaster for the Navajos (and a few Apaches mixed in).

Chivington (Sand Creek massacre).

Kit Carson - incredible fiction around his life; the real story is even better.  Deep appreciation for multiple tribes (two Indian wives); but "did his duty" in terms of rounding up Navajos and others.

Canyon de Chelly, Canyon de Muerto.  Destruction of peach trees (which originated with the Spanish).

Subjugation of Native Americans in general - what a situation.  

The Border Trilogy (Cormac McCarthy, 1992 - 1998)

 All the Pretty Horses  (302 pages)

16-year-old John Grady Cole (protagonist) and best friend (Rawlins) depart for Mexico in 1949 - little to keep them home in Texas as ranch where protagonist grew up was being sold following his grandfather's death and as part of his parents splitting.  They intend to find work on a ranch and see what develops.  Encounter Blevins (and his too-good horse) while crossing into Mexico; he seems to be about 13.  Blevins's horse is stolen; they help him steal it back; this has some consequences.  Cole and Rawlins find work on a huge ranch - old school Mexican wealth.  Cole in particular has superior skills with horses and gets promoted.  Adventures; Rawlins back to Texas and Cole follows briefly.

The Crossing  (426 pages)

Story line starts just before WWII.  Liked it better.  Billy Parham obsessed with wolves from earliest; ends up trapping one that had strayed up to New Mexico from Mexico; decides to return it.  Long discussions of trapping technique; many adventures escorting a wolf through this kind of terrain.

Eventually returns to NM to find out his parents were killed (and horses stolen by killers); picks up his younger brother (Boyd) and they head into Mexico, with an idea of retrieving the horses; they encounter lots of adventures.  Billy makes a third trip to Mexico, alone.

Cities of the Plain (292 pages)

Story line starts in 1952.  John Grady Cole and Billy Parham (protagonists of the first two novels in the trilogy) are working on a ranch in New Mexico - near Mexican border, El Paso.  Their way of life is dying out; land being taken by defense department.  John Grady falls in love but problems.  Epilogue shows Billy as an old man.

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The trilogy is very much worth reading - I much enjoyed.  We've lived in Arizona since 1986 and it's easy to be captivated by author's description of SW scenes.  So much about horses - I personally don't know anything about them, but the descriptions are continually interesting.  Youthful protagonists seem a bit too accomplished, but that's a minor criticism.  Northern Mexico in hard times; in book 2 with its late 1930s setting - many folks with vivid recall of the messy 1910 revolution and its even messier aftermath.

Wonderful discussions of the countryside; what rural Mexico may have felt like in those days; without romanticizing - some rough characters, rule of law more an idea than reality.  Generosity of poor people.  Lead characters are interesting.

The Lost World of the Old Ones - Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest (David Roberts, 2015)

I enjoyed this - helps with bits and pieces of information on the "ancient southwest" - which we think of as a large area around Four Corners.  The author isn't a professional archaeologist - but is a heckuva rock climber and has written on many topics.  He had written a very popular/successful book on this topic a few years before - which I've not read - this one seemed like a sequel.  Picked up a variety of topics that don't fit together particularly closely - but all tied into this area.

One takeaway - still not much resolution on the depopulation that happened shortly before the Spanish showed up.  Also mysterious:  the populations in the pueblos at the time the Spanish showed up (down to now) - language and pottery patterns don't fit together cleanly - backgrounds?

The utter beauty of this stark area; the ingenuity of the ancient populations; great stuff here about the rock art in various forms.  Inaccessible granaries indicating protection of precious grains in starvation-times.  An interesting "meridian" theory about moving some of the population centers.

We have visited the general area quite a few times but haven't explored it nearly as much as we'd like.  A strange kind of beauty, captivating.

First chapter involves exploring Cedar Mesa - author spent lots of profitable time with an old-timer (Waldo) who was born and raised in the area - this quote made me think of my dad and his knowledge of the St. Joe area (other than the "vague sorrow" thing):  "The more time Greg and I spent in Waldo's company, the more we realized that he was a walking encyclopedia of local lore, or knowledge that had escaped the historians and archaeologists, of understandings that would evaporate with his passing.  Waldo knew it:  that sense of impending loss, I guessed, was at the core of the vague sorrow he seemed to carry with wherever he went, even as he told funny stories about the blatherings of self-styled "experts"."

They take a rafting trip into Desolation Canyon (named by John Wesley Powell) - author gets bummed because the trip is going too fast - just how it feels when we are hiking in Grand Canyon!  He writes:  "Twenty-nine of our eighty-five river miles were behind us.  I felt the adventure already slipping through my fingers - I wanted to make the journey last forever.  I thought of Edward Abbey [rafting through Glen Canyon] . . . "The time passes slowly," Abbey wrote, "but not slowly enough."  So true.