Normally diaries don't make gripping reading -- unless you are related to the diarist.  But you might find an exception in " The Diaries of Joseph Prince Tracy, Eureka, California, 1893 - 1898" True, the plain beige cover is not appealing, but remember "you can't judge a book by its cover".

       When Harriet Tracy DeLong found her uncle Joe's eight leather bound diaries in a family trunk, she began a quest - transcribing them and researching the events, places and people they captured. She then selected more interesting entrees and added background commentary and local photographs to give us a unique view into our community's past.

       As recorded by this perceptive teenager, Joe gives us glimpses of everyday local life.  To name just a few: fire at the Carson mill, going to plays at the Ingomar Theater, installing electricity in their house, street paving, neighborhood murders, dentist visits, floods, earthquakes, shopping trips, holiday feasts and gifts, local elections, viewing eclipses, sea sickness on an ocean voyage, sibling squabbles, starting high school, and exploring local insects and plants that carried Joe into a career as a naturalist. If we all kept diaries like this, think how well nitty-gritty history would be preserved.

         So for a glimpse of another time in a familiar place, this book is well worth a look.