Rick Steber

One-page vignettes of women who moved to the Pacific Northwest from the East. Each story is told in the woman voice.

I enjoyed hearing the woman's voices. Some were harrowing. Some funny. Some sad. I especially liked "Unrelenting Woman" which told of a woman searching the west for the husband that abandoned her and their children only to find him and discover he wasn't worthy of her. I also enjoyed "Nightcap" where a woman is thinking one thing and the men mean something else.

The women were strong and the men often did not cross them. They were cowgirls, saloon owners, farmer's wives, hotel owners, and store owners. Many did better than their husbands who often went to the California gold fields and returned to find their wives prosperous. I liked hearing the personal stories and the history we know so little about.… (more)

Buckaroo Heart takes place in the far eastern corner of California, with a bit of Oregon thrown in for kicks; in an area of the state called Devil's Garden during the 1940s and 1950s. Herman and Betty Vowell are the focus of the story, but Ray, Herman's brother, also gets a large role in the story just as he did in Herman and Betty's lives. They ran a ranch with cattle and haying at a time when the buckaroo was king, the equipment was horse-drawn and wild horses ran free. It is most certainly a love story.

Rick Steber has done a good job picturing the flora, fauna and landscape of this area, which is not far from where I grew up. The details of how the hay was mown and put up were very interesting to me, because although my parents also did these things, by the time I came along in the 1960s, everything had turned mechanical and horses were more for pleasure than work.

I have been told that anyone who had much to do with horses knows about the Vowell brothers. This book would please those who knew them, loved horses, history of the west, or even just a good old-fashioned romance.… (more)