Welcome to Litsy!

This is a great read for anyone interested in the history of the Dust Bowl. Since it is non-fiction, it‘s hard for the author to make it explosive and suspenseful, and let‘s be honest - what‘s explosive and suspenseful about living 5+ years in a drought?? The author portrays the daily grind, the daily battle with Mother Nature very well IMO. This is well written, interesting and well worth the time if the topic is of interest to you. Recommended.

Learned so much about No Man's Land OK/TX and other areas that suffered through the Dust Bowl. Really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to Ken Burns' documentary this weekend!

This was one of my #Roll100 books for June, @puddlejumper!

Finished “Ridgeline“ last week and absolutely loved it.

About 20% done with “Worst Hard Time“ and so far really enjoying it.

“No Accident“ is next-I previously read 98 pages in this and moved on to other books. My library has a summer reading program bingo and one of the squares was last book in a series. “No Accident“ is the most current and last published of the Posadas County books.

That's my #BookReport and #WeeklyForecast!

I loved this when I read it - been a long time! For those of you interested in the American dust bowl, I recommend it. Kindle sale for $2.99.

I often identify [ The Grapes of Wrath ] as my favorite book, and I think it helped stoke my interest in things like the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Someone recommended this for #MuseumPlaceBookGroup , so I was excited to read it. I ultimately got bored with it and skipped passages.

Wow! What an expansive, terrifying, heartbreaking slice of history. Humans have been impacting climate change in the US for over a century and we haven‘t gotten any more self aware yet. I love it when an author can make history feel so real that you are immersed in the story and this book didn‘t disappoint. Highly recommend! #BookspinBingo #MountTBR #Bookspin @TheAromaofBooks

Everything you ever wanted to know about the great American Dust Bowl, and I mean everything. This was really an eye-opener for me. I just can‘t imagine what those people went through. I don‘t think that most people today are hardy enough to survive such an event.

I read this last year and was amazed by the horrors of the dust bowl. Then I watched a Ken Burns documentary about it-so devastating

#hardtimes

#newyearnewyou

This is a wonderful book about a horrible time in our history. It is about the Dust Bowl, how it happened and the effect it had on the people who lived through it. It follows the lives of homesteading farmers as they see their lives destroyed by Nature. It‘s heartbreaking to read this book, but if you don‘t know much about this era I urge you to buy it or check it out and be prepared to be educated. Five out of 5 stars. Excellent.

When I saw that today‘s prompt for #KeepLitsyActive is #disasters, this book immediately came to mind. It‘s the mesmerizing true accounts of the settlers who stayed and tried to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Well written and highly recommended. @ljuliel

#NFNov
@rsteve388 @Clwojick

"Of all the countries of the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized." Hugh Hammond Bennett

A bit late for book club, but I finished last month‘s choice tonight. It was a good book, thoroughly researched, and mostly easy to read. It did get a bit long at times. Overall, I liked learning about the dust bowl from those who lived through it.

This book tells a remarkable, seemingly impossible story all the more riveting & mind-blowing because it is true. That it happened not even 100 years ago is incredible, that we‘ve learned so little about the power of the natural world & how human agency can change environmental conditions so dramatically it can take the land decades to recover (if at all), even more so. There are lessons for today in this book about the Dust Bowl. Recommended.

This is so not okay...🐝🐜🦗🕷

Saturday morning reading while the family is asleep, the sunlight is cascading in through the windows and the birds are chirping is just the best. I‘m really enjoying this book and actually don‘t mind that my busy schedule has kept me from cranking through it. It‘s very well-written, compelling history and a book I can recommend even before I finish reading it.

“The house had no water. No toilet. No electric power.”

This book really does make for fascinating reading—from the ways in which people were lured to settle in this part of the country and how warnings about the environmental impact of agricultural practices were ignored to the challenges of daily life. I‘m still in the thick of it but if you are a fan of nonfiction and haven‘t already read this book, I highly recommend it.

This book pretty much hooks you with the very first line. Very much enjoying this well-written, fascinating account of The Great American Dust Bowl.

Why read one book when you can read two? Continuing with Good Omens for fiction and starting the tagged book for my next nonfiction read. (We‘ll talk about all the #NCBD releases later...)

I went to the library today to pick up two books on hold (the Timothy Egans) and came home with five, as you do. 📚. #nosuchthingastoomanybooks #libraryhaul #fromthelibrary

Good account of how the Dust Bowl evolved. I learned a lot, but it was saddest for the innocents: children and animals. Large families moved to the plains, where it all went wrong. The little ones perished from dust pneumonia.

I'm at home with pneumonia myself (not the dust kind). At least I get uninterrupted reading time for a few days

Thanks for the tag, @KathrynElise !

