Copies of the book and a reader’s guide will be available to check out ahead of time at the Reference Desk. Past participation is not required for this once-a-month book club. Everyone is welcome to join the low-key, no long-term commitment, friendly group. Registration is requested.
In 1954, sixty-three-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect, but together with Tarzan and her dog Depeche Toi, they rode straight into a world transformed by the rapid construction of modern highways. Annie rode more than four thousand miles, through America’s big cities and small towns, meeting ordinary people and celebrities along the journey to California.