A Girl and Five Brave Horses by Sonora Carver

Every once in a while, a book comes along that really tests your resolve to read it. That's the way it was with this book.

A Girl and Five Brave Horses is technically the basis for the Disney movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, which is loosely based on the life of Sonora Webster Carver. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, and has been for a very long time — as far as I can tell, the first edition (in 1961) was also the last edition printed. Even many libraries don't have it; I had to order it through an interlibrary loan.

Since the book is hard to find, yet has attracted a bit of a cult following, its value is phenomenal — Amazon's current price of $498.50 being the cheapest I've seen it, and that's for an ex-library copy (which usually devalues a book considerably.) Being a book collector and a horse lover, I would love to own a copy — but being a writer, I needed to find a cheaper (read: free) way of reading it, which is why I settled for checking it out for the library.

I don't really expect that anyone is going to buy a five hundred dollar book, but I'll include the Amazon link anyway, in case anyone wants to look into the book a little more.

Basically, A Girl and Five Brave Horses is the autobiography or memoir of Sonora Webster Carver, one of the most famous (if not the most famous) of the horse diving girls in the 1920s, 1930s, and into the 1940s. Sonora wasn't any ordinary diving girl, though: She was blinded in 1931 after she hit the water with her eyes open, yet she continued diving for 11 more years afterward.

As is typical for Hollywood and Disney, the story as it is told in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken is very romanticized. Sonora wasn't a runaway; her mother actually suggested she join the diving act in 1923, when she was 19. She and Al didn't have some kind of whirlwind romance; they had been working alongside one another for six years before they married, and even then he had to talk her into it.

One thing the movie did manage to do justice to was Sonora's bravery and spirit. She really was that determined to continue diving after she was blinded. She never wanted to be treated any differently, and as a result, she dove blind for five years before a reporter finally found out.

Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken is a wonderful movie, a (somewhat) true-life Disney fairy tale. However, for anyone who is truly interested in Sonora Carver or her experiences diving horses, I suggest getting your hands on A Girl and Five Brave Horses any way you can.

Other Resources:

* Yahoo diving horses group, an effort to get A Girl and Five Brave Horses republished

* Sonora Webster Carver on Wikipedia

* The Diving Horses of Atlantic City, by Susan MacDonald: descriptions, eye-witness quotes, and pictures

* Article by Mike Cox about Doc Carver (Sonora's father-in-law), the diving horse show, and Sonora

* YouTube video "Last Days of the Steel Pier" — the video of the diving horse, and the two pictures that follow it, are of Red Lips, Sonora's favorite horse; the color picture is of Sonora, and I'm assuming it's her riding Red Lips in both the video and the photograph that follows

* Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of interviews with Allen "Boo" Pergament, a historian and friend of Sonora's, about the Atlantic City Steel Pier

Green with Envy by Shira Boss

I heard about Green with Envy when NPR ran a story about Shira Boss back in November. I promptly placed a hold on the book at the library.

The book was a quick read, but very compelling. Boss's writing style is very readable, and she knows how to create just enough interest in tension to keep you reading.

In fact, I would say that she uses the very same aspect of human behavior that she is warning against — a morbid interest in other people's finances — in order to hook her readers.

Regardless of why you want to keep reading, the simple fact is that this book is hard to put down. My husband read it after me, and finished it in about 24 hours — not a frequent occurence for him.

Green with Envy is one of those books that makes you think about your spending habits and your debt. Most of us are not as bad off as the people Boss features in this book, but it reminds us how easy it could be to become them. Running up credit card debt is actually a pretty painless process — it's after you've run up more than you can handle that the pain begins to hit.

I always like reading books (or watching documentaries) about the evils of overspending, as it usually encourages me to be more careful with my finances for a while. (Not that I'm all that bad about it — I don't buy much for myself, actually, but I still need to focus more on paying down my debt.) Unfortunately, the effects of Green with Envy were destined not to stick with me for very long, because I read it just before Christmas — when Christmas shopping was in full swing.

