News of the World MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, June 20, 2017

I loved this book and I also loved several of the reviews of this book! The following is part one of my favorite reviews of "News of the World"."Texas 1870. Seventy-one year old Civil War vet, Captain Kidd, agrees to return Johanna, a 10 year old girl and captive of the Kiowas for the past four years, to her relatives living near San Antonio. The money is good, though there are some negatives. The journey will be 400 miles and will take 3-4 weeks, the route is extremely dangerous, and the girl wants to return to her Kiowa family. And she no longer understands nor speaks English.There is another upside though. The Captain will have opportunities along the way to do his normal work - reading the news to townspeople. Not from local newspapers, so nothing about bake sales, births, deaths, or worst of all, Texas politics. No, the Captain's niche is world news:"News all the way from France. Nobody knew anything about the Franco-Prussian @War but all were jointly amazed by information that had come across the Atlantic to them, here in North Texas, alongside the flooding Red River. They had no idea how it had got here, through what strange lands it had traveled......He read from the Philadelphia Inquirer of Dr. Schliemann's search for windy Troy in Turkey. He read of the telegraph wires from Britain to India, an article in the Calcutta Times forwarded to the London Daily Telegraph....he read of the unfortunate Hansa crushed on the pack ice of the North Pole....This was proving the most popular as he could see by the small gestures of the audience; they bent forward, they fixed their eyes upon him to hear of undiscovered lands in the kingdoms of ice, fabulous beasts, perils overcome, snow people in furry suits."On the trail the Captain and Johanna have rather casual eating arrangements. One night, over barbecue, the Captain notices that she has sauce up to her wrists. Realizing that they will make stops in small towns like Dallas along the way and that they will be eating in a restaurant, the Captain begins lessons on the proper use of knife and fork. Johanna proves to be more clumsy than expected but the Captain feels some progress was made - until Johanna turns and throws her fork into a box stall. A funny scene but author Paulette Jiles morphs it into something else in the very next paragraph."The Captain's shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch under his black formal coat. He was suddenly overwhelmed with pity for her. Torn from her parents, adopted by a strange culture, given new parents, then sold for a few blankets and some old silverware, now sent to stranger after stranger, crushed into peculiar clothing, surrounded by people of an unknown language and an unknown culture, and now she could not even eat her food without having to use outlandish instruments....He saw her look down at her stained hands and there were tears on her cheeks."There are so many great scenes like the ones mentioned above. It is heart-warming for the reader to witness how the bond between these two slowly develops. But this is 1870's Texas and violence can erupt anywhere, anytime. And so there is a good deal of tension woven throughout the story. Of course, Johanna runs away once or twice, and in the early days the Captain is hesitant to turn his back on her. The tension really amps up though on the trail when coming upon others - the possibilities are endless - outlaws, fellow travelers, soldiers, raiders, vigilantes, Comanche, Kiowa. Such encounters are infrequent but any one of them could have a fatal ending. The girl, the horses, even the Captain can sense, and sometimes smell, the unseen presence of others hidden only a few miles away....."

Apart from the lack of punctuation for dialogue, I found this a wonderfully written novel that was absorbing and beautiful. As a native Texan, I was engrossed by the descriptions of the people in post-Civil War Texas, the lawlessness of Texas during Reconstruction, and the beauty and variety of the landscape. Having lived in Texas all my life the echoes of that time may be muted by the noise and glossy exteriors of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, but they are louder in the deep forests of East Texas, the Hill Country, and the flat expanse of West Texas that eventually rises to the Davis Mountains.The flow of the story had a nearly poetic cadence and the action sequences were gripping. The humanity embodied by the main character of Captain Kidd in unwavering adherence to doing “right” despite all the natural temptations to do otherwise is what all Texans, indeed all people, should aspire to.Bottom line: this is a book I’ll remember for a good while to come.

It's been awhile since I last read this and the writing resonated much more this time around. Enjoyed reading it again, especially Ms. Jiles ability to put you into the scene, becoming part of Johana's and Captain Kidd's lives, seeing the world through their eyes, and experiencing their emotions. Well done. Most enjoyable.

A beautiful, sad, satisfying story that reflects historic truth. Wonderful complete characters you come to know and care about. Dreamlike, contemplative writing that made me slow down and enjoy the process along with the story. Can't wait to read more by this author.

