The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride in Science and Inquiry

Jul 24, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, history

History texts and classes have always bored me stiff, but recently I keep happening upon amazing books that make me wish I had paid better attention! This book is about the journey of the Donner party across the country to California, but is much more interesting than I just made that sound. Brown did an amazing amount of research on this, about the landscapes the party traveled through, how they lived on the trip, how they got stuck in the mountains, a series of exciting rescue attempts... Extr ...more

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Nov 17, 2025 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, rws-2025-fall

Compelling, unforgettable.
Brown gives us the story of one young woman, Sarah Graves, who became part of the Donner party that was stranded in the Sierras in the winter of 1847. He writes with feeling and compassion for their decisions and experiences.
Brown fills us in on the history--what the US and California were like in 1847. And what we now know about the toll that their experiences took on their bodies and minds-snow blindness, starvation, hypothermia and trauma.
My daughter recommended th ...more

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Aug 26, 2023 Cori rated it really liked it

This book was bursting with research, but in some ways, this made it disorganized and wandering. The forward emphasizes that the book is focused on Sarah Graves. Sometimes, it was helpful to connect general information about pioneers to her, but it felt he had little real information about her. By mid book, it almost felt he abandonded attempting to focus on her. I did learn a lot of information about the Donner Party situation, especially in regard to their rescue.

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