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Jun 03, 2010

Sarah rated it:

Much like the townsfolk that comprise the characters of this novel it is a plain, straightforward read. Good, not great but soul-satisfying nonetheless. Pieced together like a patchwork quilt the book weaves together several stories culminating in a final piece.

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Jan 16, 2012

Wendy rated it:

In 1920, in a small mining town, Swandyke, Colorado, a terrible tragedy happened. An avalanche, taking everything in its path, including nine children on their way home from school, hurtles down a slope.

Their are the Patch sisters, Lucy and Dolly, who between them have five children buried under all the snow. Lucy and Dolly have not spoken in many years, not since Dolly betrayed Lucy in the most horrible way. Wanting to get out of the town, Lucy goes to College, with the stipulation More...

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May 08, 2011

Sara rated it:

Swandyke is a mining town high in the Rocky Mountains overlooking Denver in the early part of the twentieth century. It is a small town, dominated by the Fourth of July mine and inhabited by people just as every bit as dirty and poor as the town itself . There are the estranged Patch sisters, Lucy and Dolly; Minder Evans, a Civil War veteran haunted by his past; Grace Foote, the aloof wife to the mining superintendant; Joe Cobb, the only Negro in town running from the fear and hatred of the po More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Charlotte rated it:

This is my second book by Sandra Dallas and I am fast becoming a fan, though Tall Grass is still my favorite! This book is set in the in Colorado in the mining town of Swandyke. It begins at 4:00 in the afternoon of an early spring day in 1920, with an avalanche that sweeps down the mountain catching 9 children on their way and we learn that only 4 survive. Sandra then spends about half of the book telling the stories of 5 different individuals whose children or grandchildren are amongst the More...

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Aug 07, 2010

Nicola rated it:

Reason for Reading: I've always wanted to read a Sandra Dallas book and the plot of this one was particularly intriguing.

This is a beautiful story. It's what I call a light read. I picked the book up one evening and when it was time to turn out the light saw I had read three-quarters of the book. The story is simple and quite straight-forward but Dallas has written it in such a manner that the reader becomes emotionally involved in the characters by the time the already mentioned trage More...

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Jul 27, 2010

Ramona rated it:

Another beautifully written story by Sandra Dallas. Dallas weaves a tale set in the 1920's in Swandyke, Colorado, a small mining town where an avalanche sweeps away nine young children as they walk home from school. Only four survive. The story goes back to share the stories of the lives of the parents of these children, of their differences in family, culture, social status and religion. Dallas puts you in the midst of the hardships, heartbreaks, family trials, the challenges faced in a sma More...

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Jun 30, 2010

Anne rated it:

Sandra Dallas is a solid story-teller whose books often recreate early 20th century Midwestern and Western history. In "Whiter than Snow", the story of an avalanche in a dirt-poor gold-mining town in Colorado that kills or injures 9 schoolchildren, the author traces the life of each parent leading up to the moment when the snow rumbles down the mountain into the path as their child walks home from school that day. Like Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey", fate brings tog More...

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Jun 03, 2010

Cindy rated it:

Set in 1920, in the High Colorado mountains near the Tenmile Range, in a small mining town called Swandyke, this story opens with a detailed description of the families and characters that the story are centered around. An avalanche slides down the mountain killing five children, and this story of that fateful day.

However this author (the first book I have ever read by her) takes great care to explain the character of each parent and each family represented in the story. She also More...

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May 06, 2010

Debbie rated it:

I have read two other of Sandra Dallas's books, and I enjoyed this as much as Tallgrass. I found Prayers For Sale to be a little slow. Whiter Than Snow is set in a mining town, as is Prayers For Sale. An avalanche falls in April 1920, in a small mining town in Colorado and buries nine young school children. The story begins with the avalanche and then quickly turns to describe the life of each parent or caregiver of the nine children. In the various stories are two sisters who have not spok More...

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Apr 23, 2010

Jackie rated it:

I would like to give this more than 2 stars, but just can't quite get there. I read this book in a 24 hour time span - it was engrossing and a quick easy read. And I don't quite know what I expected, since I just picked up the book based on the fact that it was a new one from Sandra Dallas - I think I've read pretty much everything she's written. But somehow this didn't meet those expectations, whatever they were.

