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Some Horses by Thomas McGuane

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Friends: Arctic-Stranger, FionaCat, maggie1944, nymith

Interesting libraries: Arctic-Stranger, bfertig, Child_of_Light, closertobelieving, EarlyReviewers, FionaCat, GlennCooper, maggie1944, nymith, wilpotts

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Member: streamsong

Library895 books — see library

Reviews11 reviews — see reviews

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Tagsnonfiction (510), fiction (215), tbr (198), spirituality (170), horses (137), memoir (114), Christianity (101), women (82), mystery (68), self-help (61) — see all tags

Groups1001 Books to read before you die, 75 Books Challenge for 2008, A Pearl of Wisdom and Enlightenment, Animal Lovers, Atwoodians, Barnes & Noble First Look readers, Book Care and Repair, Book Liberation Project, BookMooching, Books in Books — show all groups

Favorite authorsKaren Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, Pearl S. Buck, Pema Chodron, Ivan Doig, Jasper Fforde, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jonathan Kellerman, C. S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Ann Rule, Mary Stewart, Amy Tan, J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian L. Weiss, Stephen White (Shared favorites)

About me I am a microbiologist (technician) in a research lab. I also raise Appaloosa horses, and, in the past, have had a small web based business of out-of-print and hard to find Appaloosa books. I worked as an out-of-print book searcher in college and still enjoy book scouting, unusual bindings and first editions. No web site at the current time, but hopefully I will get one rebuilt soon!

About my library Reading and horses! The two constant obsessions of my life. OK--my family (daughter in college, and grown son), cats and my black lab figure in there somewhere too.

In the last few years, I've been on a quest to understand myself spiritually and emotionally--to find out who I've become and get a glimmer of where I might be heading. Consequently, I've been reading a wide variety of spirtually based books from a wide variety of traditions along with a deeper study of my own beliefs of Christianity. I've also become interested in psychology (including the dreaded self-help) books.

I also enjoy great mysteries, women's biographies and memoirs along with history, especially local history. I'm also trying to 'beef up' my knowledge of classicaland world literature.

I love the tag clouds--both my own and looking at others and considering how they reflect the interests of their owners.

I always have at least half a dozen books that I'm reading and my to-be-read mountain requires bottled Oxygen to get to the top. I've decided to add my TBR mountain to my LT catalog to eliminate buying doubles of interesting books and to give a better idea of my current interests.

Currently reading (updated 7/17/2008)

Fiction:
Kow Kuntry Kid by Army Armstrong

Nonfiction:
The College Trap by Gordon Wadsworth
John (People's Bible Commentary) by Gary P Baumler
The Zen of Eating by Ronna Kabatznick
Up From Conservatism by Michael Lind (Pro-Con Group read)
Spiritual Divorce by Debbie Ford

Audiobook
Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith
The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan (this one is on hold as the last tape has gone mysteriously into hiding)
Teaching Company: William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories and Tragedies Peter Saccio

Recently completed:
7/17/2008 Horse Heaven by Jane Smiley (girlybooks Orange July)
7/13/2008 Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (barnesandnoble.com Literature by women group read)
7/7/2008Conversations With the Spirit World by Lysa Moskowitz-Mateau
7/4/2008 audiobook: Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
6/30/2008 Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami
6/27/2008 The Journals of Susanna Moodie by Margaret Atwood

My 75 book challenge for 2008: http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph...

Also onBookMooch, PaperBackSwap

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Emailstreamsongcybernet1.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/streamsong (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/streamsong (library)

Member sinceSep 6, 2006

Comments from other LibraryThing-ers

(Leave a comment.)

