The book I picked was one I read 2 years ago called Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America. My mom passed it onto me after reading it, and loving it. I read it in an entire weekend, which either tells you how short and what an easy read it was, or gives an indication of how much I loved it. Honestly, it was a blend of both.
The story is about a Norwegian woman who takes a wager to be the first woman to walk across the US. Of course, there are stipulations, like she has to wear a new “progressive” outfit (looks like long bloomers to me), she can only carry $5 on herself at any time, she has to get signatures to prove her progression across the US, etc. What amazes me about this whole story is related to the title, what a bold spirit she had. She left her family (on their farm that was near repossession) and she and her oldest daughter set off walking.
The writing is interesting as the book is actually a Master’s thesis from Washington State University. It is extremely factual, which is, according to many reviews, the downside. There is no conversing, there is a little surmising about her experiences and what she might have seen. There is discussion of what her political beliefs might have been or how she might have felt on topics of interest. The bibliography is extensive and this time around, I read it with a bookmark at the bibliography so that I could flip back and forth. (I ended up ordering two books out of the bibliography.)
Can I say it again? I love this book. I am really anxious to see what my book club thought of it tonight. Also tonight we are sharing our favorite books. I have compiled the list and I am finding it very interesting. Many of us have favorite books in common, while others have very distinctive – out there – tastes. Mine probably verge on that since I am heavily into the adventure stories and explorer biographies.
AB should be picking the last few things of the house together. I had planned to host book club outside, but it is a high of 70F today. I am not sure that is warm enough for a 7-9pm meeting… even with the fire pit going. (Ha, I suppose that should be indication of how different my life is from Helga’s.)
I have the Sangria made and we will be having tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole for snacks. Dessert nachos (baked cinnamon sugar coated flour tortillas topped with fruit and vanilla yogurt) for dessert, obviously.
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