Still, it did galvanize me into creating a game plan for paying off my credit card debt, and following that will be one of my New Year's Resolutions this year.

Principled Profit by Shel Horowitz

I heard about Shel Horowitz's Principled Profit when I attended his workshop during the Muse Online Writers Conference. Unfortunately, I read this book a little over a month ago, and I'm finding it difficult to recall my impressions.

One thing I do remember is how it galvanized me on the idea of honest marketing. All of us know the annoyance of marketers who just won't go away — whether phone and door-to-door solicitors who won't take no for an answer, or stores with a "used car salesman" approach that makes you forget all about your purchase in favor of running far, far away.

Horowitz takes a totally different approach toward marketing. One thing he talks about is targeting only those folks who are most likely to make a purchase, rather than hitting completely uninterested consumers over the head with your product or services. It benefits both you and them: It saves you time and money, since you're not wasting it on people who simply aren't interested, and it saves the uninterested people the hassle and annoyance of fending off poorly planned marketing attempts.

Principled Profit also talks about things such as collaborating with colleagues and with other businesses in your area, but I'll talk about that more on my Reading For Writers blog.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is another book that I checked out of the library in honor of Banned Books Week about a month ago. Thankfully, I have enjoyed this one much more than the last one I read, Beloved.

Although In Cold Blood is a highly researched account of a real murder and trial, it is told in story form. Capote gets you into the killers' heads, which is quite a feat in and of itself. He also weaves real sources into his telling of the story: letters, statements, and other documents. Although he does not say specifically who he interviewed, he also makes a reference in the beginning of the book to certain interviewees, without whom the book could not have been written (or at least, not so completely).

I seem to remember classmates reading this book, possibly even in high school, but somehow I never read it until now. Being a literature major, I'm actually quite shocked that I never did. I have to say that I think this is one of the masterpieces of modern literature, and well worth the time it takes to read it.

Practically Perfect in Every Way by Jennifer Niesslein

If you are amused and mildly disgusted by the self-help genre, Jennifer Niesslein's Practically Perfect in Every Way is the perfect book for you.

In Practically Perfect, Niesslein decides that something is missing from her life, and that self-help may hold the key to happiness. To make things more interesting, she decides to write a book chronicling her experiences. The result: lots of sarcastic humor, but also a good, quiet look at why self-help is overrated.

The book focuses mostly on self-help in the areas of the household, relationships, and parenting. (If you think Feng Shui is kind of silly, like I do, you'll especially like the commentary in the first chapter.) As you near the end of the book, Niesslein obviously starts losing steam. She is not as gung-ho in her experiments, but at the same time you start getting more down-to-earth, insightful observations about self-help.

The very last chapter of Practically Perfect is my kind of chapter: Niesslein deals with the issue of The Soul. In doing so, she delves into the world of religion, but she also talks a lot about why she isn't particularly religious — something I can totally understand. It is fitting that this is the last chapter, because by this point Niesslein has decided that taking every one else's advice is a really bad idea.

To conclude, I would like to post a quote from Niesslein's chapter on The Soul, one that pretty much exemplifies her humor and the way she came to view self-help:

Are my morals proof of the existence of God? If anything, they seem to me to be proof of the existence of my mother.

Truer words have never been spoken.

God's Brothel by Andrea Moore-Emmett

I am currently reading God's Brothel by Andrea Moore-Emmett. I actually ran across this book while I was at the library doing research for a gay parenting article -- this book was on the shelf right above where I was looking, and it happened to catch my eye. My preliminary thought was that it looked interesting, and so I checked it out along with the others.

I started reading God's Brothel last night after finishing Unassisted Childbirth, and I am very glad I checked it out. It is definitely very interesting, not to mention rather disturbing.

