Our book club is located in a retirement community in TX, so we are all of a certain age. Those of us who were raised in the South confirmed that the book was accurate in its portrayal of the time and place. We marveled at how much progress has been made in 50 years, and yet, how some things are still pretty much the same.

Wonderful character development and dialog. Some club members thought that there wasn't enough story to keep them really interested, although they enjoyed the book. I would read anything that Julia Glass wrote, because I like the way she expresses herself. Different strokes for different folks, I guess!

It was interesting to contrast my impressions of places that I been with the descriptions of the author in 1865. Parts of the book were very funny...but not enough parts.

Don\\\'t miss this one. It\\\'s fast paced, exciting, and informative. Most Americans don\\\'t know that there was an Armenian genocide. I don\\\'t know how the male author manages to write from a female protaganist\\\'s point of view so convincingly!

Stegner does a great job with rich character development. He has the ability to make the reader feel as though he or she is in the story as a slient observer. His love of nature always shines through in his stories, which I enjoy. I expected that some of our members would say that it was too slow for them, but everyone loved it!

A challenging read

Our book club, with many members who volunteer at our local library, voted to read this book. They universally hated it! Too many unfamiliar names of people and places; too much history of Mali. But they all agreed that they had learned something, from the member who had never heard of Mali, to the members who had only heard of Timbuktu in their youth, as a reference to a far away place. We all know much more about NW Africa, Mali, the struggle that so many Islamic cultures experience with jihadists, and the dedication of one man to save the history an important time and place of intellectual history. A good map or two at the reader's side will make the reading much easier!