Annotated Bibliography

General Fiction Historical Fiction Science Fiction Fantasy

Children's Classics Humor Travel / Adventure Nature / Outdoors

Philosophy / Religion History Popular Science Writing

Jean Auel

• Clan of the Cave Bear series
  This very popular series follows a heroine's life on the prehistoric steppes of central asia. She apparently did extensive research, right down to learning how to knap flint knives and how to use a sling and atlatl. I thought they were engrossing and exciting, although the sequels do go down hill a bit.

Olive Ann Burns

• Cold Sassy Tree
  This is the story of the author's grandfather, I believe. Like Jim the Boy, it is a simple, charming story of a young boy growing up in rural America around the turn of the century. Burns is a wonderful story teller. She makes the characters come alive and makes you fall off your seat laughing more than once.

Forest Carter

• The Education of Little Tree
  This is a beautiful story of a half-Cherokee young boy being brought up by his grandparents in the Great Smoky mountains. It helps if you are interested in native American culture, but it also paints an interesting picture of the people and times in general.

Willa Cather

• Death Comes to the Archbishop
  This is a spectacular story of the bishop of the new territory of New Mexico. It has a broad scope in time, geography, and culture. Cather develops the characters of the Bishop and his vicar especially well; I was in tears at the archbishop's funeral. Cather also has captured the essence of all the various classes of people in the region very well: the white American traders, the simple pious Mexican farmers, the converted Pueblo Indians, the proud and defiant Navajos, the rebellious Mexican clergy, etc. I thought it was a work of stunning scope and depth, destined for my list of favorite books of all time.
• My Antonia
  This is the story of an immigrant family from eastern Europe that moves into the mid-west to try to make a life for themselves. The characters are superb, especially Antonia. Cather paints a deep and moving picture of women's life on the frontier.

Tony Earley

• Jim the Boy
  This is the simple story of a young boy in the back woods of North Carolina in the early 1900's. The author is a masterful story teller; I felt like I was listening to grandpa by the old fireplace. He paints a beautiful picture of life in that time and place.

Arthur Guthrie

• Big Sky
  This is one of the original classic western novels. It tells the bittersweet story of a mountain man driven away from his home as he travels through the Rockies and becomes a successful trapper. There is lots of adventure. It describes the grandeur of the landscape vividly. It develops the protagonist's classic mountain man character superbly; it is very difficult to get into the heads of these close, reclusive, mythical men; this author does a spectacular job. The history of western expansion and the devastating effects on the native Indians (both friendly and hostile) merges seamlessly and compellingly into the main story. It is a work of great literature in addition to being a highly engrossing adventure story.

Frank McCourt

• Angela's Ashes
  This is the very depressing story of the author's childhood in Ireland during the depression. It is not a feel-good book, but it paints a vivid picture of the people, area, and time. I have not seen the film version.

James Michener
James Michener was an untiring researcher and tremendously prolific author. With the exception of South Pacific, they all follow a formula: they are a series of stories within the framework of a unifying story of an archaeologist or historian researching the area in question. The inner stories each bring to life an instant in the history of the place. Michener will make anyone wish they'd been an historian! His books are extremely deep and thorough, and the earlier ones, despite the sheer tonnage, are very readable and addictive. I finally quit reading him when I grounded on the reef of Texas, which I simply could not get through, no matter how patiently I tried.

• Centennial
  This covers a small region on the front range of the Rockies (that becomes Denver, I think.) It covers, oh, a few billion years of its history. Michener does a good job treating all the various groups of people, from the earliest prospectors, to the traditional ranchers and farmers, on up to modern feed lots and politicians. This is more anthropology than mere history.
• Hawaii
  Same thing for Hawaii.
• The Source
  This follows the history of a certain mound of dirt in the Middle East. He follows it from prehistoric times up through present, stopping by all the region's religions along the way. It is one of his earliest and best.
• South Pacific
  This is a series of stories of people, places, and events from Michener's time in the South Pacific during World War II. The popular broadway musical was loosely based on this book. This is Michener story telling at its best. This is an interesting but mostly just entertaining book.

Patrick O'Brian

• Master and Commander
  Alas, I've only read the first! It is brilliant. And I don't really have much interest in naval warfare. Aubrey and Maturin are deep, complex, human characters. My only complaint was that the plot was a bit undirected: stuff happened and kept happening until it stopped.

Wallace Stegner

• Angle of Repose
  This is a complex book that follows the stories of a cantankerous old invalid, and the fascinating life of his strong-spirited pioneer grandmother as he researches her correspondence and old news clippings. The two stories are carefully interwoven despite the generations and decades between them, but I have to say that I was mostly interested in the grandmother. What an incredible character! She was brought up in an aristocratic family near New York but leaves her high class circle of friends and relatives to follow her husband all over the western wilderness as he struggles to make a name for himself as a mining engineer without compromising his strict ethics that don't belong in the lawless American frontier. It is a fascinating character study, and an even more fascinating portrayal of life on the frontier in a huge variety of settings.