Hi: I will send off the book to you on Friday. Enjoy!

posted by Nitestar at 8:32 am (EST) on Jul 16, 2008

Hi: I am not sure if you are still looking for Aberrations. Let me know if you are. I have finished with my copy and can send it along to you. Thanks. TINA

posted by Nitestar at 3:50 pm (EST) on Jul 12, 2008

Have you gotten a copy of aberrations yet? If not, I got an offer to review it but turned it down. I'd be happy to forward you the email, or alternately send your email to the person who was requesting I review it.

posted by trishbrowning at 1:51 pm (EST) on Jul 3, 2008

Unfortunately theology has been dominated by men for a long, long time. Women are getting into the game, and doing quite well. Katherine Lacugna, for instance, wrote a phemonomal book on the Trinity. (She died of cancer about four years ago) and Ellen Charry writes better than good theology.

Most of my theology books are boxed up, and not on here, but in fact I would have to say that more than 95 percent were written by men. That is changing though.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 8:03 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2008

Thanks for visiting. I knew nothing about narcolepsy before reading it so I found it quite enlightening :) Hope you like it/agree!

posted by Kegsoccer at 4:27 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2008

Hi, thanks for visiting my library. At your recommendation I did join Girlybooks and have ordered a used copy of Maddock's Hildegarde, because for a long time I've wanted to learn more about her. Maybe I'll even find time to pop in on the discussions! This summer already seems to be exceptionally full.

posted by KatsBooks at 10:56 pm (EST) on Jul 1, 2008

Hi, I see you already have an offer for the book. However, I'm giving away a copy of "Aberrations" by Penelope Przekop on my blog if you would like to enter? See here.

posted by Kegsoccer at 3:07 pm (EST) on Jul 1, 2008

Hi. If you can wait a few weeks, I will be getting a copy of this book (I was asked to review it for an online book site) but I have not gotten it yet. Once I have read it and reviewed it, I will be happy to pass it along to you - so let me know if you can't get your hands on a copy.

Thanks. TINA

posted by Nitestar at 2:00 pm (EST) on Jul 1, 2008

Hi, just wanted to say hello, noticing you read Barn at the end of the world and Cimmaron, two of my favorites that I don't see mentionned much. Kathy

posted by kateblu at 7:58 am (EST) on Jun 6, 2008

Hi - thanks for the invite! I will certainly take a look see - though I admit to being more of a doer than a talker, with regard to my passion for horses.

I have made my living as an author since 1980, and getting away from the computer after a day, writing, is the best! I've worked with horses for more years than that...

Sometimes the two interests mix - if you are a Green Dragon person, check out the group read they did of To Ride Hell's Chasm.

I appreciate your taking the time to message me - and I think an LT group of horse loving people is a wonderful thing.

posted by JannyWurts at 11:35 am (EST) on May 23, 2008

Better late than never! I just started Marcel Proust's a la Recherche du temps perdu, wondering how I let this go unnoticed for so long.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 12:30 am (EST) on May 12, 2008

I Love George Steiner, and have read Real Presence. I highly recommend it. Steiner can be rough going at times, not because his writing is hard, but because he struggles with Big Ideas, and does it well. His are books I really need to read a couple of times to really digest his thinking.

He has an excellent book on the differences Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky as well.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 1:47 pm (EST) on May 9, 2008

No worries, that means I'd forgotten I was supposed to get it, which made it quite a pleasant surprise when the mail came!

posted by DevourerOfBooks at 3:41 pm (EST) on Apr 18, 2008

I got Firefly Lane today, thanks!

posted by DevourerOfBooks at 11:51 am (EST) on Apr 17, 2008

My sympathies on the unexpected loss of your kitty. Hope you are doing ok.

posted by fannyprice at 7:37 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2008

You are welcome. I really enjoy the picture on your profile page, too. Don't you just love LT. I spend entirely too much time here every day.

I am looking forward to the Pac NW get together in August. Hope you can make it.

posted by maggie1944 at 9:46 am (EST) on Apr 10, 2008

Yes, these last few months have been very difficult for me, but I kept extensive notes during that time, and on looking back, I realise that I really learned a lot about myself from the experience. I don't regret what happened in that time, since I gained so much more than I lost. But it has made my life substantially more difficult than it was.

I've checked out the Early Reviewers, but it doesn't really seem to be my cup of tea.

