Sarah Bagby's book reviews can be heard on alternate Mondays on KMUW 89.1.
Here's a transcript of her most recent review. To listen:
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"A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World" by Tony Horwitz (Henry Holt & Company, ISBN 9780805076035, $27.50)
Retracing the steps of often neglected explorers such as Coronado and De
Soto, Tony Horwitz in his new book "A Journey Long and Strange," reveals the
lasting legacies of America's early travelers.
Of particular interest to Kansans will be Horwitz's description of
Coronado's quest to find riches on the wide-open prairie. Led astray by El
Turco, a mixed-race Indian slave, Coronado and his men set out for a spot
called Quivera described as "level country with large towns and trees hung
with golden bells." Coronado Heights, in the Smokey Hills, is near
Lindsborg, Kansas, home to one of the largest Swedish descendant populations
in the United States. Horwitz meets Nels Peterson and is reminded that the
Vikings beat the Spanish to America by 500 years, and that Coronado Heights
these days is where many young lovers lose their virginity.
Tony Horwitz's reporting skills and comic timing are amazing; the result is
a book that allows every reader to rediscover the New World without ever
leaving home.
Review by Sarah
Bagby, May 29, 2008
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