Local Interest

Just a few sentences on Picturing the Past: South Dakota's Historic Places. This book has some really gorgeous black and white photography from around the state, including a couple of shots from my home area. Especially memorable to me are some shots of courthouses. You can certainly tell that the people that paid for these impressive buildings had some civic pride, and didn't mind spending a little public money to build a quality structure. I shudder to think what these sorts of buildings would look like if they were all being built now. The text that accompanies the photos is readable and generally informative. If you're a sucker for these sorts of books, like I am, this is not a bad one to add to the collection.