Rating: 
Summary: And Then You Wake Up and Have Breakfast
Review: "Waltzing the Cat" is a good book, although it is not the best that Pam Houston has to offer. The traditional Pam Houston elements are present in this novel, however I agree with the reviewer who said it was "disjointed." It felt to me as if each chapter was screaming out to be a short story. There was very little flow through the novel to tie it up into a neat little literary package. I am a fan of this author through and through, don't get me wrong. I enjoy her writing tremendously, admire the way she spins a story, and the highly autobiographical nature of her work appeals to me a great deal. I am not maligning this book; merely saying it didn't meet my expectations, although they were probably set impossibly high. The title of this review is the title of the chapter that spoke to me in the clearest voice. If you do nothing more than pick up "Waltzing the Cat" and read that chapter, your life will be enriched.
Rating: 
Summary: I felt grateful to spend my time with a heroin like Lucy.
Review: As you read about love and loss in the eyes of an accomplished photographer, you come to realize that your own life contains the same triumph and failure. I feel honored to have shared my time with such a remarkable heroin. A book containing poignant stories that are better each time you open the book; I read it over and over again so that I might take for myself some of the hope and power found in its pages. Lucy says, "...this happiness thing is like another girl's clothes." I agree completely. But, I loved trying on Lucy's clothes for a time.
Rating: 
Summary: It's getting very old
Review: Even the reviewers (such as the girls from Colorado) seem to think that there is something cute about picking creepy, non-committal men. "Cowboys" was fun, but can't Houston grow up and move along to something else already? When she writes about her adventures and her life-threatening situations, it comes across as bragging. Her insecurity is so obvious, it's painful. I feel sorry for her.
Rating:
Summary: Another book about me....
Review: Greta:When I first read Cowboys Are My Weakness...I felt someone had taken my life, my experiences and my thoughts and put them on paper as their own. Waltzing the Cat gave me the same deja vu...I'm very happy when readers who don't share the same life experiences as Pam Houston, relate to her works, but for those of us women who have lived in remote areas of the world, dated the conquerors of mountains and rivers, as well as environmental zealots, and found ourselves continuously attracted to the kind of man that can only be with himself (i.e. Will Gatlin in Edward Abbey's Black Sun), she gives us comfort in our familiarity of the pain she has endured. My best girlfriends kayak wild rivers, ski the steepest chutes, ascend the world's highest peaks and choose a lifestyle that reinforces their strength and independence. Houston is our written representation that while we are incredible women in a male-dominated region (region defined many ways)...we still become giggling girls on the sidewalk when the resident adventure god of the moment walks by, winks at us, get's into his pickup with his lab named Teton...and goes home to his Yurt in the hills (but not with one of us...wah!) Thank you Pam for being our voice....now one of my girlfriends is heading off to cook for a hunting camp, for the next month...but she somtimes she would rather have a date. Men in CO,ID,WY,AK,MT...where the odds are good, but the goods are odd.
Rating: 
Summary: If you're Looking to buy, start with Cowboys...
Review: Houston is an amazing writer of stories. Her personal experience is vast. Cowboys are My Weakness is superb however, this second book has disappointed me. It is less compulsive and exciting, and doesn't pull me through to the next story. I HAD to read Cowboys twice, and nearly died waiting for this second book, which has let me down! If you like Houston... pick up Raymond Carver's short stories some time, they'll thrill you.
Rating:
Summary: Excuse me, but haven't we read these before?
Review: Houston is back, carping on about the same subjects--the river, the tranquility, the men who disappoint her. This time, though, it looks like she's put in some time on the couch--there's an eerie, Stuart Smalley feeling running through these stories--"We're smart enough, we're good enough, and gosh darn it, people like me!" Her observations, the sly humor, everything that made "Cowboys" the great read it is seem dull here, and I think it's because there is nothing new in any of this--it's merely more "Cowboys," and frankly, this reader has had enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive and Disjointed
Review: I enjoyed her first book, as it seems everyone else did, but it seems that Houston forgot that the Waltzing stories are supposed to be related to eachother--that it's not just a collection of short stories. In the first few tales, we hear that Lucy's happiest moment of childhood was when she was in the hospital, that her parents are extremely dysfunctional and alcoholic. But when you reach the "Waltzing the Cat" chapter, all of a sudden, Lucy says how close she and her mother are, there's no mention of alcohol, that she and her mother have grown closer over the years...huh? Did I miss something? The writing is repetitive, and Lucy seems to go nowhere. It's all well and good to write about one's struggle to overcome the abuses of childhood and toxic parents, but this is a book and I expect something to be happening, not a continuous whining droning on until the end. Nothing happens, Lucy doesn't grow or change or anything...dull dull book.
Rating:
Summary: self indulgent and vain
Review: I expected to like this book -- I liked Cowboys are My Weakness, for all its flaws -- but this is too much self-contemplation and too little real substance. Can this author not look outside herself?
Rating:
Summary: self indulgent and vain
Review: I expected to like this book -- I liked Cowboys are My Weakness, for all its flaws -- but this is too much self-contemplation and too little real substance. Can this author not look outside herself?
Rating:
Summary: An inferior follow-up to "Cowboys Are My Weakness"
Review: I had a hard time mustering up any sympathy for Lucy, the protagonist of this book. She seemed self-indulgent and egotistical. I got the feeling that this book falls into the new category called "creative non-fiction." Nothing wrong with that, but I just didn't like her. I felt as if I was in a bar with a really insecure, drunk person who was telling exaggerated versions of her adventures, and not listening to anybody else. Pick up "Cowboys" for some strong, well-crafted stories and heroines you can care about. Skip this weak sophomore.
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