There is something delightful and comforting about a stack of intriguing new titles ... they are essential provisions for any season! Since I have spent the holidays reading and not updating my website I hope to see you at the upcoming shows where I will be displaying all the literary necessities and temptations!
My current stack includes these recently released and forthcoming novels and mysteries.
Still Life with Elephant by the author of the wacky and well-loved novel Horseplay, Judy Reene Singer, is a new favorite! Although with different characters and different settings (both dressage) think of Horseplay as the tasty appetizer and Still Life with Elephant as the amazing main course!
Molly Gloss' The Hearts of Horses is a beautifully written novel set in 1917 Oregon that follows horse trainer Martha Lessen through a winter of change.
Triple Cross by Kit Ehrman is now in trade paper... a fabulous read that will elevate your blood pressure! We are planning a book signing in April at the Equine Affaire. More later.
Toni Leland's newest is her very best! Due out in February, Deadly Heritage is so vividly written you can hear the hoofbeats! With its twists and turns and non-stop action, I think this novel would make a great movie.
I found Rita Mae Brown's The Hounds And The Fury (now in paperback) especially fresh and frisky with deliciously evil characters who are bound to get their comeuppance. Tell Tale Horse (available in hardcover) is the newest release in this fun series. I'm eagerly waiting for 1/29/08 when the next installment of the Sneaky Pie series, Puss in Cahoots (set at a Kentucky horse show) hits the shelves in paperback.
Chosen By A Horse (now in paperback) by Susan Richards was one of those books you don't want to put down, but at the same time, don't want to end. While it seems there is a steady stream of "transformed by a horse" books (and rightly so, though some are saccharine enough to make your teeth hurt) there was something so absolutely pure in this memoir that I scrawled "truth is beauty" on my sticky note and could almost feel the light on my face as Susan emerges from the darkness of her past. The horse who is the catalyst for her renewal, Lay Me Down ("it wasn't a name, it was part of a prayer children recited..."), comes into her life when the author is already free of much of her baggage, but it is in this neglected mare's calm and steady gaze that Susan begins to see herself as truly changed, and sheds her painful burden. Not flashy-splashy, but an earnest expression of friendship and humanity on so many levels that the light shines from its pages .
As always, if you would like me to send a book or bring it to the next show for you to preview, just email me and I will be happy to help.
