Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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The Horse Whisperer: a Book Review

   I am so excited! Tonight is our famous little Oklahoma book club’s discussion dinner of The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans. True to our group’s name, Dinner Club With a Reading Problem, a feast is planned. This time around our hostess is Amber and she has arranged a ranch-style dinner of cubed beef sandwiches and all the luscious trimmings. The rest of us ladies are bringing sides, desserts, and drinks. Last night I made Pioneer Woman’s cilantro-jalapeno slaw, so it should be nice and flavorful by party time. Yum. I think Amber’s theme is perfect for a story set mostly in the ranch-lands of Montana. Just perfect.

   I’ll take photos tonight and share more about book club soon… For now, a quick book review.

   Sometimes I feel funny reviewing a piece of literature that is neither “classic” nor “new release,” but this title deserves some praise anyway. And who knows? It could end up becoming a modern classic. To me, at least, that’s how good it is.

   The Horse Whisperer is a complex and moving story told about believable characters whose lives all eventually revolve around one horse and his girl. Or one girl and her horse, however you look at it. Right at the start of the book, horse and rider together suffer a life-threatening accident and are forever changed. The events that precipitate had me hooked immediately. The stories are layered, and despite their beauty both in emotion and the senses, not without a lot of pain.

   Set primarily in the ranch-lands of Montana, a place I have never been except through the floriferous, enchanting descriptions written by Evans,  The Horse Whisperer is absolutely transporting. Evans uses the topography and unique gifts of the land there to convey several messages about the characters. And then he explores each character with really satisfying, but not exhausting, depth.

Two creeks ran through the Booker brothers’ land and they gave the ranch its name, the Double Divide. They flowed from adjacent folds of the mountain front and in their first half mile they looked like twins. The ridge that ran between them here was low, at one point almost low enough for them to meet, but then it rose sharply in a rugged chain of interlocking bluffs, shouldering the creeks apart. Forced thus to seek their separate ways, they now became quite different.

   He lends the readers a glimpse of lifestyles we are unlikely to know ourselves, both the life of a fast-paced big-city editor and the grittier, more remote, but perhaps not so simple life of a full-time cowboy.

   Evans paints horses and horsemanship in the most honest and poetic light I have ever enjoyed. He illuminates the relationship between horse and man and leaves little room for doubt about what is at risk between the two, and what is available.

And though later he came pretending friendship, the alliance with man would ever be but fragile, for the fear he struck into their hearts was too deep to be dislodged.

   Then this…

“He’s not going to look back if you don’t,” he said. “They’re the most forgiving creatures God ever made.” 

   The book offers romance, even passion and sex (making it unsuitable for young readers, although the horses may draw young readers in!), tumultuous parent-child struggles, questions about legacy and independence, survival, honesty, and of course healing. Redemption is huge in The Horse Whisperer. As the girl and horse who are so badly injured both begin to heal physically and emotionally, so do their attendant relationships. But nothing happens quite like I expected it to. The book is anything but formulaic. And I loved that. If you are able to successfully guess the ending without cheating, then you might be a psychic and should get your own television show.

If you aren’t tempted yet by the story, then be tempted by the writing itself…

Some bounced back to dance in shimmering reflection on the ceiling, while the rest slanted through tot he bottom of the pool where it formed undulating patterns, like a colony of pale blue snakes that lived and died and were constantly reborn.

   A word of warning, and this goes beyond book-snobbery: The book is FAR DIFFERENT from the Robert Redford movie. They are two completely different experiences, as I am sure 100% of everyone who actually read the book will agree. I am not saying the movie is horrible… It is just not aligned with this book. It’s more like, someone skimmed the book and threw in a few details just to hit a “similarities minimum.” The ending is EXACTLY what most movie-watchers might expect or hope for. NOTHING like what the book throws at you. Which is an emotional sledgehammer.

   Okay, I hope you make time to read this book! Read it to open and cleanse old wounds. Read it to spark some hope for a hopeless situation. Read it to fantasize. Read it to broaden your cultural awareness. Read it to soak in poetry. Read it for fun.

   If you have already devoured The Horse Whisperer, what did you think? Spill your literary guts here!

