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I'm on a reading kick again! Too fun!
I just finished an interesting book called Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt. Helga Estby was a pioneer woman, originally from Norway. She lived in Minnesota for a while (in a sod house) until they re-located to Spokane, Washington. In 1896 she walked from Spokane, WA to New York, NY! She did it to win a $10,000 pot to save her family's farm that they were close to losing. This is a true story, and just amazing. One sad note: along the way, Helga kept careful notes of her adventures, and years later she began writing a book about her walk... but she didn't finish it, and her descendants threw it away!! So the book that exists had to be re-constructed from the remaining records such as newspaper articles. I kept finding myself wishing we could have heard her own first-person account. She was such a FASCINATING woman, way ahead of her time in many ways.
I am currently reading News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist by Laurie Hertzel. She worked for the daily newspaper in Duluth, Minnesota and is currently books editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I'm not too far into it, yet, but it's an interesting tale of how she made her way from an unsure, timid young woman to a successful 20-year career in Duluth. In the early and mid-70s being a career woman was tough. Men were not very welcoming.. I remember those days, too. How far we have come, thank goodness!
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