Synopses & Reviews
The road I've taken these five years has been a long and twisted one, writes Pam Houston in the first piece of this stirring collection. That journey takes the acclaimed author of Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat across five continents, through forty whitewater rivers, over three thousand miles of backcountry hiking trails, on more than four hundred planes. But whatever her destination -- the Alaskan outback or the mountains of Bhutan -- these are the starting points for her personal emotional journey.
Through her stories we meet some good dogs, a few good men, and the occasional grizzly. Ultimately, Houston's adventures -- and her clear-eyed reflections upon them -- prove what she has always suspected: fiction has nothing on real life.
Review
"With all the drama and irony of fiction and the intimacy and truth of a story told to a friend, this book will break your heart and then make it stronger." Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Review
"Houston follows her heart and her gut to adventures that most of us only fantasize about, and we, lucky readers, get to share her thrills without leaving the safety of our seats." Mademoiselle
Review
"She's Indiana Jones meets Bridget Jones." Chicago Tribune
Review
"Houston has captured the essence of truly living and loving life in her latest work....Whether she writes about Tibet, Bolivia, or Pennsylvania's Poconos, Houston's essays share a common quest for artistic, spiritual, and emotional satisfaction." Library Journal
Review
"There are twenty-four essays in this collection; twenty-four opportunities to get to know Pam Houston better. And she does seem like someone you'd want to know....Her transcriptions of the midnight conversations of old fishing buddies are tender and beautifully done. Her careful presentation of a Bhutanese hiking guide is delivered with love and a total absence of ego." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Houston is at her best writing about the wilderness and the people who want, maybe need, to libe in it. Sometimes she reads like a true daughter of Ernest Hemingway." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Review
"Houston is a worthy heir to Diane Ackerman, another outdoorswoman of literature." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Houston has captured the essence of truly living and loving life." Library Journal
Synopsis
The road I've taken these five years has been a long and twisted one, writes Pam Houston in the first piece of this stirring collection. That journey takes the acclaimed author of
Cowboys Are My Weakness and
Waltzing the Cat across five continents, through forty whitewater rivers, over three thousand miles of backcountry hiking trails, on more than four hundred planes. But whatever her destination -- the Alaskan outback or the mountains of Bhutan -- these are the starting points for her personal emotional journey.
Through her stories we meet some good dogs, a few good men, and the occasional grizzly. Ultimately, Houston's adventures -- and her clear-eyed reflections upon them -- prove what she has always suspected: fiction has nothing on real life.
About the Author
Pam Houston is the author of two works of fiction,
Cowboys Are My Weakness ( the 1993 winner of the Western States Book Award) and
Waltzing the Cat. Her stories have been selected for
Best American Short Stories (1990, 1999),
Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1999), and
The Best American Short Stories of the Century (1999), as well as a Pushcart Prize. Houston is the editor of the anthology
Women on Hunting, and has written the text for a book of photoghraphs called
Men before 10 A.M.. She has been a contributing editor to
Elle and
Ski, writes regularly for
Condé Nast Sports for Women, aand has been a guest on CBS-TV
Sunday Morning with "Postcards from Colorado"
She lives at an altitude of 9,000 feet in southwestern Colorado.