God's Brothel is about the polygamist culture of Mormon and Christian fundamentalists. The book starts out with a chapter on the problems of polygamy, from legal issues to the domestic abuse (both physical and sexual) this fundamentalist culture is breeding. After that, the book tells the stories of 18 women who experienced it firsthand -- and managed to escape.

Their stories are horrendous; it's hard to believe that these things go on in our country. I'm only slightly joking when I say that incest jokes should be about Mormon fundamentalists and not Southerners. This book is chalk-full of stories of girls who were beaten, molested, and raped by their male relatives -- and in these communites, practically everyone is a relative. Girls in their mid-teens are forced to marry older stepfathers, uncles, and cousins.

Girls in these fundamentalist Mormon groups are taken out of school by the time they hit puberty, if they ever even go to school at all. As part of their preparation for motherhood, which starts in early adolescence, they are told it is their duty to bear a child a year -- in fact, that their body is intended by God to be worn out through childbirth. It is their only purpose in life.

What is really horrifying is that many of the women attest to the fact that this is the rule, and not the exception. Furthermore, most of them ran into problems getting the legal system to do anything. Even though there are laws about polygamy, most of the time these cults are ignored and allowed to continue mistreating their women and children. It's horrifying.

On the bright side, God's Brothel has inspired me to research and write about the topic myself.

September 9, 2007 -- Update:

This evening I spotted a related article on the New York Times website, about the trial of a polygamist matchmaker named Warren S. Jeffs. Jeffs is on trial for forcing underage girls to enter into polygamist marriages with older men. Although the article goes nowhere near the depth of the issues Andrea Moore-Emmett discusses in her book, it is still an interesting current event, particularly if you have read (or are reading) God's Brothel.

Unassisted Childbirth by Laura Shanley

Recently I ran across an article -- I think it was on WashingtonPost.com -- about "do-it-yourself childbirth." Laura Shanley and her website, Bornfree, were mentioned in the article. As it turns out, Shanley is also the author of a book on the subject, Unassisted Childbirth.

I was immediately interested. As a diabetic woman who is interested in having children someday soon, I have recently become concerned with current medical practices concerning childbirth. Since my women's studies classes in college, I have been interested in natural childbirth, only to find more recently that my diabetes is going to make it hard (if not nearly impossible) to have the type of childbirth I want.

For instance, I don't want an IV, but diabetic mothers are apparently almost always given an insulin/glucose drip -- whether or not they need it. Also, I find the incidence of C-section very alarming -- more than a quarter of babies born in the U.S. are now born by C-section. Unfortunately, as a diabetic woman that apparently makes it even more likely that a doctor will want to perform a C-section on me.

About the time I saw the article on unassisted childbirth (or UC, as it is often referred to), I had recently been told by a midwifery clinic that midwifes were legally prohibited from attending to a diabetic mother at home. While I don't know yet if that is true, I am interested in finding more out about unassisted childbirth as an alternative to having my babies in the hospital.

Being interested in finding out more, I decided to read Laura Shanley's book, Unassisted Childbirth. I found the book highly interesting and extremely readable. Especially informative was the information on how medical intervention can actually endanger the mother and child. In fact, unassisted childbirth is actually just as safe if not safer than hospital birth, because all of the things that doctors and nurses do can actually cause complications. There's so much information that I can't even begin to list it here -- if you are interested in finding out more, I definitely recommend this book!

In addition, the book includes several people's stories of UC. It is also really encouraging to read about people's experiences with it.

All in all, I find the notion of unassisted childbirth intriguing. While I haven't decided yet whether I will go that route, it has definitely impacted what I want out of my childbirth experiences. When it comes time to make a decision, if I do decide to go with a hospital birth it will be armed with information and a fully-constructed birthing plan that will essentially tell the doctors, "I MAKE THE DECISIONS HERE, NOT YOU."

This book has helped to give me the knowledge and the determination to be in charge of my own childbirth. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out more about natural childbirth (whether unassisted or not) and the dangers of medical intervention!

