Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest

Rating:
Summary: From the Southwest to the Supreme Court
Review: Despite her status as the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and her background as a Stanford graduate and prominent lawyer, Sandra Day O'Connor was not--repeat NOT--a child of privilege. Granted her Daddy ran a cattle ranch spanning two states and she never really wanted for anything, but the childhood which she relates (with her co-author, brother Alan) in "Lazy B" was a most challenging, liberating, independence-building one indeed.

Her grandparents started this life and her parents took over--running a huge cattle ranch, raising three children and instilling traditional values of frugality, self-reliance and hard work. We learn about her dad, DA; her mom, MO; and several interesting, independent cowboys, among them Rastus, Jim Brister, Bug Quinn and Claude Tipets. Just names in a review, these lonely, uneducated, but remarkable men take on real life--real cowboys in the twentieth century! Here's an example: Brister, to tame an unruly horse, wrestles it to the ground in a display of awesome strength--while sitting on its back!!

Sandra accompanies her dad on his treks around the huge ranch fixing windmills, rounding up cattle, fixing fences, and, in general, doing the work of the ranch. She is an important part in the running of the ranch. Her father barely acknwledges her when she is late delivering lunch to the men working far from the homestead--despte the fact that she has had to change a flat tire on the ancient truck with its frozen lugnuts all by herself.

The book stays focused on her childhood, her family and the ranch. We learn about her adult life, including her appointment to the Supreme Court in just a few pages. At first I was surprised at such a cursory treatment of such an important career. But in learning about her childhood upbringing on the Lazy B we really learn all about the adult Sandra Day O'Connor. This is an interesting read both as biography and as the evocation of a vanished time and place. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully captures a bygone era of the American Southwest
Review: I loved reading this beautiful, gritty account of the remote Arizona cattle ranch where O'Connor and her brother grew up. The book is a portrait of the Lazy B ranch and the family and cowboys who created and sustained it for over a century. O'Connor's account is unromantized and yet touching, and it succeeds in vividly revealing a bygone way of life from the old West.

We see the daily rhythms and activities of ranch life, the ongoing struggles of the Day family to keep the ranch afloat, and portraits of the colorful, rugged cowboys who worked at the Lazy B for most of their lives. And we hear the perspectives and fond recollections of the young girl (O'Connor) and her brother who grew up there.

If you are drawn to the West, you'll enjoy this book as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Good choice Ronnie.
Review: Sandra Day O'Connor and Alan Day have written a autobiography that reads like a saga. In the first chapter we learn about the Lazy B. Judging by the size of the Lazy B, 15 miles by 16 miles, I'd venture to guess this is where the term "spread" originated. Not only do we learn the Lazy B encompassed most of the State of Arizona but that it was founded on historic land that was part of the Gadsden Purchase.

In Chapter two we meet Pa Day. Day, a hard working hands-on cattle rancher and shrewd businessman, begrudgingly shot 800 head of cattle in order to keep the ranch solvent.

In other chapters we meet Ma Day, along with a number of the colorful ranch hands, and even some of the family pets.

The book is loaded with photos of the Day family, the ranch, the livestock, and the ranch hands. After reading "Lazy B..." I felt fortunate to have read this firsthand account of the life of a woman who will someday find her way into our history books.

This is the story of a woman who became one of the most powerful women in America. I now know why President Ronald Reagan was so very impressed with Sandra Day O'Connor; appointing her to serve as the first woman justice to the United States Supreme Court.

Highly recommended for readers of all ages. Cammy Diaz

Rating:
Summary: Oh to be at Lazy B....
Review: Sandra Day O'Connor and Alan Day have written a book that portrays ranch life in a desolte area of Arizona and New Mexico so vividly that the reader is swept away to a place and time that can be visited only through reading the Day's memoirs.

Most people know little of southwestern ranch life except as presented through Hollywood's interpretation on the silver screen. "Lazy B" reveals the every day struggles of ranchers and cowboys, with intimate knowledge of and compassion for the characters, the cattle and for the land. The authors share what it was like to grow up on a ranch far from a paved road and without neighbors or playmates. Some of the antics are side-splitters. The hard work and uncertainties of life on the ranch are told in a way that touches the reader's sensitivities.

It was hard to put "Lazy B" down while reading it and I was sad when I finished it; it was something joyful and heart-warming to look forward to every evening. I heartily recommend "Lasy B" for its marvelous stories, its historical value, its humor and the strength of character it presents. One of our country's most prominent women and her brother have given us a wonderful gift by sharing their lives in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Semi-BORING
Review: This book seemed politically written. The "right" word took center-stage over the substance.