I'm not big on short story collections, and this sort of felt like More...

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May 24, 2011

Sharon rated it:

This is my first stab at reading a Sandra Dallas book. It was chosen to be a reading selection for the book club of which I'm a member. The reviews of others more familiar with Dallas' work than I am seem to say this is not Dallas' best work, but based on my experience with this one, I'd be willing to read another.

This book tells the story of an avalanche in the early 20th century in a Colorado mining town through the eyes of individuals who lived in the town pre-disaster. There w More...

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May 29, 2010

Diane rated it:

Whiter Than Snow is a novel set in 1920 that begins with tragedy. An avalanche buries nine school children, in the fictional, mining town, of Swandyke, Colorado. Only four of the nine children survive this horrendous event. The five who died are the children of Dolly and Lucy Patch, and their story along with the stories of other family members of the victims are linked together by this tragedy.

Lucy and Dolly Patch are estranged sisters, and adult daughters of a miner. Joe Cobb, a bl More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Mom rated it:

I have really changed in my old age. (really I'm not even 60 yet)! I don't know if it is age or the variety of books I'm reading in book club, but my tastes have changed. I would normally not have picked up a book like this by myself without a recommendation from someone else, but I'm glad I did. I usually like romance/mystery/suspense. This book was not in any of those catagories. It was more like human interest. It told the stories of 6 people in the 1800's and how they got to the crisi More...

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Jun 14, 2010

Denise rated it:

Whiter Than Snow is a historical novel about the Colorado mining towns of the early 1900s. Sandra Dallas is known for her compelling western dramas, well research and so realistic you can feel the grit in your teeth and the cold in your bones. In her latest novel the town of Swandyke has suffered an avalanche and nine children have been buried. As the town frantically works to dig the children out, Dallas takes us through the lives of each family affected, detailing their histories and heartbrea More...

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Apr 08, 2011

Keilani rated it:

This is one of her sadder stories, but will little spots of joy. It is a series of smaller stories, as you learn the background of various characters, wrapped in the larger story. One day an avalanche takes several of the town children as they return home from school. As the anxious parents wait to discover if their children will survive or not, you learn the story of each parent, and most are not very happy. Some of the children are saved and some are not. There are some very touching mome More...

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Jul 27, 2010

ICPL added it

Sandra Dallas’ new book returns her readers to the small mining town of Swandyke, Colorado just down the road from the setting of her bestselling books, Prayers for Sale. Whiter Than Snow focuses on different members of the community and their children. As Dallas tells the story of each character, the reader begins to understand the character through their past experiences and how they interface with the Swandyke community. Towards the end of the book, there is a tragedy that brings the commu More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Libby rated it:

Sandra Dallas is a captivating story teller with real and poignant characters. The story of Whiter Than Snow begins with an avalanche in a small Colorado mining town. Nine children are trapped in the snow and the reader learns only four will survive. Dallas then introduces, not the children themselves, but their parents and guardians. Through the history of these people, the reader develops sympathy for them and an understanding of the importance of their children.

As the premise st More...

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Oct 14, 2010

Alice rated it:

For the first half of the book new characters kept being added and just as I got into the story of one, that chapter was over and another new character's story was being added. So at first it felt like a lot of short stories, but it all ties together in the end. The story is set in the 1920's in a small mining community near Boulder, Colorado. It begins with an avalanche where nine children on their way home from school get trapped. Then the book goes into the background stories of the relat More...

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Jul 20, 2011

Denise rated it:

Thought the format of the book was interestingly written. Great discussion today at the asst. living facility. Gals all loved the book. Will try to read more by Dallas in the 3 book groups where I select titles. I think this was the most interesting of the 3 books by her that I've read.

Story of an avalanche that buries 9 children on their way home from school. Right at the beginning, we know that only 4 of the children will survive. Then each chapter features the background of one o More...

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Oct 29, 2010

Laurel rated it:

One more book by the author Sandra Dallas that I really like. This story is set in a 1920 Colorado mining town. The books opens with a very large avalanche falling right at the time the town school gets out for the day. There are several stories of families and individuals that live in the town.

Ultimately, each story serves as an allegory to the greater theme of the novel by echoing that fate, chance, and perhaps even divine providence, are all woven into the fabric of everyday life. More...