Texas 1870. Seventy-one year old Civil War vet, Captain Kidd, agrees to return Johanna, a 10 year old girl and captive of the Kiowas for the past four years, to her relatives living near San Antonio. The money is good, though there are some negatives. The journey will be 400 miles and will take 3-4 weeks, the route is extremely dangerous, and the girl wants to return to her Kiowa family. And she no longer understands nor speaks English.There is another upside though. The Captain will have opportunities along the way to do his normal work - reading the news to townspeople. Not from local newspapers, so nothing about bake sales, births, deaths, or worst of all, Texas politics. No, the Captain's niche is world news:"News all the way from France. Nobody knew anything about the Franco-Prussian @War but all were jointly amazed by information that had come across the Atlantic to them, here in North Texas, alongside the flooding Red River. They had no idea how it had got here, through what strange lands it had traveled......He read from the Philadelphia Inquirer of Dr. Schliemann's search for windy Troy in Turkey. He read of the telegraph wires from Britain to India, an article in the Calcutta Times forwarded to the London Daily Telegraph....he read of the unfortunate Hansa crushed on the pack ice of the North Pole....This was proving the most popular as he could see by the small gestures of the audience; they bent forward, they fixed their eyes upon him to hear of undiscovered lands in the kingdoms of ice, fabulous beasts, perils overcome, snow people in furry suits."On the trail the Captain and Johanna have rather casual eating arrangements. One night, over barbecue, the Captain notices that she has sauce up to her wrists. Realizing that they will make stops in small towns like Dallas along the way and that they will be eating in a restaurant, the Captain begins lessons on the proper use of knife and fork. Johanna proves to be more clumsy than expected but the Captain feels some progress was made - until Johanna turns and throws her fork into a box stall. A funny scene but author Paulette Jiles morphs it into something else in the very next paragraph."The Captain's shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch under his black formal coat. He was suddenly overwhelmed with pity for her. Torn from her parents, adopted by a strange culture, given new parents, then sold for a few blankets and some old silverware, now sent to stranger after stranger, crushed into peculiar clothing, surrounded by people of an unknown language and an unknown culture, and now she could not even eat her food without having to use outlandish instruments....He saw her look down at her stained hands and there were tears on her cheeks."There are so many great scenes like the ones mentioned above. It is heart-warming for the reader to witness how the bond between these two slowly develops. But this is 1870's Texas and violence can erupt anywhere, anytime. And so there is a good deal of tension woven throughout the story. Of course, Johanna runs away once or twice, and in the early days the Captain is hesitant to turn his back on her. The tension really amps up though on the trail when coming upon others - the possibilities are endless - outlaws, fellow travelers, soldiers, raiders, vigilantes, Comanche, Kiowa. Such encounters are infrequent but any one of them could have a fatal ending. The girl, the horses, even the Captain can sense, and sometimes smell, the unseen presence of others hidden only a few miles away.....It's a great story, expertly told. A book to be treasured and re-read. This is my first Jiles, and before I had finished it, I added three others by her to my reading list. "News of the World" is short-listed (five books are finalists) for this year's National Book Award which will be announced in November 2016. Highly recommended.

Set in Texas, shortly after the American Civil War, Paulette Giles’ ‘News of the World’ introduces the reader to septuagenarian Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, now retired from the US Army, who earns his living by performing readings from newspapers to audiences keen to learn more about what is happening in the wider world and are prepared to pay for it. When he stops at Wichita Falls, the Captain is approached by an acquaintance of his who offers him a fifty dollar golden piece if he will deliver a young girl - whose immediate family was killed and who was captured by Kiowa Indians four years ago - to her relatives near San Antonio. The girl, Johanna, is a golden-haired, blue eyed ten-year-old who has forgotten her own language and is traumatised after being given up to the US Army by her Kiowan captors. Although Captain Kidd knows the journey ahead of them will be perilous, he takes pity on the young girl and agrees to return her to an aunt and uncle she has never seen. On the journey, Captain Kidd’s fears prove warranted; the journey is a difficult and dangerous one where he has to not only take care to keep out of the way of marauding Comanche and Kiowa Indian tribes, but also away from unscrupulous white men keen to relieve him of his money, his wagon and, especially, the golden-haired Johanna. And if that is not enough for the Captain to contend with, there is also Johanna herself who, initially, is intent on making her escape and finding her way back to the tribe who adopted her.A beautifully described and, at times, rather exciting story of the American West, and one which looks at love, friendship, family, duty, loyalty and also about finding one’s own place in the world. Although I am not usually a reader of what I suppose would be termed ‘westerns’, this was an enjoyably absorbing and totally involving read and I loved the way the author portrayed the developing friendship between Johanna and the elderly man she called ‘Kep-dun’. A wonderful, warm and very entertaining story (which I have just discovered has recently been made into a film starring Tom Hanks), this is a novel I have no hesitation in recommending highly.5 Stars.

It is no surprise that the author is also a poet. This is written with deceptive simplicity, every sentence considered, no cliches, and as such is a joy to read. It tells a story of a world I knew nothing about and paints a vivid picture of the people and landscape of Texas in the wild days of 1870, not so long ago really. The two main protagonists are vivid and sympathetic and it is based on reality. I shall read more by this author who was unknown to me. In this time of lockdown it was like taking a real road trip, just when we can't travel.

I was looking forward to learning some history and understanding the geography of the land as well as enjoying a good story. However, the book is virtually impossible to read as there is practically no punctuation at all. I have never seen a book written in this way before - an English teacher would scribble with red pen all over it and hand out a detention. I also found the language difficult to understand and often had to read a sentence twice to get the gist of it - maybe one needs to be American to understand it properly (I am British)I couldn’t read it, having got to about page 40 I just gave up and sent it to the charity shop.

A nice story but not much more than that.Little depth to the characters and the sudden friendship that developed after just a few days between the old man and the girl (who must have been deeply traumatised) was not realistic for me. I found it difficult to accept that a 6 year old girl who had only spent 4 years with the Native American tribe could have learned so much about their way of life (firing rifles, for example) and yet forgotten so much of her former life. The ending was far too simple and contradicted the research (cited at the end of the book) that most captive children wanted to return to the Native American tribes, even after a captive period of one year.The author seemed obsessed with firearms and a lot of detail was given about which gun was being used and why.

A very moving story concerning a tough old timer and a 10 year old , precocious girl who had been taken from her family by a Native American tribe and brought up in there ways. The old guy's task is to return her to what's left of her biological family. She resents this interference in her new life and at first kicks against it as they travel " home" the length of Texas. They meet with violence as white , slave traders try to take her, some resentment from the " respectable" white folk and a fair share of love and understanding.Not wishing to spoil the yarn for potential readers, I will go no further except say that the end is worth waiting for.