Gold Diggers

Striking It Rich in the Klondike

By: Charlotte Gray

Narrated by: Steven Cooper

Between 1896 and 1899, thousands of people lured by gold braved a grueling journey into the remote wilderness of North America. Within two years, Dawson City, in the Canadian Yukon, grew from a mining camp of four hundred to a raucous town of more than thirty thousand. The stampede to the Klondike was the last great gold rush in history.

Scurvy, dysentery, frostbite, and starvation stalked all who dared to be in Dawson. And yet the possibilities attracted people from all walks of life. Gold Diggers is the remarkable story of the Klondike Gold Rush told through the lives of six very different people: the miner William Haskell; the saintly priest Father Judge; the savvy twenty-four-year-old businesswoman Belinda Mulrooney; the imperious British journalist Flora Shaw; spit-and-polish Sam Steele of the Mounties; and, most famous, the writer Jack London, who left without gold but with the stories that would make him a legend.

Brilliantly interweaving their experiences, Charlotte Gray presents a fascinating panorama of a subarctic town, drawing on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and stories.

©2010 Charlotte Gray (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Fascinating stories mixed with boring characters

This book alternates between riveting and tedious as it cleverly uses individual narratives to show the Klondike Gold Rush through firsthand accounts. The only drawback is that several of the characters who are examined and followed don't have particularly exciting stories. I found myself finishing the book only to learn about what happened to Bill Haskell and Belinda Mulrooney without caring about the character discussed in the current chapter.

Spell binding in writing and narration

Writing was so interesting you felt like you were there in the Yukon. It was an intense story of characters; you just about couldn't stop listening but life requires food and sleep.

Great story; bad narrator.

What made the experience of listening to Gold Diggers the most enjoyable?

It's such an incredible and entertaining story, all the more so because it is true.

Not Quite Tombstone...But close!

When I listen to stories such as this, I cannot help but think how soft we are as a generation. The fact of the matter is, most everything has already been explored; the gold has all but been dug up, and the wilderness seems to be tamed…by simply being avoided and read about on the internet. Every once in a while someone will climb a mountain or row across an ocean but for the most part, we don’t see people like those whose stories were shared from the vast gold fields of northern Canada.

The Klondyke and those who sought her riches (almost) mimics Tombstone in a way. Without the famous shootout at the OK Corral (read Jeff Guinn's The Last Gunfight), the Klondyke prospectors did their best to portray a boom town when there was little else to draw such a crowd to the vast wilderness. The stories of each within this book were captivating and kept my interest throughout. One can almost imagine the harsh winters and mosquito-bitten summers when there was no such thing as a thermal socks and Gortex nor a can of OFF. And the temperatures and terrain along with the wolves and bears did little to turn these men and women away from the chance to become a millionaire with one swing of the pick-axe. And then, as soon as it all started, it was over…the gold almost gone and the private prospector on his/her way back to where they once came. And with the likes of Jack London to spark your interest, it’s tough to put this one down.

With a reader (Steven Cooper) doing an excellent job of keeping my attention changing dialects and inflection with each syllable, I didn’t ever feel bored or wanting to listen to something else. Well done! The reading combined with a decent story to will make this book well worth your hard earned credit.

Excellent Book Bad Narrator

I really enjoyed hearing the history of the Yukon gold rush and all of it’s colorful characters from the past. I wished the narrator wasn’t so boring and could’ve brought these characters to life. Instead he read the book like stereo instructions.

Good book, terrible read

This is a fabulous story, compellingly told. The writing is first class, but it is brought down tragically by an appalling read. I'm sorry to say this since a sample of Steven Cooper's reading from a number of novels on Audible suggests he can do a fine job with fiction. But nonfiction leaves him helpless. A monotonous and repetitious sing-song is all he brings. Every word the same emphasis, every sentence dipped at the end. I strongly recommend this very human and visceral treatment of a colorful and unique event in history, but if it interests you, read it, don't listen to this misfired production. The reading sample will tell you what every minute of these twelve hours will sound like.
Happily, Charlotte Gray's other book on Audible has a different narrator. I'll definitely give it a try.

Disappointed...

Would you try another book from Charlotte Gray and/or Steven Cooper?

I am going to make it a point to stay away from Steven Cooper's narrations. He reads it with little to no emotion or interest; its like he is reading a seventh grade book report and and is bored to death.