The Price We Paid by: Andrew D. Olsen

This is a book that I first chose, mainly because I like the subject material. I have always been fascinated with the story of the Willey, and Martin Handcart Companies. And this interest is not based simple on the tragic nature of the story. But it does provide some of the most amazing features of an excellent fictional story, with all the benefits of it being true. Drama, faith, courage, endurance, and overcoming hardship are the defining pillars of this history, and this book does each, and every one of them justice. Drawing from as many sources as are available on the subject, both modern, and contemporary -- the author has the ability to put the reader right in the middle of the companies, and allow you to share in the entire saga, beginning to end. A word of caution, however. This book has been broken into two parts -- effectively presenting the stories of the Willey Company, and the Martin Company independent of each other. This makes for a hard read -- both emotionally, and mentally. To have to go through the hardships once, with the Willey Company, only to have to start over with the Martin Company demands a lot, both emotionally, and spiritually from the reader.

Aside from that one complaint -- this book is very well done. The story is presented from many of the perspectives, of several different families, and individuals, in each of the companies. None of the faith, or courage has been lost in the presentation of this book, and I would recommend this reading for anyone that is interested in either pioneer, or LDS history. It presents it in as close to an unbiased presentation as is possible -- presenting all the strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures of all of these incredible people. I enjoyed this book, and feel it is one of the better presentations of this era of history that I have read.