Category Archives: TBR Stack: Book Reviews

Goodbye N. Scott Momaday; Pages TBR Stack Book Reviews

Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined. N. Scott Momaday

Ride, write, read, listen. Walk, think. Restore.

Reading fuels life, imagination, travel. Near and far, in time and places. Winter, strange and mild as the season has been so far, is time to rest and reflect for the growing ahead.

Opening an advance reading copy of Ordinary Bear by C.B. Bernard (available April 2, 2024), the first line is a grabber. “The bear stood on Farley's sofa ripping foam from the cushions, day-old seal blood crusted on its jaws and chest.”

Then striding across continents to explore deep time and people with The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere by Paulette F. C. Steeves (University of Nebraska Press), 2022 Choice Outstanding Academic Title: “…a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North and South America during the Paleolithic.”

“…archaeology sites and Paleolithic environments, landscapes, and mammalian and human migrations to make the case that people have been in the Western Hemisphere not only just prior to Clovis sites (10,200 years ago) but for more than 60,000 years, and likely more than 100,000 years.

“Steeves discusses the political history of American anthropology to focus on why pre-Clovis sites have been dismissed by the field for nearly a century. She explores supporting evidence from genetics and linguistic anthropology regarding First Peoples and time frames of early migrations. Additionally, she highlights the work and struggles faced by a small yet vibrant group of American and European archaeologists who have excavated and reported on numerous pre-Clovis archaeology sites.

“In this first book on Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas written from an Indigenous perspective, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere includes Indigenous oral traditions, archaeological evidence, and a critical and decolonizing discussion of the development of archaeology in the Americas.”

Hello.


The endpapers for The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk.

Get busy living or get busy dying as two characters say in The Shawshank Redemption. Movies, art, stage, books, all fuel the imagination and replenish the soul.