Otherwise, I've been reading Chekhov and I'm going to read War and Peace for my vacation. I'll be spending April with relatives. I'm looking forward to the challenge of it.

posted by nymith at 11:34 am (EST) on Mar 23, 2008

Hello Streamsong. It's been a long time since I was last active on LibraryThing, and I just decided to let you know I'm back.

My abscence was due to some trouble within the family, which still hasn't been sorted out, but I've decided to start socializing here again.

And as soon as I have something to say on the subject of horse books, I'll show up in the horse discussions.

posted by nymith at 9:25 am (EST) on Mar 19, 2008

Hi Streamsong, thanks for the welcome. Horse books were "it" ! for me when a young reader. It is nice now, in retirement, to feel ready to revisit the genre. I enjoy the Horses group.

posted by maggie1944 at 10:50 am (EST) on Mar 14, 2008

Elsewhere you mentioned looking at what we share. . . Doig for you and me: AND since you are interested in horses look for his "Dancing at the Rascal Fair." I took the liberty of teasing him because it begins and ends with horse-mishaps. (It is one of his best. . . led to several others with same characters.) Esta

posted by Esta1923 at 10:38 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2008

I just read the after-life thread at the group. Thanks. :)

Yes, I've added almost all my books, now; once I got going I couldn't stop. Now I am disappointed that the job is complete. Only solution is to buy more books in order to add them. Aha. :)

posted by GlennCooper at 2:55 am (EST) on Jan 16, 2008

Interested to see that you have the Botkin "Induced After Death Communication" book on your list. We are the only two, so far. Quite fascinating, wasn't it? Particularly the "shared" experiences, when two people "saw" the same thing. Hard to explain that one ...

Anyway, just thought I'd touch base.

- Glenn

posted by GlennCooper at 4:13 am (EST) on Dec 8, 2007

Hi there -- looking at your profile page, a book you might find interesting is Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd (nonfiction). It's a really interesting memoir about her own spiritual quest via Christianity.

posted by teelgee at 3:31 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2007

Hello back! I'm here in Bozeman and it's currently -6, but that's up 3 degrees! I'm running around in fleece, socks with my slippers, quite the fashion statement. Perfect day to chat on LT and read. I will be venturing out later in the day for Thanksgiving dinner at friends.

How long have you lived in Hamilton? I've only been in Bozeman for a year and half, but I love it here so much.

Hope you are staying warm as well and Happy Thanksgiving.

posted by KimberlyL at 12:29 pm (EST) on Nov 22, 2007

Sorry not to have gotten back to you earlier. Herb and I just got our apps (a mare, her '06 and '07 stud colts, and a boarder that's out of our first stallion and a pony) moved out next to our house and we're still hustling to get the new facility set for winter. We've been focused on breeding foundation appaloosas for the last five years or so, but now our goal is to drop back to two good riding horses. It looks like you have some neat books; I look forward to digging into your tags which is an aspect of LT that I also find really nifty. Thanks for the note, Chris

posted by wilpotts at 7:31 am (EST) on Nov 16, 2007

In terms of contemplative spirituality, I would initially recommend Seeking God by Esther de Waal. It's about living in the real world with balance, using Benedictine spirituality as a guideline. Margaret Guenther and Joan Chittister are also fairly well-grounded. Thomas Kelly's book is also very good, but less focused on practical suggestions. The things I have kept in my library are books that I have read more than once so I can heartily vouch for everything there.

I was interested in the Zen and Buddhist thinking some years ago, but have gravitated increasingly to the Benedictine mode of thinking and praying.

Does that help? If not, ask me about a specific title and I can perhaps be a little more concrete in my recommendations.

posted by jillmwo at 7:29 pm (EST) on Nov 12, 2007

I'm curious, streamsong. What have you been reading recently in the field of spirituality that you have found interesting or useful? There isn't as much overlap in our libraries as I might have thought there would be and I'd like to know what titles you have found to be most beneficial.