   Now I must be on my way. I have an ice chest to pack, teeth to brush, and a clean t-shirt to slip on. Famous little Oklahoma book club awaits!

“No. But you see, Annie, where there’s pain,
 there’s still feeling.
 And where there’s feeling, there’s hope.”
XOXOXOXO

 

 

 
 

Same Kind of Different as Me (book review)

   Hello again! I have another book review for you. Of course, if we are friends on Facebook or Instagram, then by now you already know I am overwhelmed and inspired by my most recent read, Same Kind of Different as Me. Upon finishing it around lunchtime this last Thursday, I fell apart in the most wonderful way. This is the current conquest by our famous little Oklahoma book club, Dinner Club With a Reading Problem, and I highly recommend that all of you read it. Every single one of you. And all the people you love. I will be buying copies of this as gifts.

http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/

   Same Kind of Different as Me is a true story told from the perspective of two very different but, as the title implies, ultimately very similar men. Their lives and paths cross in a beautiful and unpredictable way, and the shared journey flowers and fruits into more than either of them could have imagined. Yes I know that sounds a bit vague, but just read it! I do not want to ruin it for you.

   There is a sort of sequel available, and we understand a big motion picture in in the works too! This is a bandwagon you want to be on.

********************

   Over the past couple of years I have read a myriad of books that fall under the “spiritual” category, and this one kind of does, but it is different. It is refreshing and inspirational but not preachy or intellectualized. It’s a modern day tale of spiritual victory, true love, lasting friendship (not catch and release), and much more. Same Kind of Different as Me just tells a great story. Plainly. Beautifully. Honestly. I felt as motivated by its messages as I did when reading Bonhoeffer earlier this year and moved to tears in a way that I haven’t been by a book in a long time. Bonus? The story is absolutely delicious. Addictive. I picked it up and couldn’t put it down until the last page, a few tearful hours later.

   This Friday night our Dinner Club With a Reading Problem met at Tracy’s house to discuss this treasure. We all hugged, laughed, and enjoyed plate after plate of good food.

My friends provided lots of healthier fare, but I was starved
and ate eleven hot dogs and hamburgers.

   We traded insights the book gave us into our own hearts, admitting prejudices we barely knew still lingered. Several of the ladies shared stories about sharecroppers from their families in Oklahoma and Texas. We talked about marriage, infidelity and healing, judging each other for our “sins,” adult illiteracy, homelessness, and mortality.

   Our book club gatherings are always rich with affection and conversation, and Friday night was no different. What was different with this title is that 100% of our readers thoroughly enjoyed it. That doesn’t happen too often. We all fell in love with the characters and the message. I think it’s fair to say that we all felt changed, too. For the better.

Tracy you NAILED IT!!!

   I must mention that the timing of reading this book is also amazing. On the heels of Marianne Williamson’s tutorial book A Return to Love, the philosophical message is crystallized into something digestible. Real life stuff. The bottom line of this true story is just love, love, love. Real love. Powerful, life changing, darkness-piercing, dream fulfilling, mistake forgiving, addiction breaking LOVE.

 

   I wrapped it up feeling like every good thing is not only possible but actually likely to happen. I feel like I can be part of (a conduit for) some very important solutions in our life. And, as always, I feel even closer to my book club girls. Thank you, DeLana, for guiding us to Same Kind of Different as Me. What a gift.

“Just tell em I’m a nobody that’s tryin to tell everybody
’bout Somebody that can save anybody.
That’s all you need to tell em.”
~Denver Moore

   Several of my friends outside of book club have already gobbled this up, too. Have you?

“We Woke Up.”
  ~Ron Hall
  xoxoxoxo

Shanghai Girls: Book Review

   I have another book review for you guys. This is a sweet and juicy little paperback I snagged from the back of my friend Seri’s MINIVAN at our June book club dinner. She is a self-professed book hoarder, and of course we all are, so we love her for it. Thank you Seri! And I still owe you $5 plus however many fresh eggs will pay for those fresh pears. Yum.

