Milton Meltzer

Milton Meltzer is the author, not the title.

I first got to know of him when I read Hear That Train Whistle Blow! How the Railroad Changed the World (Random House, 2004) for my adolescent literature class a couple of months ago. I enjoyed the book, loved the writing style, clear and with a populist bent. It called to mind Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Now that I am finished with the course and off the required reading treadmill, I have read a couple more of his books- he's apparently written around 100 books for young adult readers. It's the perfect level for me, not overly in-depth like those scholarly adult audience tomes, but not juvenile and generalistic as a child's book may be. In the middle, just right. And makes for relatively quick, informative reading.

I just finished Ten Queens: Portraits of Women of Power. Before that I read - you gotta love this title - Gold: The true story of why people search for it, mine it, trade it, steal it, mint it, hoard it, shape it, wear it, fight and kill for it.

If you want to read some quality history on interesting topics but don't want to spend half the year on one book, I recommend you check out the work of Milton Metzer.

AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

hoping to drum up some internal enthusiasm for doing some hiking in the southeast this spring, i read this guy's writings about hiking the appalachian trail from georgia to maine back in the 1970's. interesting, the book is narrative but not told chronologically as would be assumed in recounting hiking a trail but rather topically so that one chapter might be about animals he encountered and another chapter about the various aches and pains he would get.

by contrast, "a walk across america" is a great chronologically-told hiking narrative that really grabbed my attention when i read it. i think this guy really shot himself in the foot by not writing like jenkins.

the impression that the book left me with was a fragmented one that makes me not want to hike the AT now despite the guy praising his experience every few pages. humorously, he includes the time after the "thru-hike" when he felt out of place in society, could not find a job, had to live with his parents, and got really behind on his career development.