Tag: Book Review

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Book Review: Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall

running with sherman mini burro

Premise

Imagine running alongside one of the most beloved and most misunderstood creatures—the humble donkey. Now imagine training that donkey to run alongside you up and over Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Running with Sherman is that very story.

When Christopher McDougall, best selling author of Born to Run, adopts the “Sherm,” he realizes just how much help the rescue miniature donkey needs. Underweight and psychologically scarred, Sherman’s recovery unites a medley of people. And a medley it is. In this book we meet professional donkey trainers, mentor goats, Amish running clubs, and more.

As McDougall and his rag-tag band tend to the lovable Sherman, McDougall realizes that burro racing—yes, your read that right—is just what Sherman needs. A tried and true sport, burro racing is a competition in which humans and burros run side by side over a multitude of terrains—forests, mountains, and roads.

Review

Sound too bizarre to be true? Think again. McDougall’s work does this sport justice. He excels in describing just how much time and physical effort the team dedicates to training. Humans and burros train as hard as any professional athlete. McDougall is quick to learn that being an amazing human runner is not enough. Compassion, patience, and understanding of donkey psychology are essential. As Sherman and his beloved team train for the World Championship Pack Burro Race held in Fairplay, Colorado, readers learn:

  • just how healing movement can be
  • the power of human-animal connection

Like his previous work Born To Run, McDougall’s writing often forays into long stretched anecdotes and wordy descriptions. For me, the book is just as much a human story as it is about a brave hearted burro. Afterall, the title is Running with Sherman. Some readers will undoubtedly become distracted by the various human side stories (of which there are many.) I can see this especially being true for audio book listeners.

Anecdotes aside, McDougall’s gift is his overall tone–genuine optimism. He achieves this within his writing with self-deprecating humor, colorful metaphors, and plenty of enthusiasm. And this is in the face of the many setbacks (transportation issues, injuries) he and his team experience.

This optimism also makes Running with Sherman a wonderful testament to the humble burro. Often maligned for their “stubborn” personality, burros are the deeply misunderstood equine. As McDougall and Sherman run together, the author explains “Donkey Tao,” as he unravels the incredible self-preservation tactics of burros. “Horses are speedy, but when it comes to heat, cold, and thirst, you can’t do better than a burro,” McDougall explains. And Sherman ultimately does prove just how tough he truly is.

An Uplifting Read

Running with Sherman is an inspiring, true underdog tale that I thoroughly enjoyed. This book is a treat for both runners and animals lovers alike. Fans of The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen will appreciate this tale. If you’re in search for an uplifting story full of adventure, haul ass (pun intended) to your local library or bookstore and pick up a copy today.

~LMC

Running with Sherman logo
Image courtesy of chrismcdougall.com
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Book Review: GHOST TOWN: Seven Ghostly Stories by Joan Lowery Nixon

A prolific writer of children’s literature, the late Joan Lowery Nixon presents several spooky tales in Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Tales. Aimed at readers ages 8-12, the book provides a brief introduction regarding the history and allure of the countless abandoned towns scattered throughout the American West. Nixon explains how thriving areas that were established and populated by gold miners, cowboys, outlaws and other colorful characters, are now places that show scant evidence they even existed. The gold, silver, and other industries that drove many of these towns have long since fizzled, and the residents have moved elsewhere.

Yet these “ghosts” of towns are a tangible link to the past, “where visitors can catch a glimpse of Western life in the 1800s.” The seven stories each take place in a real ghost town, ranging from the famed, now very “touristy” Tombstone, Arizona; the former military Fort Griffin in Texas; to the now obscure abandoned mining town of Maiden, Montana.