   Okay. The book is Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Published in 2009, it is a New York Times bestseller and a luscious little piece of historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed it, right up until the very last word. More on that later.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

   Shanghai Girls is set between British-territory China and Los Angeles Chinatown, right as World War II is building pressure and “Communism” is the hottest, most dangerous word anywhere. It traces the coming of age of two Chinese sisters who could not be more different or more complimentary. Their story continues through several decades and along an aching, undulating family saga. It also offers that special ground-level perspective of important historical events, like the Japanese invasion of China and the Hoover-era witch hunt for Communists in America.

   I like historical fiction. I particularly like historical fiction based around the two World Wars; the best samplings tend to be textural, emotional, and revealing of so many moral and social issues that are relevant to us now, all over again. For example?

  • Emigration and assimilation into new places
  • Immigration and the attendant fears and prejudices
  • Unemployment and family communities
  • Liberty versus dependence on the government
  • Cultural evolution
  • Racial tension
  • Legacy versus education and progress
  • Work Ethics
  • The limits to which you would work, lie, or sacrifice to help your children
  • “The American Dream…” and all of its flux elements

   Shanghai Girls did not disappoint. Without tasting academic but in fact just like a good personal narrative, it draws you in and involves you emotionally with the characters. It confuses you with their complex humanity (noone is all good or all bad, after all). It enchants you with scenes of places you have probably never been yourself, certainly of times you have never seen. This is the first book I have read by Lisa See, and I will be happy to find more. She writes succinctly but beautifully…

“I want to say my feeling of disgrace is hard to find,
but I’m ashamed to admit it’s hidden 
just beneath the surface of my skin.”

   This silly detail bears mentioning: I read the final third of this book over the past couple of nights, while wearing a really long, smooth cotton , beautiful vintage kimono. It’s navy blue with white and poppy-red-orange flowers on it.I bought it at a books-and-junk store on the border of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and it is my newest favorite possession. YES I KNOW that kimonos are Japanese and not Chinese. But Japanese culture did play into the story. And anyway I felt feminine and elegant wearing it while reading this feminine and elegant story.

   Okay. I mentioned that I loved the book right up until the last word. As all believable family sagas should, the story has numerous crescendos and lulls. I grew accustomed to the boiling point and then the cool down. I read and luxuriated as the characters matured from girls into women, from fearful children into knowing and capable creatures. And I accidentally prescribed in my head where the story should lead. MISTAKE.

   Anyway, on the night that I finished it, a paragraph dropped me off at one of the boiling points. No biggie. I was excited. Then I turned the page for what I thought would be a new chapter… It was the end! The last twenty or thirty pages of the paperback were acknowledgements and author’s notes! AHHH I craved so much more. I needed far more resolution that this provided, and as far as I can tell there is no sequel. So I guess my only complaint about Shanghai Girls is that it left me wanting more of the same. It was just so delicious.

  Do find this book! It’s an informative yet transporting summer read. And come back tomorrow for the third and final installment of Unsolicited Advice, Marital Edition.

“I fold the letter and put it back in its envelope. 
There’s nothing we can do about any of this from so far away, 
but I begin a chant- something more than a prayer, 
something more like a desperate plea:
Bring her home, bring her home, bring her home.”
~Lisa See in Shanghai Girls
xoxoxo

I’m linking up with Mama Kat today.
Go check out all the other great submissions!

   And please say some prayers for my book-loving friend Seri 
and her sweet family this week, ok? Many thanks.
XOXOXOXO

Tiny Farm Update and a Book Review: Impatient With Desire

   Happy Wednesday to all! Today I have good stuff to share. Mostly, an excellent book recommendation. Scroll down for that. And? It occurred to me that in the midst of the tornado news I have been remiss in mentioning here on the blog some very, very happy news. How embarrassing! If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram then you already know that Handsome and I are enjoying the company of an adorable brand spankin’ new baby llama! Yep, Seraphine finally delivered her cria exactly thirteen days ago. The baby is a little girl and is healthy and happy, growing by the hour it seems. We have named her Dulcinea del Toboso, after Don Quixote’s fabled love interest and muse, but we affectionately call her Little Bit. I am pretty sure my husband has lost his big heart to this sweet little creature, and I am totally okay with that. You should see them play together.

She is the most precious thing that has ever walked on four llama hooves.

   Now… Another book review. I gobbled up this volume two weekends ago, right before the tornadoes, and really, really, really want you to read it. Really. Okay? Okay, here we go.

