The Hearts of Horses | 
| Author: Molly Gloss
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $6.80
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Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 11346
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0618799907
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780618799909
ASIN: 0618799907
Publication Date: November 6, 2007
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Product Description
This breakout novel from the author of The Jump-Off Creek tells the heartwarming story of a determined young woman with a gift for "gentling" wild horses.
In the winter of 1917, a big-boned young woman shows up at George Bliss's doorstep. She's looking for a job breaking horses, and he hires her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses.
So begins the irresistible tale of nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer trying to make a go of it in a man's world. It was thought that the only way to break a horse was to buck the wild out of it, and broken ribs and tough falls just went with the job. But over several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk in this remote county of eastern Oregon witness Martha's way of talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair?and getting miraculous, almost immediate results?and she thereby earns a place of respect in the community.
Along the way, Martha helps a family save their horses when their wagon slides into a ravine. She gentles a horse for a dying man?a last gift to his young son. She clashes with a hired hand who is abusing horses in unspeakable ways. Soon, despite her best efforts to remain aloof and detached, she comes to feel enveloped by a sense of community and family that she's never had before.
With the elegant sweetness of Plainsong and a pitch-perfect sense of western life reminiscent of Annie Dillard, The Hearts of Horses is a remarkable story about how people and animals make connections and touch each other's lives in the most unexpected and profound ways.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 DID NOT WANT THE BOOK TO END September 22, 2008
I STIMBLED UPON THIS BOOK BY ACCIDENT. WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE.MOLLY GLOSS MAY NOT BE THE MOST POLISHED WRITER BUT SHE CAN TELL A HEARTWARMING STORY.WHEN I FINISHED THE BOOK THE CHARACTERS FELT LIKE OLD FRIENDSTHAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW EVEN BETTER.
Lovely and quiet September 17, 2008
This slowly unwinding, gentle story, carefully and lovingly told, is reminiscent of both Owen Wister's The Virginian and Laura Ingalls Wilder's These Happy Golden Years. It was a pleasure becoming acquainted with the various characters, their thoughts and hopes and dreams. It was a pleasure to witness the budding romance between Henry and Martha, how shy they both were, how tender and sweet. I loved the history of the place and time, and I appreciated the author's ability to draw me into the story one layer at a time. Books that I have read that were written during that era about that era are in that same style, so it was really nice to read a contemporary author who writes about that era in that era's gentle style.
This is a good book for a rainy day, get a piece of cake and a cup of coffee, go wrap yourself in an afghan and get cozy in your favorite armchair, and then savor this story s-l-o-w-l-y.
Take the ride September 8, 2008
If you added equal measures of John Steinbeck and Willa Cather, you would have something close to the tone of this affecting novel.It is the author's determined sense of understatement that lends this book its' power and authentic sense of Western history.I found myself thinking about its' characters for weeks after I turned the last page.
When Horses Ruled July 21, 2008
This is a truly lovely book about a place and time in the American West, eastern Oregon at the turn of the century and through WWI. Martha Lessen, a girl 'broncbuster', is a character that you enjoy spending time with and the stories that Gloss tells about horses and the people of that time are wonderful. This isn't necessarily the book for a horse crazy girl, but rather one that is thoughtful and considers deeply the role that horses have played in American life. It has a gentle flow and a very satisfying end that makes this an enjoyable read.
 Not about horses! June 17, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I bought this book thinking it would be about working with horses. What a boring, disappointing book. It had very little to do about horses or working with them.
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