Friday Favorites from the past: Chesapeake

Time for another Favorite Reads the meme started by Alyce at At Home with Books. We decided this week to take advantage of good health and slashed prices and signed up to take a cruise through the Mediterranean in late August. As I was browsing through my travel bookshelf, I came upon a collection by James Michener, who was always a favorite. We own over 20 of his books, a mere sip of the 133 he wrote in his lifetime. I think my favorite is Chesapeake. I grew up on the Bay, and found this a fascinating historical and environmental study of one of the most important water resources in the nation. (Can you say crab? shrimp? oysters, bluefish?) Going back to the time of native Americans living on the islands and near the marshes, he then traces the various colonies formed in the Tidewater and proceeds through the years up to 1976. As with everything Michener does, it is well researched, and historically factual. He uses the technique of introducing fictional families in a time period and then following them and their descendants through the years. It's been eons since I read the book, but I still remember the impact it had on me learning about what we now call an eco-system, and the various ethnic groups that contributed to the richness of my home state, Maryland. I wish he'd written one about Maine. I suspect it would still be a good read and have put it on my "let's read it again" pile. I highly recommend his work...there is a timelessness about it, and a richness that makes learning history not only easy, but enjoyable.