Welcome to Litsy!

Compelling account of a tragic and ghastly episode of pioneer history.

Shout out to my similarly morbidly humored husband for sending me this photo on his way through Donner pass today with the comment “Do you think they have any good places to eat?”

An absolutely horrific and gut-wrenching read. I recommend to anyone and everyone, solid 10/10 I couldn‘t put down. Fair warning: prepare to be sad.

This well-researched account of the horrors experienced by the Donner Party was one of the best books I read last year.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟What a harrowing tale of some of the toughest people I‘ve ever read about. Not only does this cover the Donner Party and all the horrors they experienced, but he manages to put in all kinds of history at that time. I love how the author followed up on what happened to the survivors and how they managed to live with their past.

This was an absolutely fascinating read, as much for the glimpse into pioneer life as for Brown‘s sympathetic description of the Donner party tragedy. However, maybe not the thing to read after just having a baby 😭

This was a doozy. We all know the general story of the Donner Party, of the people trapped in the mountains and resorting to cannibalism. This book brings those people to life with respect, and tells us of the horrors they survived. Not an easy read!

Absolutely heartbreaking 💔

My messy November #BookSpin list! Lots of mysteries, some non-fiction, and some historical fiction. I‘m looking forward to reading the tagged book. November seems to me to be the right month for it.

Moral of the story.. if men valued women's opinions sooner then perhaps they wouldn't have resorted to cannibalism.. in all seriousness, what wild journey!! I've camped at some of these areas. The end got a little boring with how the women had to marry to survive once they got out of the Sierras.

What a harrowing tale. The travelers aren't even snowed in yet and the suffering they have already experienced is horrifying.

#ConflictedWorlds #PersonVsNature

Three books of The Donner Party from my stacks: I have read the novel, The Hunger & the other two are on my Kindle #TBR. Both mother nature & even some human nature got to this group of settlers. Their conflict with #nature did not end well for them.

Starting this next on #cloudlibrary

In 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves joins the infamous Donner Party, pioneers from the mid-west seeking a better future in California. They reach the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closes the pass ahead of them. By December they are starving and desperate, enduring almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.

Insomnia and interest in the subject matter got me through this book in just over 9 hours.

A well researched account of the 1846 Donner party that was attempting to emigrate to California. Through a series of bad decisions and bad luck, the party becomes stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains, leading to horrific tragedies. There was much information about the political climate of California, and the fight for control of California with the Mexicans. This is an interesting account of how far people will go to survive.

This is at least the third book I've read about overland emigration to the western US during the 1840s-1850s, along with Wallace Stegner's The Gathering of Zion and David Roberts's Devil's Gate, but this is the first specifically about the Donner Party tragedy. It's definitely not a light-hearted read, but it's interesting, especially knowing a lot of the terrain they traveled. It makes me want to visit the Sierra Nevada again (in a car).

I made a dark joke and accidentally spoiled the ending of this Donner Party book my teen and I are reading together. Mom of the year! Now I'm in Time Out.

It just won‘t stop snowing! And people are annoying. It seems like a good day to start this one.
#EasterExtravaganza @Andrew65

Astoundingly good. I‘ve always been interested in the Donner Party but I didn‘t know the whole story at all. This is meticulously researched and I learned so much. I‘m fascinated by what these people were willing to do to survive and/or protect their families. The entire tragedy came from very bad information about a shortcut plus a long series of bad decisions, big and little. If you‘re interested in the Donner Party story, I 100% recommend this.

Almost halfway thru and I know awful things are coming, but I‘m helpless to stop it!!!

Excited for this #NewYearWhoDis giveaway!

This year was awesome! I think @Bookzombie and I were made for each other. I made an effort to choose a variety of books from her list instead of just defaulting to the horror selections (these of course went on my TBR!) and I truly enjoyed all of them. Only one had been on my radar before this event!

It was really hard to choose a favorite, but I am going to go ahead and say it‘s the tagged book.

Wow. I loved this book. It's not an easy read but worth the discomfort. It's a really neat take, the book is mostly focused on Sarah Graves, who joined the trek with her new husband. I thought I knew about the Donner Party, but I really had no idea what they went through. What a tragic story, a lot of bad luck, a lot of bad decisions, based on bad information and bad advice. Just so sad. If you have any interest in this event, read this book!

I‘m at full day training and things are not looking up for the Donner Party 😬

February is off to a bit of a rocky start. Like I‘m juggling but here are balls everywhere and people keep throwing me new ones. Please just let me read 😫

#NewYearWhoDis Book 4

Ok, wow. This book is a fascinating and informative piece of non-fiction, especially if you‘re like me and your knowledge comes from playing Oregon Trail and knowing *of* the Donner Party but your details are sparse. I learned that my details were really really sparse.

But guys, this is an utterly harrowing read. And oh so very grim. This was my face for the duration: 😧

It‘s weirdly warm in NY today but also dark and rainy.

So you can find me in my chair with blankets, coffee, candles burning, and some #NewYearWhoDis reading! Maybe a cat sometimes too!

