Wyoming Summer unfolds as a love letter to the wild west. Originating from O'Hara's journals, it tells the story of her life on a Wyoming ranch. She loves her horses, her dude-ranch summer camp for teenage boys, and even a wayward bull who keeps getting loose and raising hell across the prairie. Her music, milking cows, and marriage to husband Michael help keep her grounded, for it isn't an easy life on the range. Setbacks come in the form of unpredictable weather, failing crops, and rejection letters and yet O'Hara finds perfection in all of it. ( )

The author of perennial favorite "My Friend Flicka" tells us of one summer at her Wyoming ranch.

While the author relates events during this particular summer, it is not formatted as a daily journal. Amongst the routine of ranch life she interjects passages of her thoughts and dreams, of memories from times past, of childhood illnesses and visits to foreign places. Through it all, we read of her passion for music, her drive to create compositions worthy of publication. And we meet and grow fond of those in her life: the boys who spend time at the ranch for riding camp, the indigent men who are willing to labor until their need for liquor is too strong to resist, her military husband who has a soft spot for nature's beauty, and the non-human characters who live, and sometimes die, in the wilds of the American West.

I really liked this book, but need to meditate upon it some more before I read anything else. ( )

A semi-autobiographical novel based on O'Hara's diary. I learned that long before writing novels, Mary O'Hara worked on screenplays for Hollywood, and composed music for the piano. Her descriptions of the Wyoming land and ranch life are pleasant, and the way she writes about music is simply wonderful. Wyoming Summer traces the path she took from composer of music to writer of beloved novels. This book is a real jewel.

Dog Ear Diary ( )