Stay tuned for other books on this subject. I have a whole stack of books to read!

The Milk Memos by Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette

I am currently reading The Milk Memos, by Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette. This book was a total impulse buy: Last week, when Michael and I were at Tattered Cover (a local, independent Barnes and Noble-style bookstore that offers free WiFi), I spotted it on the shelf right next to where we were sitting.

How can you resist a book with the title "The Milk Memos," especially when it has wide baby's eyes and an almost-bald baby's head on the cover? I picked it up and started looking at it, and I very quickly became intrigued.

The Milk Memos is part memoir, part how-to for working moms. Basically, the authors were both working at IBM shortly after giving birth, so they were both using the lactation room -- the room the company provided them in order to pump at work. Along with other nursing/working moms, they started keeping a little notebook, where they would all leave messages to each other while they were pumping.

The Milk Memos includes some of those exchanges, divided into specific topics and accompanied by related commentary and how-to information. The focus of the book is helping working moms continue to breastfeed; despite the dramatic health benefits enjoyed by breastfed babies, the task of pumping throughout the day intimidates many new mothers into switching to forumla.

The biggest reason why I bought the book was that it has a chapter for work-at-home moms. Since I am a writer who works from home, I thought the book might have some good tips for when Michael and I have a baby. I know that many of my fellow writers are also work-at-home moms, so once I finish the book I also plan to review it on one of my other blogs, Reading For Writers.

The Man Who Listens to Horses by Monty Roberts

My current goal is to learn as much as possible about horse training methods and theories -- in about a month, we are moving my horse from the inlaws' place in the country in order to have him nearby. I am very excited, as it has been difficult not to be able to see Panama very often this past year. I want to start working with him, as he has had little to no training, but I need to find out how to start.< The Man Who Listens to Horses is, as it turns out, a great place to start. I've known that I don't want to use any harsh training methods, and Monty Roberts is living proof that I don't have to. His book is very detailed in describing the body language of horses, which he calls "Equus," and how he uses it in order to train them.

Of course, since the book is also told in the style of a memoir, there are plenty to hold one's attention, too. The stories of his childhood, his abusive father, and his early encounters with horses are fascinating. In fact, I stayed up past my bedtime last night because I was so engrossed in the book. :o)

If you are a horse person and have not yet read this book, I highly recommend it. The insights Monty offers are quite valuable for someone who wants to train their horses in a way that fosters a respectful relationship for both parties. And even if you think "gentling" horses instead of breaking them is hokey, you may still find Monty's personal experiences intriguing.

Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs

I am currently reading Magical Thinking, a collection of essays by Augusten Burroughs. The essays are about various events in his life, but what is most noteworthy is the sense of humor with which he approaches everything. Burroughs is sarcastic and laugh-out-loud funny -- and believe me, it's not often that a book gets me to laugh out loud.

The biggest surprise for me was the discovery, several essays into the book, that Burroughs is gay. He lets the reader know gently, by first talking about how one of his childhood heroes was a transsexual. I totally didn't pick up on the cues at all, so when he started talking about how he had considered getting a sex-change operation, I was shocked.

All in all, the experience was kind of humbling. I write regularly for a GLBT parenting site, so sometimes I start thinking like I've got "them" all figured out. Clearly, that assumption -- including the reference to GLBT people as "them," an other -- stems from some sort of prejudice that I have been socialized with and unknowingly retained. I don't think of myself as prejudiced at all, but this just goes to show that getting rid of socialized prejudice is easier said than done.

But back to the book. My surprise at finding out the author is gay hasn't changed my enjoyment of the book any. In fact, I have to point out that another one of the funniest books I've ever read -- The Kid, by Dan Savage -- was also by a gay writer. I love a sarcastic sense of humor, and both of these guys have got it in spades.

