Last night we got another newspaper story for the book, this one by Marie Nitke at the Grand Rapids Herald-Review (“Aaron Brown’s new book a rally call to young Rangers“). An excerpt:
“Overburden” can mean more than one thing. There’s the standard definition, of being overloaded with stress, and there’s the iron mining definition, which describes earth and material (besides ore) that gets scraped up and piled into imposing mounds that surround mine pits forever.
This duel meaning made the word the perfect choice for the title of Aaron Brown’s new book: “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range Today.” Because, reasons Brown, today’s generation of Iron Rangers is overburdened with problems bred from the drained mining industry of this region. “Today’s generation is still dealing with issues of the past — the bust economy, etc.,” explained Brown. “I’m under the age of 30, and there aren’t a lot of under-30’s in the Range area. What I’m seeing is a lot of stagnation in the economy and in how things are done. You hear a lot of ‘we’ve always done it this way,’ and that’s part of the reason why I wrote this book — to let other young adults know that, to improve the community the way everyone wants, this whole generation has to get involved in a way that it currently isn’t …
“It’s a rally call, I guess you could say, to young people on the Range,” Brown continued. “To know that this area is still here, it’s viable for living here now, and the price of living here is involvement …
There’s more at the Herald-Review.
I also got a nice post from my Alaska friends, the Rudstroms, at their unique Alaska tundra lifestyle blog.
Our first book event is tonight in Hibbing, 5-7 p.m. at the Howard Street Booksellers. Saturday we’re in Grand Rapids 12-2 p.m. at the Village Bookstore.
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