Mary Austin’s The Land of Little Rain is a book with sketches that show the desert country of southern California. Mainly where the Sierras go into the Mojave Desert. Mary Austin finds beauty in the harsh landscape: "This is the sense of the desert hills--that there is room enough and time enough. . . The treeless spaces uncramp the soul." She starts off with the water trails that mark the way. She shows the way the environment works together. Life and death go on at the springs. Coyotes kill rabbits. Buzzards wait above.Then she tells about the people living there, in a land of scarce resources. There is a gold prospector, a sheepherder, a basket maker. Anyone who sees beauty in deserts, or who likes writings about nature, will enjoy this
