Rating: 
Summary: Just know what you're getting into.
Review: For the right person with a prepared mind, this book might - possibly - kinda - sorta be fine. But not for me.
A friend recommended this book to me. I no longer take his recommendations. I don't know exactly what I expected; a story about redemption maybe? Instead I got something I definitely didn't expect; soft-core porn with unsympathetic characters.
Not a personal favorite and a friend has lost his book recommendation privileges over it.
Rating: 
Summary: Satisfying Modern Western
Review: Girl and horse, both with internal and external scars, get help from a cowboy horse-doctor with an unusual hayside manner. Cowboy and girl's mother fall in love and dally around, even though she's still married -- kind of a Bridges of Madison County on horseback. All this inevitably leads to tragedy, which is what a good moral-corral story is all about. And author Nicholas Evans makes it all worthwhile with unequaled foreshadowing that makes you want to turn the pages harder, and descriptions of western scenes that make you want to saddle up and ride the range. No wonder they made a movie of it, but this story doesn't have a Hollywood ending. Which is a good reason in itself to read this version, so you won't miss the big surprise; even in tragedy, there is renewed hope.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book I'll Never Forget. Just Lovely.
Review: Grace, a young teenager and Pilgrim, the horse she loves, are both badly hurt in a terrible accident with a truck on a snowy New England road and neither one can seem to find their way back to life as it was before. Annie, Grace's determined mother, knows Grace and Pilgrim are steadfastly united, that curing the crazed horse will cure Grace's broking spirit too. So, she seeks the aid of Tom Booker, a "horse whisperer," who knows his way into the hearts of animals and people as well.Grace, who lost both her friend and her leg in that accident, has vowed never to ride again. Annie is determined to get her back up on a horse, the horse, and she sends both Grace and Pilgrim to the Booker Ranch in Montana. So Grace not only has to learn how to walk again, but eventually to ride and eventually to ride Pilgrim. This alone would make for a heck of a story, the girl who overcomes her fear, the maddened and crazed horse being made whole again, the girl and horse reforming that bond they once shared. How can you ask for more in a book? But you get so much more in the HORSE WHISPERER, because the heart of the story is about Annie, Tom Booker and a love that cannot be. This book made me cry. It's a book about love, giving and giving up. It's a book I'll never forget. Just lovely.
Rating:
Summary: An All-Around Fantastic Debut!
Review: Having heard very little about the book or the film, I picked up The Horse Whisperer basically on a whim, and found myself completely glued from the very start. Evan's work as a screenwriter serves him wonderfully in this masterful novel, as the scenery is described so vividly that its cinematic quality is more than palpable. He draws you into a powerful world of emotions and hope, simplicity and underneath it all, that primal animality that pervades all of us. What a way he has with developing his characters too! Every one of them had a separate and unmistakable identity, personality, and history that Evans fleshes out skillfully. however, the story itself was depressing and uncomfortable...I felt angry and disappointed for Robert, Annie's husband, for having to suffer through so much on account of no mistake of his own. And the extremely lucid love scene between Tom and Annie made me feel like getting up to go take a shower. The ending blew me away though...and after I read it, I surely was able to forgive Evans the raunchy events of pages past. I look forward to reading The Loop!
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: I saw the movie when it first came out. At the time I wasn't an avid reader so I never took the time to sit and read. This summer I was looking for something to grab me and boy did this ever. For the first time in years I couldn't wait to sit down and read. I found myself going to the park on my lunch breaks just so I could go read. I loved the story line and would get so excited about it I would sometimes sneek a peek to see what was to come. This book is much better than the movie. If you are looking for a GREAT book this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Elf, A Worthwhile Comedy
Review: Movies are generally put into as set category; comedy, drama, action, horror, and quite a few others. The movie Elf staring Will Farrell is most definitely a comedy and in my opinion worth seeing twice. Elf is perfect for the family, both children and parents are entertained.
Elf is about a baby boy from an adoption agency that on one Christmas Eve crawled into Santa's bag and unknowingly taken to the North Pole. He was named Buddy and raised by one of the elves. Buddy grew up thinking he was an elf and not until his early thirties did he know he was human. Buddy then leaves the North Pole to find his father. After finding his uptight, workaholic father he moves in and spreads the holiday cheer to everyone. But after ruining a large business meeting his father tells him to leave and that he is not loved. Feeling out of place everywhere Buddy runs away.
To find out what happens with the rest of the movie, make sure that Elf is on your Christmas list. This movie had me laughing for days. Will Farrell does a great job playing a character that is always optimistic and oblivious to the social rules of mankind.
At the North Pole, Christmas was a way of life and making toys came easily to Buddy. However, people in the rest of the world stopped believing and this was a huge problem for Santa as his sleigh ran on the Christmas spirit. Without believers, there would be no Christmas. Buddy and the friends he made finding his father made people believe again.
Elf is one to watch with the whole family and right in time for Christmas. Get into the Christmas spirit with this fun filled comedy.
Rating: 
Summary: The horse whisperer was shouting
Review: Mr. Evans wrote an average book about a fascinating subject - horse training and healing people. Redford didn't manage to make more than an average movie out of an average book, but he and Evans sure did manage to muddy the waters when it comes to "Horse Whispering." Please see the real story at: http://www.rarey.com/sites/jsrarey/
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointed
Review: Promising start, very good subject (I love horses), but turns into a cheap romance novel after the first half. Don't recommend it and for the first time I can say the movie was better than the book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I Have Ever Read!
Review: Teenager Grace wakes up to a light snowfall and she and her friend Judith decide to go riding, so they saddle their horses and start out on what they expect to be a fun filled morning. However they are struck by a truck. Judith dies and Grace loses a leg as a result of the accident. Pilgram, Grace's horese, is in horrible shape, but Grace's workaholic mother, Annie, refuses to have the horse, who seems to be crazed, destroyed. Annie puts her career on hold to try and save her daughter's spirit and the spirit of the horse she cares for. Annie learns about a mythical horse whisperer who can tame the orneriest of horses with his magical voice and velvet touch. So she loads up Pilgram and takes Grace across country to the Montana ranch of Horse Whisperer Tom Booker. The Booker family accepts Grace as one of their own as they seek to heal her as well as Pilgram. Everything seems to be going well, but then Annie, who is happily married, has an affair with Tom and this book, that has been already wonderful up to his point, turns great and becomes a masterpiece. I don't think I've ever cried so hard. Believe me if this book doesn't warm your heart, your heart is made of stone. You know, I think it very well may be the best book I have ever read, and I say that after each and every time that I finish it. It's just a lovely work of art.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs a good editor
Review: This was Evan's first novel, and his editor could have helped to improve it. Not to make it shorter, but to shake the problems out. It could have been a very good story, because Evans is a good writer. The story starts out beautifully, and it seems it's going to be about the daughter's physical and emotional healing process, and how certain aspects of love and spirituality can build bridges between people and animals (in this case, horses). But the story all but abandons the daughter and focuses on a selfish love triangle, and the ending is over-the-top pathetically bad. Each year there is a contest to see who can purposely write the worst opening to a novel (e.g. it was a dark and stormy night . . .), but this novel could win a contest for the worst ending, which I won't give away. See the movie for a better version of this story.
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