Great Fortune

I had the great fortune of completing two really good books this week. The first one is titled, "The Last River Rat," by J. Scott Bestul and Kenny Salway. It was recommended to me by a fellow student in my master naturalist class. This is a story told about the life of Kenny Salway told in monthly installments. Kenny is a different sort of fellow. He borders on being a hermit. He lived (and still lives I imagine) in the Mississippi river valley in south east Minnesota between Winona and LaCrosse. He hunts, traps, fishes, teaches, and gathers. He spends a lot of time out in the swampy land between the towering bluffs. He is an environmental educator, speaker, guide, and naturalist. He is very observant of the ducks, birds, bees, trees, mammals, wild flowers and water in the slews and on the hillsides. This book kept my attention for all 12 chapters. I think my Dad would like to read it too. He might have read it already.

The other great book I read (actually listened to as I got a book on CD) was "Bridge of Sighs" by Richard Russo. Russo also wrote another favorite book of mine, "Empire Falls" for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Richard Russo's strength as a writer lies in his character development. I feel like I would almost recognize his characters on the street if I saw them. The main character in this story is Louis C. Lynch. He is named after his father whom everybody knows as Big Lou. In school, a teacher, familiar with his father, makes the mistake during roll call of asking for Lou C. Lynch. For the rest of his life in the small town in upstate New York, he is known as Lucy. He takes this good naturedly because he is, more than anyone I've ever met, a good natured fellow. This book came on 17 disks. Today was disk 17 and I hated to hear this book end. I'll miss spending time with Lou C. Lynch and his family and friends.