Jill

posted by jillmwo at 12:02 pm (EST) on Nov 11, 2007

Well, feel free to look through my books, but you HAVE to tell me what you really liked. I can make recommendations if you are interested.

posted by Arctic-Stranger at 2:43 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2007

Thanks for posting a comment. I fear I strayed pretty far from the original subject, though there was plenty of stray subject matter to address :>) It always is an amazing thing to me when I see how riled up people become about religion and religious matters. I think perhaps this is why I like the Tao so much, it is really very simple.
I, like anyone, am always happy to hear when someone agrees with me. I also struggle with the thought that there are many who don't but I have learned that when it comes to politics and religion..........most often those of us who disagree must agree to do so !

It is good none the less to hear from someone who shares the same feelings :>)

posted by faceinbook at 6:29 pm (EST) on Oct 19, 2007

Thanks for your comment! I also liked Kingsolver's point that something is better than nothing, and you don't have to change your entire lifestyle in order to have an impact. I am missing my blog, actually, so I need to make some time soon and get back to it, but I am still settling into the routine. My little one went to Kindergarten this year, and having two in school is a big adjustment. One of these days I will get back to it, though. Thanks for the encouragement.

I like the idea of doing at least one vegan meal per week, too. That doesn't sound nearly as difficult as making a full-time switch, but it is still healthy and gives you a chance to find some great recipes.

posted by sussabmax at 12:29 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2007

I've always loved anything to do with cats and fairies so I fell in love with kitty-fairey too :-) The artist is Elaina Wagner and she is really quite fantastic. She has other kitty fairies too if you're interested. Her website is www.thumperfantasy.com. I had to laugh when I saw the cat/bunny thread come up in talk, it brought back a lot of funny memories and that was the first one.

posted by Jenson_AKA_DL at 7:26 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2007

It was a great experience. I loved it and it is the worst preparation for professional theater because in a city Like Chicago you don't necessarily get audiences but MSIP audiences turn out in droves because it is free and a tradition. One of my professors used to say she could always rely on her students being familiar with Shakespeare because of MSIP You still probably saw my fiance or actors I know- I think I've known some every season since I toured. My fiance did Winter's Tale, Midsummer, MacBeth, Julius Caesar, You Can't Take it With You, Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona and others that I am forgetting. Actually a theater here remounted last summer's production of She Stoops to Conquer with most of the same cast- it was funny it felt like and MSIP show to me so it was odd to see it in Chicago. Boy I miss the mountains.

posted by Marensr at 5:48 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2007

We did play Hamilton the season I toured which was the Love's Labours Lost and Learned Ladies Season so if you saw either of those you probably saw me. You almost certainly saw my fiance at some point - he did seven seasons with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. It is funny how often I have bumped into people who have seen those shows. I'm glad you are a fan and supporter it is a pretty unique program and I have fond memories of it. I have another librarything friend on here who is the current stage manager for MSIP.

posted by Marensr at 9:38 am (EST) on Jul 19, 2007

Thank you for the compliment about my writing skills. I plan to earn my living as a writer and perhaps someday I will write my auto-biography.

I am indeed keeping a journal, which provides a good reference when I need one.

posted by nymith at 11:04 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2007

In response to your question: it takes about an hour to drive to our nearest large town (where we do our shopping). But the nearest actual town is only two miles away. Its population is eighteen!

Our way of life is very challenging, but more than worthwhile. We use quite a bit of what is already on our land. We chop down a tree or two, put it on saw-horses, and de-bark it with hatchets. We mix clay with sand and straw, and use that to make our walls. We take windows from the abandoned house on our property and use them for ourselves.

And we have started to learn what plants are edible. For instance dandelion and milkweed. Just a few days ago we planted wild ginger in the forest, and everything in the garden seems to be doing well. Strawberries are flouishing, and we're getting plenty of rain. So far this year everything is going very well.

posted by nymith at 7:52 am (EST) on May 30, 2007

Yes it would be great to get the horse group off the ground. I am new to all of this so would welcome you starting something.

My business is indeed quite full this time of year so might be a couple of months before I could do much of anything.

Jim

posted by JimKubiak at 8:56 pm (EST) on May 21, 2007

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