Leaning into the Wind : Women Write from the Heart of the West

Rating:
Summary: As real as the western women who inhabit the land
Review: As a ranch woman who lived many years in South Dakota, the anthology truly amazes me for its capacity to speak clearly about the heart and souls of plainswomen. The women wrote their stories with passion that credits the authenticity of their varied subjects. The authors exposed the west in black and white, yet showed the gray complexities. The land, as one writer said, holds you in a way nothing else can. The reader learns that an appreciation and respect for the land is paramount if one is to cope with extreme weather, cyclical income--often below the cost of doing business, relationships made uneasy by common community knowledge of generations living in the same place. Individuality, as shown by the diverseness of the authors' experiences, is the key to holding one's own in an oftimes hostle environment. Truly the weak don't survive. "Leaning..." shows the strength and fortitude necessary for life on the high plains and also the compassion brought on by the witnessing of a prairie in bloom, an astonishing star lit sky or the newborn's arrival. One sees clearly the growth that can come from intimate association with life and death. The honesty of life is on every page.

Rating:
Summary: Loved most of it
Review: It got a bit repetitive though - I mean, ALL those stories of calving were a bit excessive. I bought this book during my first visit to the High Plains last week on my spring break in South Dakota. I enjoyed most of the stories - I didn't think they were all particularly and equally wonderful, but with so many writings you will have likes and dislikes. I did wish, however, that I could talk to some of these women and let them know that not all vegetarians and animal-rights activists hate ranchers. We're not all hippy-dippy airheads who don't know the real story of animal farming - the hard work and even love that goes into the raising of animals. It's just a difference of opinion regarding the sanctity of _all_ life. I felt attacked, quite a few times, while reading this book. Overall though, there were very inspiring stories and quotable quotes - "Pay a holy kind of attention" !!! Loved that one.

Rating:
Summary: Loved most of it
Review: It got a bit repetitive though - I mean, ALL those stories of calving were a bit excessive. I bought this book during my first visit to the High Plains last week on my spring break in South Dakota. I enjoyed most of the stories - I didn't think they were all particularly and equally wonderful, but with so many writings you will have likes and dislikes. I did wish, however, that I could talk to some of these women and let them know that not all vegetarians and animal-rights activists hate ranchers. We're not all hippy-dippy airheads who don't know the real story of animal farming - the hard work and even love that goes into the raising of animals. It's just a difference of opinion regarding the sanctity of _all_ life. I felt attacked, quite a few times, while reading this book. Overall though, there were very inspiring stories and quotable quotes - "Pay a holy kind of attention" !!! Loved that one.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching, yet inspiring; history with soul.
Review: To start this book is to start a trip into one's own past. Whether we now live in the country or in a city, many of the stories told here are within our own familys' histories; I can feel my own German immigrant grandparents, farming on the plains of Eastern Colorado, within these pages.

The sheer eloquence of these plains women - their poetry and tales - tells much of the strength of the human spirit. I wept with them as they tell of the rigors of drought and the Depression; laughed with them as they tell of childish pranks; and prayed with them as they lived through weather we can only imagine today, snugged, cocooned, and protected as we are from the elements.

I would wish every high school American history teacher would include this in their curriculum. To have history not only educate, but entertain, is a rare treat. It is our roots that make us strong - just as the wheat that grows upon these same high plains.

The format is outstanding for its message: short essays and poems. One can chew off just as much as is right at any one time, without feeling that the tale has been interrupted. The eloquence of these prairie women, the beauty of their imagery, was a constant delight - even when their eloquence was manifested purely by sheer simplicity.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching, yet inspiring; history with soul.
Review: To start this book is to start a trip into one's own past. Whether we now live in the country or in a city, many of the stories told here are within our own familys' histories; I can feel my own German immigrant grandparents, farming on the plains of Eastern Colorado, within these pages.

The sheer eloquence of these plains women - their poetry and tales - tells much of the strength of the human spirit. I wept with them as they tell of the rigors of drought and the Depression; laughed with them as they tell of childish pranks; and prayed with them as they lived through weather we can only imagine today, snugged, cocooned, and protected as we are from the elements.

I would wish every high school American history teacher would include this in their curriculum. To have history not only educate, but entertain, is a rare treat. It is our roots that make us strong - just as the wheat that grows upon these same high plains.

The format is outstanding for its message: short essays and poems. One can chew off just as much as is right at any one time, without feeling that the tale has been interrupted. The eloquence of these prairie women, the beauty of their imagery, was a constant delight - even when their eloquence was manifested purely by sheer simplicity.