Each story, told in third person, is brief and presents a juvenile character or several who experience supernatural phenomena of some sort: ghosts, apparitions, cursed objects, etc. Being a children’s book, the stories are devoid of anything graphic, and truly are not “scary” or “frightening.” Rather, Nixon utilizes suspense, dread, mystery, and a sense of creepiness for this particular work, while highlighting the history, landmarks, and historic figures of each town. The end result is a book with thought provoking tales, sure to engage children’s curiosity about how and where people lived in the Old West. Accompanying the end of each tale, Nixon provides a further description of each town’s history, and provides directions to each location.

For those hungry for more information, she also includes several websites and book recommendations for each “ghost.” As this book was published in 2000, it is possible that several of these sites and books are outdated in their information, or are no longer available. Nixon concludes the book with a section on ghost town etiquette and safety: look but don’t touch, and obey all no trespassing signs or boarded up areas. For children (and adults like me) who love history, especially the Old West, Ghost Town is a delightful and suspenseful read, while providing readers a nice dose of historical facts and actual places. My only critique? This book should have included a ghostly tale in Colorado 😉 I’m thinking Tin Cup, with its sectioned graveyards assigned to several knolls in the forest…But I’m willing to overlook this omission. 🙂

~LMC

Ghost Town: Seven Ghostly Stories by Joan Lowery Nixon, Delacorte Press, 2000, 149 pages

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Book Review: THE RUNNING DREAM by Wendelin Van Draanen

“I am a runner. That’s what I do. That’s who I am. Running is all I know, or want, or care about.” -Jessica, protagonist of The Running Dream

Being a runner, it’s only appropriate that I read this book. And wow. I was not disappointed.

Told in first person by sixteen year old Jessica, The Running Dream begins with the talented high school track star in the hospital. The survivor of a brutal school bus accident, Jessica is lucky to be alive: one of her teammates is not so fortunate, having died at the scene. But Jess desperately wishes she could trade places with her fallen teammate,  now that she is a “BK amputee:” Jessica’s right leg from the knee down had to be amputated, due to damaged sustained from the horrid event.

Along with battling the physical agony of phantom pains, Jessica’s mentality, her very being, is shattered. Convinced she’ll never be able to run again, much less walk, Jess is in denial that her life will ever improve. Once home, she physically struggles to adjust to functioning with a missing limb: tasks once never given a thought to, such as going up the stairs, stepping into the shower, feel like monumental obstacles. The talented athlete must now rely on others to help her.

Jessica’s long, arduous process of recovery is made real; Van Draanen has obviously done her research regarding amputees, prosthetics, physical therapy, etc. Readers easily sympathize with Jessica as she attends physical therapy and gets fitted for a prosthetic: “I have to learn how to clean it […] Learn to massage it and desensitize it […] Learn not to vomit at the sight of it.” For Jessica, life might as well be over. Knowing she’ll never be the same, physically, she feels like a freak. An outsider. Returning to school as she now is seems impossible. Cruel even.

But perspective comes into play. The novel excels not just in describing Jessica’s mental and physical anguish, but also in regarding how the accident and Jessica’s condition affect others. Seething in depression and loathing, she comes to grips with reality when she overhears her parents discussing mounting medical bills. Terrified of financial crisis, Jessica begins to panic, but her track team, and eventually the whole community, step up to help fundraise and alleviate the financial burden.

But the novel is more than about receiving support from others: it is a story of outreach, inclusion, and positive perspective. Via the emotional support of her team and track coach, Jessica discovers how other amputees can and are able to run again with the use of specialized prosthetics. The cost alone for such a piece is daunting, but once again Jessica’s team, school and community help make Jessica’s “running dream” a reality.

As she adapts to walking and eventually running with her new leg, so too does her mentality adjust: for the better. Struggling to catch up on missed assignments, Jessica strikes a friendship with Rosa, a girl she has overlooked up until now. Assigned to sit next to each other in math class, Rosa reaches out to Jessica via written notes, making her feel less alone. Jessica quickly learns that Rosa was born with cerebral palsy, and has been in a wheelchair her whole life. As Rosa congratulates her on soon receiving her new leg, Jessica realizes “that I am lucky” and “that I will stand on my own again.”

