Ted Simon

By the time he turned fifty, Ted Simon had seen a great deal of the world - even circled the globe by motorcycle. But eastern Europe was an area he had never explored. It resonated in his history, however: His mother was German; his father, who vanished when Simon was five, was a Romanian Jew. Simon became curious about his heritage only after his mother died in 1992. He then conceived the idea of traveling between the two poles of his legacy - through Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and Romania - seeking to understand more about this turbulent region and more about his parents, whose brief and explosive marriage arose from their attempt to escape their cultural pasts. Insightful, humorous, and often moving, The Gypsy in Me vividly recounts Simon's 1,500-mile journey. Covering much of the trip on foot, Simon gets an up-close and personal entree into the lives of these around him, and also learns unexpected lessons about his physical limitations. In the former East Germany he stays with a family longing for the lost security of Communism; in Russia he finds himself beset by entrepreneurs eager to do business American-style. He befriends a Russian colonel and his family who are struggling to keep up propriety and comfort when the economy is so bad they have to grow their own food. In Ukraine, far from any tourist spots, he is adopted by a rural family and welcomed with a heartwarming Orthodox church service. In Romania he is intrigued by the Gypsy culture, and he miraculously locates a man who knew his grandfather and gives him clues to his family's past. Everywhere he goes, the specter of history lingers: in the last standing buildings of a Russian ghetto long purged of its Jewish population; in Polish towns reclaimed from Germany after World War II (where, ironically, prosperity comes through the tourism of nostalgic Germans who used to live there). Writing with wit, grace, and a finely attuned sensitivity, Simon brings out the profound aspects of traveling into the unknown. He is also laugh-out-loud funny, bringing a wry and often self-deprecating humor to stories of being chased by a jealous Russian bull, discovering that Romanian restaurants serve nothing but pork cutlet, and encountering, in Ukraine, the Worst Toilet in the World. The Gypsy in Me is an enlightening, colorful ramble across eastern Europe that combines first-rate travel writing with reflections on nationalism and prejudice, changing ways of life, the ties of people to the land, and the influence of history. It is a journey through time and culture as well as through place.

The River Stops Here is an exhilarating tale of classic American heroism, the unforgettable story of one man's battle to save a valley and a way of life. Richard Wilson turned his back on a comfortable life in Southern California to settle with his wife and children in Round Valley, a remote miracle of nature in the mountains north of San Francisco. He built a cattle ranch there because he believed in the value of living on the land. He worked hard to be accepted by the valley's long-time farmers and ranchers because he knew he'd found a community where he wanted to stay. Then, in 1967, the State of California announced its plan to flood Round Valley - the farms, the town, the homes - under 11 billion tons of water, to turn it into a vast reservoir to feed the ever-expanding, always-thirsty south. Richard Wilson vowed to stop them. So began an extraordinary battle that pitted him and a small band of followers against some of the most powerful forces in the state: the great corporate farmers and developers and their legislators, the intransigent Director of Water Resources, and the hitherto unchallenged and seemingly invincible Army Corps of Engineers. Most powerful of all was the tradition of limitless growth and exploitation of natural resources that had been driving California's destiny for over a century. . As the rebels moved their fight from town hall meetings to the state legislature, then all the way to Governor Reagan's office, they galvanized thousands of citizens up and down California and across the nation to join them in one of America's first and most important environmental campaigns. The River Stops Here is about a man of vision who had the courage to stand up to the powers-that-be and inspire others to do the same. Bringing to life California's desperate wars over water, it provides an important commentary on the relationship of Americans to their land and resources.