To continue our monthly series of book lists, the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library would like to recommend the following fiction and nonfiction titles about rivers. There’s something about a flowing river that makes it a powerful image. It can be a path to adventure or a place that shapes a person’s life.
July 2010—Rivers: Streams of memory and imagination.
The African Queen by C. S. Forester
Central Africa, 1914. A courageous English spinster and a tough Cockney team up to destroy a German boat, but first they must make a long, perilous trip on the river through the African jungle. Made into a movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. 1935. Cassette Book RC 18825. Digital Book DB 18825 is only available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.18825.
The Making of The African Queen, or, How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind by Katharine Hepburn.
Central Africa, 1951. Hepburn recalls the filming of the classic "The African Queen" in the Congo and Uganda thirty-five years earlier in detail and includes numerous anecdotes. Her first-person narrative reflects her style--frank and imperious, yet full of humor. 1987. Cassette Book RC 27565.
Deliverance by James Dickey.
Cahulawassee River, Georgia. Four men accustomed to city life undertake a canoe trip on a remote Georgia river soon to be dammed. The excursion becomes a nightmare of violence and insanity. Violence. Strong language. 1970. Cassette Book RC 25291.
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.
Memoir of Twain's career as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River in his youth before the Civil War. Twenty-one years later he returns for a trip from St. Louis to New Orleans, reminiscing about the changes and the cities he encounters. Includes a history of the river. 1883. Braille Book BR 13216. Cassette Book RC 51079.
Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Tony Darlington.
Retiree Darlington describes the odyssey he and his wife Monica undertook with a problematic canal narrow boat named Phyllis May and a boat-hating whippet dog called Jim. Against advice, they all traveled across the English Channel and down the Rhone River to the south of France. Some strong language. 2005. Cassette Book RC 68254. Digital Book DB 68254. (Also available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.68254)
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman MacLean.
The author of "Young Men and Fire" (RC 35639) recreates his early years in Montana. In "A River Runs through It" he reminisces about fly fishing with his brother and father in the 1930s. Other stories deal with summer jobs in logging and fire-fighting. Some strong language. 1976. Cassette Book RC 53083. Digital Book DB 53083 is only available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.53083. Show Boat by Edna Ferber.
Account of a family that lived on a Mississippi River showboat in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Traces the fortunes of Captain Hawks's daughter Magnolia, who marries a gambler and leaves the troupe, and her daughter Kim, who becomes a singer on the New York stage. Basis of the musical and movie. First published in 1926; updated introduction by Miles Kreuger. 1994. Cassette Book RC 45882. DB 45882 is only available as a downloadable talking book from BARD http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.45882.
Visible Bones: Journeys Across Time in the Columbia River Country by John Nisbet.
Columbia Basin. Author explores the melding of natural and human history in the Columbia River country. His subjects include the journey of a fossil trilobite, the disappearance of Northwest condors, a trove of mammoth bones, the whispers of a fading language, and the family of a legendary fur trade scout. 2003. Braille Book BRW 1056.
Wild Life by Molly Gloss.
Washington State, 1905. Ardent feminist Charlotte Drummond, writer of penny novels, lives by the Columbia River with her five sons. When her housekeeper's granddaughter goes missing in the woods, Charlotte joins the search. But she becomes lost herself and encounters a Sasquatch family. Some descriptions of sex and some violence. 2000. Cassette Book CBA 7353. Digital Book DBW 7353.
The Yellowstone by Winfred Blevins.
The Great Northwest, 1840s. Robert Burns MacLean, known to all as Mac, has been trapping in the Shining Mountains with several other men. He feels at loose ends, but when he sees the Yellowstone he realizes his destiny lies along its banks. He will start his own trading business and ask permission to marry Annemarie, a Cheyenne woman, but Mac has no money with which to begin his venture. Volume 1 of the Rivers West series. Strong language and some violence. 1988. Cassette Book RC 42563.