Anonymous left this comment on my Lewis and Clark piece last week:

I was interested in the books you were reading. How about creating an on-going list of "What the WF Historians are Reading"? Could be useful for those with long commutes to/from work. Thanks.

First off, I invite everyone to tell us what's on your reading list. Let us know why they're good or bad.

That said, here you go, Anonymous:

Phyllis in Minneapolis

• Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California by Frances Dinkelspiel. Interesting, if sometimes too tightly focused.
• The Confusion: The Baroque Cycle Volume Two  by Neal Stephenson. An "historical-sci-fi-epic-pirate-comedy-punk-love-story." Stephenson is one of my fave authors.
• Hard Road West, History and Geography along the Gold Rush Trail  by Keith Heyer Meldahl. Just finished this. Fabulously readable historical science — loved it!
• The War of the World, Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West  by Niall Ferguson. Stalled in the middle of this stunningly good scholarship, but Holy I-Need-Anti-Depressants-Now, Batman!
• The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung, A Chinese Miner in California, 1852  by Laurence Yep. Looking forward to this young adult book. I heard from a visitor that it references Wells Fargo, so I've got to check it out.

Steve in Portland
(Currently reading on the MAX  to and from work.)

• "Ho for California! Women's Overland Diaries" from the Huntington Library , edited by Sandra L. Myres. From "Museums and Schools" Journal of Museum Education, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring 2009)

Glen in San Francisco

• The Victorian Internet  by Tom Standage. A fascinating comparison between the invention of the telegraph and the internet. A good, light read.

Allan in San Diego

• Returning to Earth  by Jim Harrison. Recently finished this historical fiction of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, told from four perspectives in a mixed race family, whose patriarch is dying. One of Harrison's best.
• Strangers in a Stolen Land  by Richard Carrico. Just started this story about the Indians of San Diego County.

Casey in San Diego

• Historic Resource Study: Pony Express National Historic Trail  by Anthony Godfrey, Ph.D., for the National Park Service. A little dry, but a good overview of the founding and running of the Pony Express. Includes biographies of William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell, founders of the California Overland Mail Company & Pikes Peak Express (a.k.a. the Pony Express).
• A New Look at Wells Fargo, Stagecoaches and the Pony Express  by W. Turrentine Jackson. More pamphlet than book, it is a well-written defense of Wells Fargo's role in western stagecoaching and the Pony Express.
• Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express  by Christopher Corbett. Love it! This book is a great history of the Pony Express. The author uses many different sources and presents many different sides to the stories and legends that have been built around the Pony Express. The book is written with a sense of humor and without stuffy "historian speak."
• A Thrilling and Truthful History of the Pony Express: With Other Sketches and Incidents of Those Stirring Times  by William Lightfoot Visscher.
• Pony Express Versus Wells Fargo Express, or Hoof Prints That Can Not Be Eroded By Time  by Waddell F. Smith. A counter-argument to Jackson.
• The City of the Saints; And, Across the Rocky Mountains to California  by Sir Richard Burton, a stage rider along the Pony Express route and documenter of Salt Lake City and the Mormons.
• Seventy Years on the Frontier  by Alexander Majors, co-founder of the Pony Express.

Tom in Anchorage

• Fifty Miles from Tomorrow  by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. Willie Hensley grew up on the shores of the Bering Sea, at a crossroads between ancient and modern ways of life. His descriptions of hardships — living under 9 months of winter, the severity of accultration, and the transformation of a territory into a state — are enlightening at the very least.
• Physics for the Rest of Us  by Roger S. Jones. Exploring ways to describe time and relationships in nature, to young people, led me to this wonderful book. It is filled with great explainations most anyone can understand.

Juan in Los Angeles

• Pony Express: The Great Gamble  by Roy S. Bloss. Getting caught up on the PX before next tear's sesquicentennial.

Bev in San Francisco

• The Great Influenza  by John Barry. Thought I would get ready for fall flu season by re-reading this one. The book is great: Who knew the history of a flu epidemic could be so thoughtful and intriguing?

Bill in San Francisco

• American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the W.P.A. , by Nick Taylor. Although definitely favorable to FDR and the New Deal, there are some interesting parallels to current events here.

Amanda in Phoenix

• 1491: New Revolutions of the Americas before Columbus  by Charles Mann. Currently reading. It is a few years old and has been on my reading list since it first came out. Very interesting insight into the lives and cultures of native peoples.
• Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War  by Tony Horwitz. I recently finished this one, which I thought was a truly unique look into Southern Civil War culture.

There you have it, Anonymous. You asked, you got!