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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
medium-paced
In large part, the eruption felt like an afterthought. While it is an interesting read, which, in and of itself, may have merited 4 stars, the slog through the logging history and such little focus on the eruption just couldn't get me beyond 3.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Amazing! I moved to the area south of Seattle in 1985, 5 years after the volcano, as it's known. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about the subject, but I learned so much in this book. I remember going camping/blackberry picking on the Cowlitz river in Randle in 1992. The area had regenerated enough to grow blackberries, but there were still 3-4 inches of ash on level surfaces. This book was amazing. All the local history! Thank you
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
I picked this up after visiting Mount St. Helens on a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest and hearing my cousins' stories of layers of ash in Oregon when they were growing up. Olson not only goes through the timeline of the eruption, but gives a background of the Weyerhaeuser logging company, logging in general, and the development of the Forest Service. They may sound like digressions, but they are important to the story and Olson tells the story really well. This book just flew by, though it did throw me off at times when he jumped between the eruption timeline to happenings in the 19th century. I get that he didn't want to give a ton of background before getting to the eruption itself, but it definitely messed with the flow of the story.
Even so, this is a really good book. When visiting Mount St. Helens, I was surprised to learn how much time passed between initial rumblings from the volcano and the eruption--there was about two months of waiting and watching and wrangling between various groups about access to the mountain. Olson pointed out that only 5 years before, Mount Baker (also in Washington) had similarly showed signs of life and then...nothing. Olson is very defensive about the victims of the eruption and whether they should be blamed for what happened to them; there's a lot of context that mitigates those feelings. Honestly, being 12 or 13 miles away doesn't seem like it should be that dangerous...right? As they found out, wrong. Even so, I probably wasn't as sympathetic to a lot of the victims as Olson wants me to be. Though their stories are, of course, awful.
I appreciated Olson continuing the story past the eruption, to discussions of what should happen to the volcano and its surroundings in the years after the eruption. He describes the debates with conservation groups and politicians and logging companies; it doesn't sound particularly riveting, but Olson is an excellent story-teller.
Even so, this is a really good book. When visiting Mount St. Helens, I was surprised to learn how much time passed between initial rumblings from the volcano and the eruption--there was about two months of waiting and watching and wrangling between various groups about access to the mountain. Olson pointed out that only 5 years before, Mount Baker (also in Washington) had similarly showed signs of life and then...nothing. Olson is very defensive about the victims of the eruption and whether they should be blamed for what happened to them; there's a lot of context that mitigates those feelings. Honestly, being 12 or 13 miles away doesn't seem like it should be that dangerous...right? As they found out, wrong. Even so, I probably wasn't as sympathetic to a lot of the victims as Olson wants me to be. Though their stories are, of course, awful.
I appreciated Olson continuing the story past the eruption, to discussions of what should happen to the volcano and its surroundings in the years after the eruption. He describes the debates with conservation groups and politicians and logging companies; it doesn't sound particularly riveting, but Olson is an excellent story-teller.
Disappointing
I approached this book with the idea that it would focus on the science and events surrounding the eruption, and by coincidence I started reading it in the day of the 40th anniversary. After the good introduction the book veers into 2-3 chapters in the history of logging (and forestry) in the United States going back 3-4 generations on the Weyerhaeuser Company that owned (or had harvesting rights) on the land around the mountain. Setting the scene and giving enough background to understand context is not unimportant, but this was too much. Then it looked at the other victims of the eruption, and setting up how they ended up on the mountain that day, seemed rushed.
I remember a student complaining to me when reading Simon Winchester's Krakatoa, "When is the volcano going to erupt?" when he was only about a quarter of the way through the book. It felt the same way with this book, with the eruption occurring about 60% into the book. The emphasis on the fallout was shortened to the people directly affected by the eruption before turning to the environmental and political fight about whether the area should be preserved. The big problem for me is not so much what we covered, but the amount of time and level of depth of the different aspects seemed out of balance. Beyond that, it does seem to be an almost personal attack against the logging company, with the occasional speculation that unfortunately damages credibility- instead of just laying out the facts. Certainly, for someone wanting science it was lacking and overemphasized personal stories and broad scene setting.
