Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.
The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.
Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the “White Squaw” who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.
S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.
Rush to Freedom by Brent G. Barker
When Ezra Adams rescues two girls — one white, one Black — on the St. Louis levee in February 1849 he has no idea his impulsive act of charity is about to change his life forever. On his way to guide sixteen families on the treacherous route to California during the height of the Gold Rush, Ezra has little time to help these desperate half-sisters as they run from bounty hunters and slavers. He turns to an old friend, Beth McCorry, who operates a way station on the Underground Railroad. But when Beth gets involved, her own life gets turned upside down as everything she loves goes up in flames.
Now Ezra, Beth, Camille and Maddie find themselves thrown together on a wagon train across the western wilderness to a new land — a journey as emotionally turbulent as it physically dangerous. Lured by the promise of freedom and the magnetism of love, as much as any gold, they will discover that family can be found in the most challenging and unexpected circumstances.
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