


Read in 2020. What an adventure. A disastrous adventure.
Read in 2020. What an adventure. A disastrous adventure.
I don't quite live in Astoria, but I live nearby. The last couple weeks notwithstanding, the Oregon Coast is a lovely place to live.
I have had brief encounters with a couple of famous people, but nothing beyond a photo op or walking past and getting whiplash from turning to see if I saw who I thought I saw.
Tonight is family pizza night. That's as far into the future as I can look right now!
Thanks @Sace ! @Cosmos_Moon #thankfulthursday
Just shy of 4 ⭐️, this book is a really good look at the first American settlement on the West Coast - Astoria (in what is now Oregon).
It‘s a saga, taking place over land & sea, amidst the War of 1812, across the globe, with interactions with Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, & even a Russian Count, thwarting Astor‘s plans to establish a global fur trade.
Essential reading of a forgotten piece of American history.
I bailed on the first pick for my Bingo/MakeMeReadIt list ... which doesn‘t make me happy, but gets me closer to my #MountTBR goal 🤷🏻♀️.
On to the pick by @Samplergal - hoping this one holds my attention better 🙂
I had some difficulty focusing on this book and keeping track of people. Perhaps not the best audiobook material, but in print I suspect I would never have gotten through it at all...
Dry and hard to get through but interesting
I lived in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA for 8 years and did not know any of this! And the writing is absolutely brilliant - highly recommend, even if you‘re not a fan of nonfiction. Can‘t put it down. 👍🏼
I couldn‘t put this book down. (So much for my library ebooks due soon.) It was part of US history I knew nothing about, and it was especially meaningful since I bought it while in Oregon for the first time, which included traveling through Astoria. It‘s an adventure/wilderness/survival story, both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
I‘m loving this book.
This is nonfiction about how John Astor funded an expedition to the Pacific Northwest to establish a fur trading outpost. Men traveled by sea and over land and faced all kinds of drama on their journey. You would think a tale like this might give men pause in their relentless pursuit of capitalism, but nah. Apparently not. I feel like there wasn't much about Jefferson at all in this, which I found unfortunate.
Why I read it: #litsyatoz A
This book tells the harrowing story of hardship and loss the Astor Expedition experienced as they attempted to reach and establish a new settlement in what is today Astoria, Oregon. This story captures the wild spirit of the Pacific Northwest and the explorers who risked their lives to settle it.
"Nearly two centuries ago, the story that follows was well-known to Americans."