I approached this book with the idea that it would focus on the science and events surrounding the eruption, and by coincidence I started reading it in the day of the 40th anniversary. After the good introduction the book veers into 2-3 chapters in the history of logging (and forestry) in the United States going back 3-4 generations on the Weyerhaeuser Company that owned (or had harvesting rights) on the land around the mountain. Setting the scene and giving enough background to understand context is not unimportant, but this was too much. Then it looked at the other victims of the eruption, and setting up how they ended up on the mountain that day, seemed rushed.
I remember a student complaining to me when reading Simon Winchester's Krakatoa, "When is the volcano going to erupt?" when he was only about a quarter of the way through the book. It felt the same way with this book, with the eruption occurring about 60% into the book. The emphasis on the fallout was shortened to the people directly affected by the eruption before turning to the environmental and political fight about whether the area should be preserved. The big problem for me is not so much what we covered, but the amount of time and level of depth of the different aspects seemed out of balance. Beyond that, it does seem to be an almost personal attack against the logging company, with the occasional speculation that unfortunately damages credibility- instead of just laying out the facts. Certainly, for someone wanting science it was lacking and overemphasized personal stories and broad scene setting.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
More like a 3.5. This is a fascinating history of logging in America, a few background stories of people who died in the eruption zone, a bit of insight into Washington state politics, and a chapter of horrifying moment-by-moment endings of a number of those who died that day. One thing it is very clear - unlike the decades-long narrative, the people on Mt St Helens that day were not idiots who broke laws to get a cheap thrill. They were victims of political incompetence and inertia. Quick read
I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Olsen did a wonderful job of combining the scientific information about the eruption with the more personal stories of those who died in the eruption and the survivors. The combination of the two work together to show just how powerful the Earth can be and how much destruction can happen in an instant.
The re-telling of the victims' and survivors' stories is just phenomenal. The ingenuity and perseverance of the survivors was amazing and a wonderful example of the human spirit.
The only complaint I have about the book is that two separate times, the author takes us on a tangent and neither really needed to be included in the book. They didn't add to the story line and in fact, their inclusion detracted from the story line. The first was the history of the WeyerHaeuser Logging Company and the family behind it. The second was a shorter tangent about Griffon Pinchot, who helped establish the national forestry services we have today. Both tangents are interesting on their own, but their inclusion in this book was definitely not the right decision.
All in all, I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely be reading it more than once in order to help all the scientific information sink into my brain.
** I received a free e-book of this title from NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. **
The re-telling of the victims' and survivors' stories is just phenomenal. The ingenuity and perseverance of the survivors was amazing and a wonderful example of the human spirit.
The only complaint I have about the book is that two separate times, the author takes us on a tangent and neither really needed to be included in the book. They didn't add to the story line and in fact, their inclusion detracted from the story line. The first was the history of the WeyerHaeuser Logging Company and the family behind it. The second was a shorter tangent about Griffon Pinchot, who helped establish the national forestry services we have today. Both tangents are interesting on their own, but their inclusion in this book was definitely not the right decision.
All in all, I really enjoyed the book and I will definitely be reading it more than once in order to help all the scientific information sink into my brain.
** I received a free e-book of this title from NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. **
I admit to not reading this book in full - the author spends a lot of time retracing the history of the logging family that owned the majority of forestry land around Mount Saint Helens at the time of the eruption, tracing their story back to logging on the Mississippi River. Which could be interesting if you were inclined (I was not). However, the rest of the book was excellent - Olson has a great voice, he divides the book up into sensible parts, is a master of ending chapters with exciting statements, and his reconstruction of the victim's final moments were sufficiently terrifying/poignant. It may be a little grim to focus on the victims of the eruption, but the book involves so much first person interviews and recollections with survivors, it is fascinating as well.