Brave the Wild River

The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon

By: Melissa L. Sevigny

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first.

Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon's secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river's most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter's plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystem.

Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West.

©2023 Melissa L. Sevigny (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Beautifully written adventure!

The book reads like poetry. The words are carefully chosen and the descriptions are vivid. I loved it so much that I bought the hardcover and listened to the Audiobook. It's a thrilling story that I enjoyed start to finish.

Extensive research

This book has a trove of information about the history of exploration through the Grand Canyon. Not only the natural history but also the characters who took on the mighty Colorado River.

Wonderful book!

It was so interesting to hear about the early exploration of the Colorado river from two amazingly adventurous women.

Excellent

Well told story. The story of taking a raft down the river was riveting. Educational and interesting story of women in the sciences going into the wild

Taking women seriously in science

I liked that the author used the scientific names for the plants. I loved the descriptions of life on the river. I have run the Grand Canyon and could picture where they were and the rapids they were running. This book accurately details the obstacles and harassment that women face yet how we have made progress with more changes needed. As a woman in science and one who love botany this book was a joy to read!

Great Adventure Story

This was a very interesting story- I’m a fan of reading or listening to any and all stories related to the Colorado River. My one complaint of the reader is that every time she was quoting Jotter, she changed her voice to sound more like a little giggly girl. I couldn’t understand why the reader felt compelled to do that and it took away from my complete enjoyment of the book.

awful narration!

this kind of story is normally right up my alley, but the narration is so bad I could not finish it. She reads it with a 1940s mid Atlantic type of accent, and then when there are first person accounts, she dials up the accent to whole new heights of over acting. it honestly sounds like she is mocking these scientists and I'm not into that. I don't recommend the audio book at all. as for the story, it has so much potential but it is not particularly well written so I would not even recommend getting the physical book.