And speaking of books…

….a subject from several other blogs – I just finished reading Chosen by a Horse by Susan Richards. I picked it up at Borders one day and read the first page and decided I needed to finish it.

The story begins when the author provides a foster home for a horse and her foal who were rescued, along with 30 other abused and neglected horses, by the ASPCA. Already an owner of three horses, Ms. Richards surprised herself by stepping in to help the pair. The mare – named Lay Me Down – is sickly and emaciated, though her 2-3 month old foal is healthy. As Ms. Richards narrates the horse’s recovery to full weight and good health, pieces of her own troubled background begin to surface. When a day comes that she has to relinquish the foal to the previous owner’s creditors, we learn that Ms. Richards lost her own mother at the age of 4. She spent the rest of her growing up years first with a harsh grandmother and then with uncaring uncles, aunts, cousins and assorted relatives who never really attempt to accept her as a member of their families.
Ms. Richards shares that she anesthetized herself by descending first into alcoholism and then into an abusive marriage. At the time she is bonding with Lay Me Down, she is sober and divorced, but still unsure of her own future. As she reflects on the parallels between her own life and the rescued horse’s situation, she finds herself amazed and incredulous that, while her own response to the cruelties of her life caused her to withdraw, the horse is more than willing to reach out in quiet friendship (as much as a horse can) and put her trust in Susan Richards.
As the new friendship blossoms, Ms. Richards draws strength and courage from it, coming to terms with her troubled past, her losses and tentatively begins to look forward to the future. And then Lay Me Down is diagnosed with cancer. The life lessons don’t stop there – Ms. Richards discovers more strength, and sometimes more sorrow, than she ever knew she had as she nurses the horse through the next several months.
I should stop here because I’m sure you can guess the ending, but the end is also a beginning, filled with hope and new-found courage to overcome broken hearts and a broken life.

A couple weeks ago I finished Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. He is a masterful storyteller, but both books make me extremely thankful to have been born in the USA. Every American Christian and every American woman need to read both of these novels.

This week, I’m into Tolstoy’s The Master and the Man. Just a few pages into it, but so far, so good. Lots of references to Christianity that most people now wouldn’t see. I need to keep a list.

Still can’t figure out why I ordered satellite tv?