Book Review: Abandoned Eastern Nebraska: Rural Wandering by Nicole Renaud

Abandoned Eastern Nebraska: Rural Wandering
by Nicole Renaud (978.2 Ren)

I saw this book when it first arrived at the library and thought it looked very interesting. The cover shows an old Continental automobile surrounded by tall grass and trees. Flipping through the book, I saw pictures of places I recognized from Eastern Nebraska, but also from locations farther West. The title is misleading. The book is a collection of photographs of abandoned homesteads, churches, schools and businesses throughout Nebraska, as far away as Kimball in the Panhandle. The photography and descriptions of the places are fun to look through, but don’t expect scholarly research in the descriptions. The book serves as a collection of the author’s favorite abandoned buildings in Nebraska and her musings as to how they came to be in the state of disrepair they are in. I would have liked more research throughout the book and a map of sites represented. The book also needed more editing, but was otherwise a fun read.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Across a Wide Horizon: Discovering the Uncommon Beauty of Nebraska’s Plains, by Jorn C. Olsen, Distinctly American: The Photography of Wright Morris, by Wright Morris.]

[ publisher’s official Abandoned Eastern Nebraska web page ]

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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