1. Love both, but narrative nonfiction is my jam
2. Tagged—it‘s about the Dust Bowl and those who stayed and struggled to survive
3. Home economics (yes. We actually had to take that in junior high. I‘m that old. And I still can‘t cook.)
4. U.S.: Revolutionary War, Civil War. Also fascinated with Ancient Rome
5. @RvnclawWhovian @msford88

#frideas

I enjoyed this!! Have you read it? The details about how bad the storms were were mind blowing!! #howjessreadsin2019

Well, slight change of plans because I‘m still coughing uncontrollably. 😒 My husband took our eldest to participate in Academic Jeopardy today, and I‘m home #audiobaking.

When America‘s Test Kitchen says “big beautiful muffins” they aren‘t kidding. (Kid for scale — it‘s half the size of her face!) 😂

Egan tells an extraordinary tale in this visceral account of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague. A truly eye-opening book. I was blown away by the intensity of this time period and the persistence of those living through it.

1. Connecticut, U.S.
2. John Boyne! ?
3. I own 535 books still TBR ?
4. My couch
5. The tagged book is must-read for any history buff. Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" is a fictional tale of a poor family of sharecroppers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship during the Depression. This has true tales of settlers who stayed to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones.

These were the selections my husband and I made for our prizes at the local library‘s summer reading program. The Worst Hard Time is readable history. Learned a lot about the dust bowl and enjoyed it!

Congratulations on your #hundredgrand milestone, @LaurenReads ! The tagged book is one of my nonfiction favorites. It's great to read in a fiction-nonfiction pairing with "The Grapes of Wrath." ?

This is a fantastic non-fiction read now on sale in various formats 🎉

I'm listening to the tagged audio book about the dust storms in the 1930s and had to pause to look up some pictures. Absolutely terrifying...

Finally finished - the subject matter is completely fascinating and I learned a lot. But the tone was sometimes off to me and I would have preferred less delving into the lives of particular individuals, which slowed the book down considerably.

@JenP thanks, this was hard.😅#FiveStarPredictions Not sure what the rules were but these are some of my faves. I will tag @RidgewayGirl

Listening to this while I made dinner last night and my 12 year old is fascinated. He wanted me to start over at the beginning for him ☺️

This book about the American dust bowl is about as horrifying as it gets about the effects of #norain. Cautionary tale about humans messing with nature they don't understand. This is a good book but about a third longer than it should be.
#90sinJuly

Our current road trip read. So interesting. Highly recommend.

#Dustinthewind My grandparents were Okies who lost their farm in the Dust Bowl, and became migrant workers in California. Eventually settled there and after WWII Pop owned a gas station back when the workers had dapper uniforms. Their 4 oldest were born in Oklahoma and last two (one was my mom) were born in the migrant worker camps in CA. My mom once asked why the family never went camping outings and Nannie said "too much like real life". ?

#weather #aprilbookshowers
It's pouring rain here on the plains of KS this weekend, but in the 30s, a series of droughts and poor farming practices turned this region into part of the Dust Bowl, which added misery on top of the depression. Dust storms turned the sky black and ruined plant and animal (& human) life. I am a US historian, but I learned a lot from this book when I read it several years ago. @RealLifeReading

This book followed the personal stories of people who survived the dust bowl. It made a huge part of American history seem more personal. The details were amazing. #bookbingo #roguebookbingo #nationalbookawardwinner

Staying in #nonfiction mode with an insightful, #awardwinning look into how the destruction of an economy, a working class, and a biosphere all combined into a disaster that is not fairly or comprehensively understood. Gaining that 20/20 hindsight in droves.

Cauldron Cup and I got up early to sneak in some reading before paperwork.

A soil specialist speaking out against the exploitative roots of the tragic Dust Bowl in 1932. One hopes that we can learn from history...

Of all the countries in the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized," Bennett said in a speech at the start of the dust storms. What was happening, he said, was "sinister", a symptom of "our stupendous ignorance.

The Steinbeck fan in me is so ready for this nonfiction account of the Dust Bowl. "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains..."

Sad day, our little local bookstore is going out of business. They will be missed 😢 I was happy to give a home to so many books that I've wanted for a long time.

Sad day, our little local bookstore is going out of business. They will be missed 😢 I was happy to give a home to so many books that I've wanted for a long time.

Interesting exploration of the American plains. Egan not only discusses the catastrophic dust storms of the 1930s but also the history of the region. It may not be the most comprehensive history, but it was a good overview about an area/era I didn't know much about before. I didn't love the narrator, but I've found I prefer this sort of nonfiction on audio. Otherwise I sometimes feel like I'm reading a textbook and have trouble staying engaged.

Halfway & I haven't warmed up to the narrator. The writing is engaging so I'll keep listening.

Some of my reading picks fall in a category I inelegantly call "at least things aren't this bad." A history of the dust bowl felt just right for this week. Work may seem like I'm banging my head against a wall, but at least I'm not stuck in these storms.

Anyone else find themselves turning to certain themes/genres when you need some life perspective?