Publish & Prosper by Byron and Broback

Thanks to a tremendously busy work schedule, I've gotten a little behind on blogging about my "Livre du Jour," so I'm going to fill you in on what I'm reading right now and go back and fill in the holes as I have a chance.

My current read is Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Business. Considering where I am posting this blurb, I think a lot of my readers should find this book interesting! We all hear that you can make money from a blog, either by using it to market or sell ad space, but so many of us never actually achieve what we'd like with our blogs. In this handy little book, DL Byron and Steve Broback explain exactly how to make your blog work for you.

Even though I've been blogging for about a year and a half, have had my own website for more than two years, and write web copy all the time, I'm learning a lot from Publish & Prosper. Sometimes the book fills me in on why something that I already do works so well. Other times it explains concepts that I've found a little challenging (and does a very good job of simplifying and speaking to the lay person, I should add!). The book also discusses things like the different types of blogs, blog systems, and features available. What a terrific resource for any dedicated blogger!

Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster

I decided I needed a brief break from my steady diet recently of nonfiction and classics, so I'm now reading Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster. Although it's nonfiction, this memoir is told in light prose. It's a quick read and pretty darn funny.

The author is basically this stuck-up princess who loses her unbelieveable income during the post-9/11 layoffs. Although you can't help but laugh at the things she says about her co-workers, friends, neighbors, other dog owners, and her wedding, she's also the type of girl you'd love to hate: absolutely full of herself.

What I think is so funny about the book is that even though the reader knows Jen is a spoiled-brat-bordering-on-bitch, she's also saying things to the idiots all around her that most of us only dream of saying. There's something very satisfying about reading some of the things she says, and it's one of the few books I've read that makes me laugh out loud -- frequently.

If you need something really fun to read, look no further than Jen Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black!

Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer by Jenna Glatzer

As a freelance writer myself, I'm always looking for books to give me ideas or help me hone by craft. I don't put much stock in the idea that I can become a better writer (or a "real" writer) by reading lots of books about it - in my opinion, that just takes more time away from writing - but there are definitely books out there that contain valuable information. The one I'm reading right now, Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer by Jenna Glatzer, seems to have a lot more (and better!) information than most.

What I like about Glatzer's book is that it contains a lot of "insider's secrets" - tips and tricks that you usually don't learn until you're well entrenched in the business already. However, many of these tips - like what types of stories to pitch to editors when you're first starting out, and how to pitch - would be extremely helpful for beginning writers.

When I'm finished reading the book, I'll give it a more detailed review on my Reading For Writers blog.

How to Be Your Own Literary Agent by Richard Curtis

As a freelance writer and a novelist hopeful, I am of course interested in the process of getting a book published. And as a compulsive do-it-yourselfer, I want to be able to handle the process myself - or at the very least understand it!
How to Be Your Own Literary Agent is almost a necessity for anyone who wants to publish a book - whether or not you intend to get an agent. The book basically explains an agent's job - everything from how they decide whether to represent a book, to how they negotiate a contract.

For authors who want to get published without using an agent, this book is a basic how-to guide. For authors who do prefer an agent, the book will ensure that you understand the process well enough to keep tabs on your agent - and make sure he or she is truly working in your best interests! Regardless of which camp you fall into, the information contained in this book will enable you to keep from getting screwed, by either the publisher or your own agent.

Definitely a good book for any aspiring author to own!

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

The last time I read Walden was about almost five years ago, in an American Literature class in college. I'm reviewing it now for a lit site that I am contributing to, and I decided that I should probably reread it in order to write the best review.

I had forgotten how dry Thoreau's writing could be, and how little he thought of society. He spends a great deal of time criticizing people for placing so much importance on clothes, fancy houses, and many other living expenses that he deems unnecessary. In fact, Walden is entirely based on Thoreau's premise that one doesn't have to have lots of clothes, or a big house, or indeed even spend the majority of his life working. Walden is more than just a book about living closer than nature - it's about a return to a simpler style of living.