For California's Gold

"For California's Gold" filled in a lot of blanks for me, and it should do the same for most readers. We all know the rush west was an extreme ordeal. We all know settling California was an ordeal of another kind. We all know tragedy dogged the steps of the men and women who took on the challenge. But therein lies the unsuspected void in our knowledge, certainly in my knowledge.Before reading this book I gave no particular thought to the nature of my understanding of these historical events. Now I've learned a new perspective is as beneficial in literature as it is in trying to find the car keys. In one 280-page book, JoAnn Levy has given the whole thing life.Ms. Levy is a unique writing talent - she has done what few authors have the nerve to try; she has written a historical novel in the first person, and she has done it so beautifully it seems as if the book was indeed written in 1856 by a tempered-by-tragedy woman named Sarah Daniels. Ms. Levy is remarkably clever in her use of storytelling techniques which successfully weave multiple threads of interest from the first page to the last. The attentive reader will pick up on this finely developed skill in the second sentence of the first chapter. Ms. Levy employs similar techniques throughout, and it is a delight. This book is such a good read that it is recommended on that basis alone. But if a fascinating and unique look at one of the watershed eras in world history also interests you, then you will be doubly rewarded.

Thank you, Joann, for sharing Sarah Daniels with the rest of the world. I realize that she is a compilation of many of the ladies you found in your research for your earlier books on the Gold Rush, but her character is so real you can just picture her walking through her life with all its joys and sorrows. The numbness she felt at the death of each of her children especially rings true, as I watched my mother do the same thing.This is Joann's best work yet. I look forward to the next.

This is surely Levy's best work yet. If I didn't know for sure that Levy is alive and well, I'd swear this was autobiographical. The main character, Sarah, is so complete, so real! She's the type of character who proves that greatness and heroism comes from simple, down-to-earth determination. The book is no-frills, no pretense. Just a deeply touching, well-written story. I highly recommend this to anyone who, like me, reads to celebrate the human spirit.

For California's Gold is a gem of a story! JoAnn Levy's tale of Sarah's journey through life is enduring to all women. She writes with great heart, compassion and knowledge of women's hopes, fears, loves and losses that are timeless. If you read just one book this year, let it be For California's Gold.

JoAnn Levy's story is one top notch novel. Not only is it a masterpiece of overland trail literature, but the story itself is a compelling one, of love and loss and change and all it takes to make a new start. I read JoAnn's DAUGHTER OF JOY which won the Willa Award for fiction given by Women Writing the West. It was a great book. But FOR CALIFORNIA's GOLD is even better. It weaves the detail in so deftly that the reader walks away having experienced the journey, feeling the wind, watching the river rise on Front street in Sacramento City, gasping at the loss of another child. The strains of the overland journey move on to the challenge of life in the California Gold fields as it was for women -- and Levy should know. Her non-fiction book about women in the gold rush era is a masterpiece of research and narrative. But best of all, in For California's Gold, we celebrate a woman's courage. And as we do, we celebrate our own advances made in our own lives when we endure great challenges and see the hope that springs from loss. Levy's lead characer moves from a woman who saw herself as a mouse to one strong enough to begin again. Give yourself a treat and read this book.