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Jun 02, 2010

Staci rated it:

I have yet to read a Dallas book that I wasn't totally absorbed into from the very first sentence. She has a way of putting the reader right there in the moment of tragedy. I felt the coldness of the snow. The desperation of the parents. The joy when a loved one was recovered. The anguish when a small child who would not draw another breath was laid to rest. The author does an amazing job of taking you into the lives of each family affected and traces the choices they made that brought them all More...

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Apr 14, 2010

Steph rated it:

I just finished this book today sitting out in the sun in a patio chair. It's a testament to how engrossing this author's books are that I was not distracted in the least by the neighbor mowing his lawn or the kids riding bikes on our street.
This novel is another set in a Colorado mining town. Each main character is given a chapter to explain the events that brought them to the small town they now live in. The last chapters are devoted to what happens in the town one day while many More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 11, 2010

Hillary rated it:

It’s hard to describe just how unfortunately not good this book is. “Unfortunately” because you would expect more from a New York Times best-selling author. And given the genuine praise Sandra Dallas’s other novels received for her ability to write historical fiction and her “terrific” (according to Publisher’s Weekly) characters, you would expect Whiter Than Snow to stand out in the same ways. On the contrary, these are the elements which failed this time around.

The story be More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Cindy rated it:

Whiter Than Snow opens in 1920, on a spring afternoon in Swandyke, a small town near Colorado’s Tenmile Range. Just moments after four o’clock, a large split of snow separates from Jubilee Mountain high above the tiny hamlet and hurtles down the rocky slope, enveloping everything in its path including nine young children who are walking home from school. But only four children survive. Whiter Than Snow takes you into the lives of each of these families.
After reading (well, listening to)'Ta More...

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Dec 15, 2010

Amelia rated it:

This is the second book I've read of Sandra Dallas. I enjoy them, neither book has changed my life in anyway, although I think a similar topic written by a different author could have. The majority of this book was spent telling the unusually tragic stories of about 5 different people. Each of these people ended up in the same Colorado mining town up on a mountain. Each of these people had children involved in a major avalanche, some children were lost and some survived. The story is tragic More...

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Feb 24, 2011

Brenda rated it:

An avalanche in a high Colorado mining town buries 9 children. This book goes into the lives of the parents of these children. Interesting stories. They all end up in this little town and have virtually no interaction with each other. It is the avalance that forces them to "see" each other. I enjoyed it and felt the emotion of digging to uncover those children. The lesson of not being judgemental but being kind to eveyone comes through loud and clear. There was a sense of doom an More...

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May 08, 2011

Tiffany rated it:

I love Sandra Dallas's books. They're so easily readable, but they aren't sappy romances or your typical chicklit, so there's no guilt! In this one, set yet again in Colorado, you learn from the beginning that an avalanche has swept up nine children and only four survive. Then she switched over to long stories about the parents of each of these kids, which kind of annoyed me, but when they started pulling kids out of the snow and I found myself pulling for some of the parents, you kind of rea More...

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Jan 16, 2011

Pam R. rated it:

A sad, melancholy tale of loss & troubled lives; all illuminated by brilliant writing.

The beginning of the story is almost the end. Then, each of the families/people affected by the tragic avalanche that claims the lives of some of the children is told in seperate chapters & drawn together at the end. Set in the same town as 'Prayers for Sale' it expands on another aspect of an early mining town in Colorado.

Lives lost, families unraveled, people changed & parted & brought More...

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Sep 16, 2011

Carla rated it:

Sandra Dallas always tells a wonderful story full of vivif characters often set the mining towns in the west. Despite the title,not a romance, but rather a tale based on a true incident in which nine children on their way home from school are buried in an avalanche. She tells you from the start of the nine, only four survive. From there, the author leads the reader through the lives of the parents and how this event changes them mostly for the better. Suspense builds as each child is found, More...

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Apr 21, 2010

Donna rated it:

this is a very different book than Sandra's other books. There's none of the unusual plot twists that are found in her other books and the quilting is kept to a minimum. Yet it's an enjoyable read, focusing on the stories of several people whose children end up in an avalanche outside a small Colorado mining town. Finding out which children live and which don't is towards the end of the book but seeing what the families of those who are involved do to heal from the event is the best part of t More...

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