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Show 8A Moab Happenings April 1998 Woman of the River Utah State University Press $19.95, paperback The West is a place where legends are built. It is a place that calls out to the adventurous to climb canyon walls, run wild rivers or scour the landscape with ambitious feet. This country calls out to people who live on the edge consumed by their passion, walking their talk, and are maybe just a little bit mad. Such a person is the subject of a recent biography, Woman of the River by Richard Westwood. Westwood has collected memories and stories about white-watpioneer on the Colorado River, Georgie White Clark. in the mid-40- s started affair the love with her river by swimming the Colorado River through Georgie friend Henry Aleson had taken the bus from Boulder City, Nevada, to the Grand Canyon. She and her long-tim- e Peach Springs, Arizona, on Route 66. There they stripped down to swimsuits, tennis shoes and shirts. They wore life jackets and small packs containing a malt can supplied with a light jacket, sugar candy, powdered coffee, dehydrated soup and cameras. They hiked 20 miles down to the river where they faced a rampaging, d flood swollen, river at the peak of the spring runoff. And then they jumped in. and misadventures on rivers in the Woman of the River is filled with stories about Georgies adventures Southwest and in Mexico and Canada. Some pages read like a novel complete with character development and denouement. Other pages form a treatise on the controversies surrounding recreational river usage in the West. Still other pages document the personal life and loves of Georgie White Clark. I read the book knowing very little about Georgie but feeling like I knew her by the time I turned the last page. I suspect she would have been hard to love but hard to resist as well. The book reveals her as a woman of steel, opinionated, stubborn, cantankerous and a helluva a river runner. One thing is certain, she loved the river more than anything else and spent er debris-littere- -- her life with it Woman of the River is a book for those who knew and loved Georgie. Its a book for those who love the river as much as she did. Its a book for those who love adventure but can only touch it through the pages of a text. For those of us who didnt know Georgie, it gives us a chance to glimpse greatness that can only be bom and thrive in the West. l -J- Breaking Into the Current Louise Teal University of Arizona Press, $15.95, paperback While were on the subject of great women and rivers, another book that river rats and adventure pigs will love is Breaking Into the Current by Louise Teal. The book is subtitled Boatwomen of the Grand Canyon and it gives you more of a taste of the big waters of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Of course, Georgie White Clark is profiled m the book, but so are 1 1 other fascinating women. Its not a new book, but one worth having on your book shelf for all time, especially since spring melt-of- f is just around the comer. I cant claim to be a river rat, but 1 loved reading about these women and their experiences m the Grand Canyon. Their courage and integrity made me proud to be a woman living in the West. l -J- Waterlines: Journeys on a Desert River Ann Weiler Walka Red Lake Books, $9.95, paperback Warerhnes gives us a look at rivers from a different point of view. Ann Walka explores the San Juan River through the eyes of a poet. This is a slower, gentler look at the river, not wrought h with waves or wild flips. The expenences, adventures penned in her poetry are the small ones bom from rowing and camping along the banks of the San Juan over the course of years. Walka happily shares her intimate relationship with the river. Walka's book is also an easy way to swallow the history of the region. Her poems are infused with legend and history of the people who settled and lived in the area as well as the natural history of the flora and fauna that populate the river system. While Walka does manage to impart a great deal of solid information, it is all done in the soft light of poetry. Its clear to see why Ann Walkas book Waterlines is a favorite read on the Colorado Plateau. 32-fo- ot near-deat- -j- l These featured books are available at Back of Beyond Bookstore The Community Bookstore for all your needs: Green Titles Western Fiction Maps Guidebooks Womens Issues Conversation Poetry Mystery Mail Orders Special Orders Gift Advice Good Company Philosophy OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK - 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (extended evening hours beginning in P.O. Box 387, 83 N. Main Moab, Utah mid-Marc- 84532 (435) 259-515- 4 |