A Little Here, More There, and a Book with Heart
Yes. I’ve been away for a while. A long long while. Check out READERKIDZ to see where I’ve been spending a lot of time and what my friends and I have been up to.
In the meantime, I’m still writing, teaching, and traveling.
While away on spring break, I read HEART OF A SHEPHERD by Roseanne Parry. It’s the kind of book I knew, based on the title, that I would be intrigued by and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s an amazing debut, a book I’ll long remember because the story *is* full of heart. The setting – a ranch in Oregon – is one I was only vaguely familiar with, having driven through a part of Oregon I imagine was similar to the land Brother and his family ranched. And the people, so interesting! Four sons, a father in the military, a mother who’s off living her life as an artist, yet who still manages to feel loosely connected and forgiven for her departure; and a set of grandparents, each with his/her own intriguing background and story.
This was a book that as I read, the writer-me wanted to know exactly how the author did it. What did Parry bring to the story from her own personal background? How did she infuse such depth into a story that, in looking over her comments about the book on her website, doesn’t seem at all related to her personal experience? How did she write about life on a ranch without being a rancher herself? How did she bring to life the cultural details of a rural setting that most certainly isn’t very similar to her own suburban lifestyle? And what about the grandfather who’s Quaker, and the grandmother who’s Catholic? Again, another interesting layer.
It’s a book I enjoyed very much. A book I will return to.
