Funny Farm
My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals
by Laurie Zaleski
Great, great, great! Awesomely wonderfully great. What else to say?
And it's real: https://funnyfarmrescue.org/ if you don't mind endless solicitations.
All about how the author's growing up with her wonderfully resilient mother, and all the strange and quirky animals they acquire during their journey.
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
by Pam Houston
I was not expecting what hit me with this book. I expected: writer lives in the mountains of Colorado and runs a ranch and find healing from her childhood...
Huh? I hadn't realized there was a childhood involved. It appears she had a rough one. She doesn't dwell on it excessively, but it does influence her life and writing and she doesn't mince words about it either.
I enjoyed her adventures very, very much, until about halfway through the book she described the fires that swept through the mountains and threatened to wipe out her ranch entirely. And her animals, tool. For a good one-quarter to one-half of the remaining pages, it was mostly factual description of the fire(s)--there were many--and how her ranch-keepers fared while she was on the road doing her other jobs. And, sad as it was, I found that part of the book tiresome. It's seemed mostly impersonal--was the experience of imagining her beloved acres burned black too painful to write about, except in a reserved "simply the facts" way? If so, I'm sorry! But I skimmed that part.
Then she returned to the ranch and wrapped up with a few sweet stories. Very lovely. Very, very lovely.
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