Rivers of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered

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Summary: Outstanding book!! "Try it and you'll like it."
Review: "Rivers of Wind" is a refreshing boyhood account of living and growing up on a remote cattle ranch near Lamar, Colorado during the 1940s and '50s. One might initially ask, how can such a setting lend itself to becoming an interesting and enjoyable book to read? Life on the prarie during this time was hard and without all the convienences we now take for granted; there was, for example, no indoor plumbing, electricity, or phone service. But even under these conditions, it is a story packed with adventure, drama, youthful pranks, family love and values, and the fulfilling of a lifelong dream. Gary Penley's handling of such a wide range of emotions and situations is masterful and will be appealing to readers of all ages and areas of the country. In reading his accounts and experiences, I found myself reliving and thinking of similar but yet different incedents from my own childhood. Penley will bring the reader to laughter on occasion and to tears with the lose of his grandfather, the only father figure Gary ever knew. Gary's brother, George appropriately describes their grandfather by saying "...we grew up with John Wayne." I highly recommend this book. Set back and enjoy!!

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Summary: Thanks for the memories
Review: A great book. A story told honestly and from the heart. I related so well to the life and times depicted in this book I must have lived in Colorado in another life. It provided laughter and tears. This is a very hard book to put down.

I am certainly looking forward to Gary's next book.

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Summary: Rivers of Wind, a great read
Review: I am an avid reader and this book, Rivers of Wind, was absolutely great. An easy and smooth book to read and every page was enjoyable. The author painted vivid pictures and I could see it like a movie. One of those books that you really hate it when you finish. I could have read it for a month. Thanks, Gary, whoever you are.

Tom Desaulniers
Leeds, AL

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Summary: It ain't flat on the Great Plains!
Review: I enjoyed this book, sent to me by a high school friend, as I went to the same consolidated high school in Lamar, Colo. as the author (but 2 years ahead of him)and recognized many of the features of that time and place which he describes so well. I was a town kid instead of a country kid but it helps understand better the kids I went to school with. Gary is a great story teller. I hope he didn't stretch it too much in a few places (I don't remember rattle snakes when my friend and I were hiking outside of town--but maybe it was winter). And no, the Great Plains are NOT flat but rolling praire with great views to the horizon sometimes. It's BIG SKY country and I miss though it has been years since I've been there. Thanks, Gary.

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Summary: Rivers Of Wind
Review: I read this book with much anticapation as I also grew up in Lamar Colorado. Mr Penley's older brother George was a very good friend of my brother's and I have heard nothing of this family since we moved away in 1954. I remember most things as Mr. Penley did except that I lived in town. Oh ,those duststorms brought back such memories. I loved the book.

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Summary: Up close and personal
Review: Mr. Penley gives personal details that review his life on the prarie such that reading this book made me feel I knew him. He included facts and opinions about the history of the area that will help document for years to come what took place in that area. His ability to show emotions with words and his willingness to be vulnerable with the details made this a very interesting book. I read his other book too, and highly recommend it as well.

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Summary: A heart warming story you will long remember.
Review: Mr. Penley has written a wonderful account of his early years growing up on a Colorado Ranch. Anyone who grew up in the 40's and 50's in a rural setting will certainly relate to his experiences. The readers who do not fall into this category will gain an appreciation of what it was like to grow up in world of open spaces that was full of hardships, challenges, and opportunities. Mr. Penley's "Dad" (his grandfather) was full of "tough love" and is a central character throughout the story. The author's experiences with "Dad" will bring both laughter and tears to those who elect to read this well written book. "Rivers of Wind" is similar to Ivan Doig's book "This House of Sky".

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Summary: A kind of "window in time"
Review: Rivers Of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered is the autobiographical story of how Gary Penley's growing up on a ranch in the plains of Colorado, the influence and example of his grandfather, his mother, and a yesteryear of ranch life that is gone now. Interwoven memories of the people, the geography of the land, the animals, and the climate of the high western plains, Rivers Of Wind is a kind of "window in time" that will engage the reader's rapt attention from first page to last. A tribute to a time and place now found only in memory, Rivers Of Wind is unique and enthusiastically recommended reading.

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Summary: The best description I've seen of Southeastern Colorado
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I guess it is because I relate to it having been born and raised in Southeastern Colorado during late 1930's on. This book is about an area I know well and gives a wonderful description of the area and folks there. A great area to live in with some of the best people on earth living there.

The land is hard and unforgiving to the weakhearted, warm and challenging to the determined. Gary did this book justice and my family enjoyed it. I want to buy our own copy to read it again and again. Thanks