A book club I happened upon on the Internet asked First Lady, Laura Bush, to recommend a book. Her choice was Goodbye to a River, by John Graves. I thought it looked interesting, and it was.

Graves grew up in Texas, along the Brazos River. In the late 1950s, he heard the river was about to be submerged by a series of dams. He decided to make one last visit to places he remembered hunting, fishing and exploring.

He went by canoe, with just a Dachshund puppy (whom he refers to as the Passenger) for company. The trip took most of a November. Graves writes about the river, the birds and animals he sees, the people he meets and the way of life — as it is and as it used to be. He includes stories of the earliest settlers, the Indians and his own boyhood.

Graves has the gift of being able to see both sides of issues — the old ways versus the need for dams, nature versus the enjoyment of hunting and fishing, religion or the lack of it — and is fair and open about people.

His writing style is something like the drifting of a canoe, slow and easy and relaxing. Although he ran into cold and rain and harsh winds, there wasn’t a bit of trip when he didn’t make me wish I was along for the ride.