I’ll be finishing one and starting another

t's Tuesday, the first Tuesday of this brand new year, and I'll be returning to the Marias Heritage Center at 6 this evening to read Montana History. I'll be concluding Ruth McLaughlin's "Bound Like Grass-A Memoir from the Western High Plains" (winner of the Montana Book Award!) and in a way, I'm not looking forward to this book ending. It's one of those books, in my opinion, that is so downright enjoyable, one hates to realize that it will soon be done. I think the book could go on even longer if Ruth hadn't run out of sorrowful tales in this sad saga. I'm not sure what else could go wrong. I mean we're talking big time poverty, bad farming, land that grows rocks, miserable weather, being bullied, food almost too awful to eat, mental illness, death, cancer, and stroke. And those are the "positive aspects" of McLaughlin's tale of woe while living on the plains in Eastern Montana with metropolitan Culbertson, the closest population center. Wait until you hear about the negatives! And NOW, what? Well, I am eagerly looking forward to Helena author Lenore McKelvey Puhek's "Forever Friends". This is Lenore's third book in a series featuring pioneer women and I believe she told me that this one is even better than the first two. I read the first two and I have to tell you, to make this one even better is a really "tall order". It's always good for me to go up to the Heritage at the end of a busy day and relax an hour or so with the residents and enjoy some really good Montana History reading. It certainly makes my day and I only hope this is as enjoyable for them as it is for me. I'll see you this evening (Tuesday) at six at the Heritage Center.