   First, just take a quick look-see at this cover art and make a mental note of what you think this book is about. Maybe go ahead and scribble your quickest impressions on a piece of scrap paper, also noting whether it is a book you would choose to read. Be honest.

Impatient With Desire by Gabrielle Burton, Published by Rare Bird Books

   What was your immediate reaction? I am so curious about this. Despite the fact that we all grew up hearing, “Never judge a book by its cover,” I pretty much judged this little book by its cover. Harshly. And I let it languish on my dusty shelves for over a year. Neglected, shunned, unread because I thought it was a Puritan romance or something. Not my groove, man.

   How wrong I was. Luckily one recent weekend I possessed the presence of mind to actually read the story description and was immediately hooked. I plunged right in on Saturday morning, consuming a third of the story before coming up for air. Then that Sunday night I woke suddenly at 2 am, eyes unable to even blink shut, and realized I was desperate to finish the book. I crept downstairs and did so, and now I have that settled, satisfied, wonderful feeling. I want you to have this feeling too.

   I want YOU to read THIS BOOK. It is so short and so well written that you can tackle it in one average airplane ride. Or two afternoons on a lounge chair. Or three sleepless night.

   What is it about, you ask? The Donner party. You know who I’m talking about. The band of American pioneers in the mid 1800’s who headed west toward California? The ones who got stuck in the snowy mountains? The group rumored to have survived by cannibalism???

   Now you’re with me.

   Yes, I do feel a little bad sensationalizing this book review, but the truth is that most people probably identify the Donner party with cannibalism. It’s just how our culture works. The delicious surprise here (sorry, couldn’t resist) is that Impatient With Desire serves up (I really can’t stop) a slow, tortuous, truly moving insight to the human experiences of starvation, isolation, hope, fear, faith, commitment, survival, and, of course, death. It really is the Donner party story like you have never heard it. Not even the History channel on its best, most creative day can grip your heart like Burton has done with this artistic and believable story.

   Burton writes in a journal format, in the voice of one woman exclusively, Mrs. Tamsen Donner. The leader’s wife. Scrap all preconceived notions you might already have about this woman and prepare yourself to want to know more about her than one book can offer. It is so good. Also, just accept that all conversations you have so far had regarding cannibalism and your personal tipping points, morality, situational ethics, etc, etc… are tainted by lofty ideas and a cruel disconnect from the realities of hunger that abject.

   Then read this book.
   And discuss it all over again with smart people who have also read it.

“I used to argue that we can improve on nature, 
or at least not be as brutal as nature. 
I don’t have the luxury of theoretical debates anymore, 
nor am I as sentimental as I once was.” 
~Tamsen Donner, letter to her sister. 

   Much worse than judging books by their covers is the crime of judging people who have faced things we have never even imagined.

   Aside from the obvious themes, something lovely ran through the book consistently and caught my attention. It was Mrs. Donner’s mantra that, “We all came here strangers to ourselves.” Tamsen Donner said this repeatedly, her own understanding deepening each time, and it made more and more sense to me too. How often do we learn about our own hearts through trials? How true is it that while living life we learn about ourselves as much as or maybe more than we learn about the world?

   Many other, skinnier threads are up for grabs, too. Skinny threads, but not delicate. This book is short but packed with life.

  • Patriotism and adventure…
  • Early American feminism (the Donner marriage was fascinating)…
  • The concept that a family is raised by community and not one parent… 
  • How do we view animals? Pets, workers, food… And how do we honor them? 
  • The importance of contemporaneous journalling… (I plan to blog about this very thing soon. It’s cropping up everywhere I look!)
  • How dangerously and wonderfully our moods can affect each other, especially in relationships like marriage and especially in close physical quarters…
  • Regret, purpose, hindsight, the limited power of our own lessons learned to help others…
  • The intrinsic value of physical labor…
  • Also the intrinsic value of routine, schedules, and structure to combat mental fatigue…
  • Life cycles and poetry…
  • Religion, proselytizing, and cultural respect…
  • The societal value of ceremony, the luxury of it, and the power of a well written obituary…
  • The complexities of acts of faith…
  • What life do we bring to a home? What actual contributions do each of us make?
  • You cannot escape yourself simply by relocating.
  • Which are you, at heart: a keeper of the home or an adventurer? Does your life reflect this truth?
  • …and so very many other insights to human nature, both the beautiful and the abhorrent.

