Search - These is My Words

Adventurous, heat-warming and well-told, this is a story of a pioneer woman's memoirs on the Arizona frontier turned into a dramatic fiction novel. Sarah has sprirt, courage, strength and wits beyond her years that enables her to survive, live and love. Touching love story, too - brought tears to my eyes more than once! One of the best reads for me this year!

This is a fictionalized version of the author's family memoirs as early settlers in the Territory of New Mexico, which includes present-day Arizona. It focuses mainly on the woman, Sarah Prine, who over the course of a difficult lifetime grew from a nearly illiterate young wife to a courageous, self-educated, and wise leader of her family and community. I found the early parts of the book, in which the author too faithfully reproduces Sarah's rough grammar and ill-chosen vocabulary - this is one of the disadvantages of writing in the first person in this kind of memoir. But that problem does lessen over time, as Sarah's writing begins to reflect her intellectual growth. I read this for my book club and most of the members found it fascinating and well worth reading.

The dedication says it all, "For everyone who has ever stood alone on a hill in a storm." Great reading

I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down!

I really liked this book! Turner did an excellent job showing the reader how the main character, Sarah, matures through the growing literacy of her journals. So although this first person narrative does limit the reader's perspective, I believe it to be a necessary tool to make the concept of this book work.

This is one of the best books I've read in this genre. I've recommended it & it's sequel to several people, who in turn loved it!