Death was the rule, life the exception.

I‘m really happy with my November reads. 💜

My relatives lived next door to someone in the Reed family, down in Hollister, so this audiobook definitely called to me and didn‘t disappoint! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #NonfictionNovember

Even after growing up hearing about them, I still was in shock at exactly how #frozen the poor Donner Party was. Great book!
#movember @Cinfhen

This book was excellent. I was caught up in the lives of the Donner Party. I can‘t imagine having the will to set out on such a journey. Brown brings life to each of the people, and their suffering and losses are heartbreaking. #Booked2019 #nightorientedtitle #nonfiction19

Read in July.

I also thought a lot about Alma Katsu‘s The Hunger while I read this. I felt like I could see how she came up with her horror story.

Fantastic book about the Donner Party. It brought an adult understanding to a story I had half heard since childhood. What the men, women, and children endured that winter should have never happened. So many tactical mistakes!!

#underneaththestars #ayupaugust @squirrelbrain @Cinfhen

Just bought these two ebooks, great deals on Amazon today.

This book was great! The author really humanized all the characters in the story and I related to them even though I've never been through anything even remotely similar to what they went through. It's a nonfiction book but instead of throwing fact after fact at the reader the narrative is smooth and tells as a fiction story. Highly recommend!

Growing up, I read McClashan‘s work (tag👇), and field trips to Sutter‘s Fort in Sacramento also familiarized me to the history of the Donner Party. Even so, Brown‘s research was a hard read at times because it details the party‘s hardships and the difficulties of westward travel.We have it easy today.

☝️: 1975 pic of me (left) & my sister at the Donner monument. Had some family trips over the years through the pass and/or to Donner Lake.

Starting this about the Donner Party. I gave this to my Dad last Father‘s Day. He didn‘t get to finish it— I will for him.

But the history of the Donner Party was pretty familiar to us. I grew up a couple hours away from Donner Pass, and so we were also taught about them in school as part of our local/state history.

This should hopefully be an interesting refresher to what I learned years ago!

The suffering of these people! Absolutely unimaginable. The author did a great job with pacing and setting a sense of place, which really helped move the story along...helpful, because this tragedy was so long-suffering and at times the material could have been VERY dry. My only quibble is that I would have liked a listing of every person involved because there were a LOT to keep track of. Overall, two thumbs up.

This account of the Donner Party follows Sarah Graves and her family as they crossed the country in search of a better life. I appreciated that the author focused on one person during this story of tragedy and survival since there were so many people in the group. Sarah Graves was so inspirational to read about as she battled the snow, cold, and loved ones being used for food after their deaths.
#shessocold
#anglophileapril

This book reminds me I should read more nonfiction. It‘s beautifully written but I‘m just over half through it and I know it‘s about to get brutal.

This book was horrible to read but so well done! Those poor people! I used to drive by Donner pass almost every weekend for a couple of years. I can‘t believe something so horrible happened in such a beautiful place. All the trigger warnings for many terrible things.

#nightorientedtitle #Booked2019 A pick, but barely. This was a bit of a slog for me. Seemed to take forever to get through it.

The story of the Donner party in gruesome detail. Super interesting to see where things went wrong and how things happened.

Yay! My reading slump has ended. I‘ve been in video game land for awhile but this book was definitely worth the break. This is a fascinating look at the life of the Donner party. Brown brings a true vibrancy to the tale that is hard to duplicate. I highly recommend this book.

So I‘m almost finished with this book and I‘m craving more true stories about man trying to survive when isolated in nature. I‘m reading In the Heart of the Sea on my kindle. Any suggestions for books that would scratch this itch?

I‘ve had this book for awhile and decided to start it as my bedtime book. I feel so dumb for saying this but I held off on reading the actual account of the Donner party because I enjoyed The Hunger so much, lol.

Reading this for #Booked2019 #NightOrientedTitle. Harrowing, indeed! While I‘d heard of the Donner Party, I had no idea of the suffering these people went through. These people were tough, heading out to California with their families (and babies!) and everything they owned.

Gross. Hope I never run into these “Buffalo gnats” 👀👀

I will never think of winter in the same way after reading this story of Sarah Graves, a member of the Donner Party. I really appreciated that Brown decided to focus on one person. The courage, tenacity, and strength demonstrated in this survival story can sometimes be overshadowed by the cannibalism, however, Brown deftly portrays the lost souls and their unending need to survive.

➡️For fans of In the Kingdom of Ice

I walked farther than normal so I could listen to more of this book and enjoy this great weather! Daniel James Brown has really researched not only the Donner Party but life back in the 1840‘s. It‘s fascinating but I‘m dreading getting to the winter part. #audiowalk

Starting this tonight (I cannot just read one book at a time) and thought I‘d do a quick synopsis of each book I intent to read in case anyone wonders. This centers on one member of the Donner Party,Sarah Graves. By focusing on one person the author hopes to give insight and empathy for their journey with Sarah‘s own words and descriptions.