   Whew! Like I said, this book is short but powerful. The author achieved something wonderful here, and I sure hope you take time to absorb and enjoy it.

My friends have sweet hook ups.

   Bonus announcement: My friend Julia with the sweet literary hook ups is who gifted me this book in the first place. She has recently intimated that I stand a pretty decent chance of meeting and interviewing the author.

   You guys. This is my favorite thing ever, meeting and interviewing authors of excellent books like this. I will of course keep you posted.

   In closing, a community question: If Gabrielle Burton visits the Lazy W, what should I serve? Steak tartare?

Read books! 
Read All the Books!!
xoxoxoxo

 

Book Review: Inside Passage

   Yo, friends. Have you, like me, been reading heavy stuff for months on end? Are you nourished, edified, and inspired, from the inside out, but at the same time feeling a bit threadbare around your sweet little bibliophile eyeballs? Have you enjoyed the snuggly winter and then the tumultuous springtime, and now are you perhaps in need of a big gulp of summertime reading pleasure? I mean, it is summer now, right? Yes, yes it is. Okay, then. I have a great book for you.



   Just last night I was very happy to polish off a relatively new title by Burt Weissbourd called Inside Passage. Released last year by Rare Bird Lit,   ***hi there sweet Julia!***  this novel of only 282 pages is part thriller, part mystery, and all suspense, human psychology, and natural beauty. Weissbrourd has added several healthy doses of sexy in there, too, so please don’t hand this over to your teenager when you’re done. Or your Mom. Trust me.


   We once took my Mom to see Superbad. In the theater. On the big screen. Not cool.
   That’s a weird story. Let’s get back to the book review.

   Set in the gorgeous and foreign-to-me Pacific Northwest, Inside Passage is no long winded epic, a fact I greatly appreciated after the reading that’s been going on here lately. No, Inside Passage follows a short time line of tense and dangerous interactions between characters who hook you from the first introduction. A woman, Corey Logan, is fighting both for her life and for a life lived safely with her teenage son, who is trying to make sense of it all while going through every normal teenage boy experience. Together with allies they collect along the way, this strong but desperate mother and son duo is battling a powerful and vengeful man and all of those under his influence. Monstrous people. 
   Another woman and her son are involved, too. This woman proves herself to be desperate like Corey, but in wildly different ways. The family dynamics and insights to human behavior had me reeling several times. It’s all juicy, fascinating stuff, and it is written with a light enough hand that the reader is drawn in but never exhausted. I really liked that. I need to learn how to write like that. How to speak like that. Think like that.

   I exhaust my own self is what I’m trying to say.
   Weissbourd writes efficiently, packing each paragraph with several cleanly written, informative sentences; yet his descriptions are luscious. At times I could feel the cold, salty ocean spray and smell salmon being grilled over a beach bonfire. 


Somehow this part of the world keeps cropping up in things I read. 
It all sounds incredibly beautiful, and I hope to visit someday.

   I definitely felt invested in the characters, the “good” ones, and repulsed by the “bad” ones. In fact, these dark characters rank in my opinion with some of Koontz’s and King’s worst imaginaries. Given more stage time, they could become cult characters themselves.

   I had not read anything by this author before, and ***TINY SPOILER ALERT*** apparently this is part of a series of books centered around a main character, the heroine Corey Logan. I only gave you that spoiler alert in case it would ruin any suspense for you regarding that character’s longevity. Trust me, no matter what you think you know about the outcome, and that fact doesn’t tell you much, the book is so much fun to read. Pick it up and dive in. Surrender yourself to each setting, each detail. Get inside the head of each fascinating character and work out the intricacies yourself, following the swell of action page after page. It’s quite good.

   I would like to thank Julia for offering me this fun and succulent read. I would like to thank the author Burt Weissbourd for writing it. And I hope many of my friends give it a go. Good stuff you guys! Really tightly written and fast paced. Lots of action, lots of insight. If you need a reprieve, you’ll like this. 


   Over and out.
   xoxoxo