Growing up I always avoided Michener's work, simply because my dad loved them so much. Anything that old must not be good!

I was sooo wrong. Wandering around the library one day, without a clue as to what I was going to read, I came across this book. Remembering that my sister was named after one of the character's in the book, I decided to give it a shot.

As always with Michener's work, if you can get past the first 100 pages or so, you're in for a real treat. The characters are so alive and realistic, you can't help but fall in love with them. And because it's a book about the many generations of a family, you get to know the whole story. Apart from the people, you get a history of the land and a gimps into the times during which they lived.

This is just about my favorite book of all time. ( )

well researched, informative ( )

Second reading, a bit hard going, but still good. ( )

1641 Centennial, by James A. Michener (read 30 June 1981) This tells the story of the land in northeastern Colorado and the south Platte. It starts in prehistoric times and tells of dinosaurs, beavers, Indians, trappers, etc., right up to the present. The early parts are good, but it gets worse as it goes on, and the last parts on the 20th century are simply poorly-written and boring. And it is all so fake--nothing but fiction. In the earlier parts, I thought of reading other similar Michener books but I don't know that I will. What is true--and what is fake? This has been a book of over 1000 pages, and that is too much fiction from an inferior writer. ( )