mormons

This book was extremely hard to read, but also hard to put down.

The Sound of Gravel is the memoir of Ruth Wariner, a woman who spent the first fifteen years of her life in hell. Ruth was born into a poverty stricken, fundamentalist Mormon colony in rural Mexico in the 70s. Her father, who was killed when she was a baby, had 42 children. Ruth grew up with her mom, nine siblings, and step-father. They lived in a tiny house with a dirt floor and no indoor plumbing or electricity. Mouse droppings on the kitchen floor and wind blowing through the mud walls of the house were the norm.

Ruth's

The Sound of Gravel is the true story of Ruth Wariner, a young girl growing up as a Mormon fundamentalist in the 80’s, traveling between Mexico and the United States with her ever expanding family. After Ruthie’s father is killed by his own brother when, her mother remarries, becoming the second wife to a practicing polygamist. Ruthie spends the majority of her youth living on a Mexican commune in a house without plumbing or electricity, sharing a bed with her mother and siblings, and living off government checks that her mother receives by falsely claiming US residency. She passes her time

What was life like for the woman in the old photographs with the elaborate tattoo on her chin? Who was she?  How did she get it?  Ms Mifflin answers these questions and sheds some light on the culture of the times in the 1850s, thoroughly researching the family history and the survivors’ lives.  Olive Oatman was 13-years old, traveling west with her family toward a Mormon Zion when the wagon train was attacked, her family massacred, and she and her sister were taken into captivity with the Yavapi Indians.  A year later, she was traded to the Mohaves, where she became thoroughly assimilated and

Wow--this was a kick!  My favorite area of the country--Southwest--combined with horses, intestinal fortitude, common sense and family history--it doesn't get much better than this.  Jeannette Walls fleshes out the story of her grandmother, a resourceful  and self-reliant individual who at the age of fifteen traveled alone 500 miles on her pony to teach in a one-room school house on the frontier.  She ranched with her husband Jim, drove cars, flew planes, and raised two children through the Depression, droughts, and floods, imbueing them with her own forthright and singular outlook on life.