Today Amazon offers Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick just for $1.99
In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year’s westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened–and what it tells us about human nature and about America’s westward expansion–remained shrouded in myth.
Drawing on fresh archeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. “The Donner Party,” Rarick writes, “is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity.”
A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, Desperate Passage casts new light on one of America’s most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.
Some words about the Author.
Ethan Rarick has written about politics, crime, business and sports throughout the West. His work has appeared in many publications, including the Los Angles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and he is the author of California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Also you can download The Wonderful Adventures of Nils – An Interactive Children’s Story Book HD into you Kindle Fire for free today only.
An Adventure of a Lifetime
Join Nils on his magical journey, meet new friends, and see the world like you’ve never seen it before! The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is a beautiful interactive and magical storybook created for young readers. Watch how Nils learns an important lesson and comes to understand that we should treat all living things with trust and care. Enjoy fun interactive activities, superb animation, and brilliant sound effects your child will love.
Interactive Magic
TabTale’s interactive storybooks provide an exciting interactive reading experience for beloved children’s stories. Richly filled with innovative and engaging activities, each book inspires young children’s creativity and imagination in a uniquely enjoyable and interactive way.
The story comes alive with interactive fun. The young reader gets to meet Nils and and his animal friends, watch how a magic dwarf casts a spell on Nils, and fly over stunning landscapes with Nils aboard Muli the goose.
Nils eventually saves the day by warning the geese of an impending danger, and then your child will help welcome Nils back to the farm in a joyous celebration. Your child truly becomes part of the story.
Experience the Adventure Your Way
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils comes packed with features:
- Beautiful high-definiton illustrations joined with a rich narrative on every page
- “Read to Me”: automatically reads each page of the story to you
- “Read it Myself”: allows you to control the reading yourself
- “Auto Play”: automatically reads the entire story to you
- Numerous engaging and fun animations on each page