Grateful to Rosa for not only helping her with math homework, but with her perspective on life, Jessica crafts an ambitious plan to make one of Rosa’s wishes come true: to understand the sensation of what it is to run. So she begins training for the local River Run, a 10 mile event. Planning to push Rosa in her wheelchair for the whole course, Jessica remains undaunted in her goal: in that people will see Rosa, and “not her condition.” What follows is by far of the most uplifting moments not just within the book, but one of the most soul sustaining moments I have read in a long while.

This is a book anyone can appreciate. Van Draanen drives home the point that while you cannot control everything that happens to you in life, you can determine your reaction, your outlook. This book is not about tragedy, but of triumph. For those readers who ran or run track, you’ll more than appreciate Jessica’s description of pushing through “rigor mortis bend,” the “place in the 400-meter race where every cell of your body locks up;” of grinding through the pain and struggle, to the finish line.

~LMC 

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen, Ember, 2011, 332 pages


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Book Review: ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN by Jim Fergus

I can’t believe that only just now I read this book. Because wow. Wow! All the genres/ themes I love—historical fiction, first person perspective, strong and most importantly, believable female protagonist—are all present in this novel. Published in 1998, I’ve more than once spotted this novel on bookshelves, yet didn’t pick up a copy till recently.

Premise

The novel stems from a highly interesting, yet never came to pass, proposal: in the 1850s, a Northern Cheyenne chief asked US Army authorities the gift of one thousand white women as brides for their warriors. Being a matrilineal based society, in which children belong to their mother’s tribe, the Cheyenne viewed this as the perfect way to assimilate into white society. Unsurprisingly, US authorities abhorred this idea, and no white brides came over. But in this novel, they do.

Review

Told through the fictional diary entries of May Dodd, readers are introduced to a woman considered highly unconventional for 1875. A free spirit, May is banished to an asylum by her own family, for having loved a man beneath her station. When the chance for freedom is offered by participating in the top secret government “Brides for Indians” program, May seizes it. With the goal of “civilizing” the so-called savages, May and many other women in compromised situations find themselves heading west. May chronicles the women she meets, of all backgrounds and color, and of their fears and hopes of marrying and living among the “savages.” For May however, she soon finds herself torn between her love for a dashing US Army captain, and her eventual husband, Chief Little Wolf, leader of the Cheyenne nation. Caught between two worlds, May struggles to navigate two alternate lives, both of which are fraught with devastating consequences.

Highly detailed and emotive, May feels very much like a real character. In fact, I’m still in awe that this novel is written by a man. Fergus captures May’s hopes and fears regarding her children, her disgust with society’s hypocrisy regarding her sexuality, and her love and respect for both US Captain Bourke and Chief Little Wolf, both of whom are actual historical characters. Other characters, such as the street wise Irish Kelly twins, and the steadfast, former slave Phemie, feel real as well. May’s initial bewilderment to eventual acceptance and admiration of Cheyenne culture is well structured, as are all characters’ interactions with one another.

Readers stringent in historical/ realistic portrayals may find the fact that May writes such long, detailed entries unrealistic, especially during the novel’s climax. Yet one must remember that this is a novel. Like very many other readers, so immersed into the plot and characters was I that I wanted, needed, May to be a real character.

Alas, as Fergus clarifies in the “Author’s Note:” “In spite of efforts to convince the reader to the contrary, this book is entirely a work of fiction” (Fergus xiii). Such is the magic of well researched and well executed fiction that readers whole heartedly ingest this novel. If you are looking for “a fresh twist on the traditional Western” (book review via San Antonio Express), I highly recommend this novel.

~LMC

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, St. Martin’s Griffin New York, 434 pages

*Postscript: The Vengeance of Mothers, the sequel to One Thousand White Women, has just been published this year. I cannot wait to pick up this book and will write a review once finished reading it.