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Mar 21, 2008

Brookann rated it:

I was completely taken by this book! The library fines are racking up because it is overdue and I can't renew it because it has been requested by someone else, but I can't let it go because I find myself going back to it to reread passages and "reliving" moments of the book in my mind. I shed many a tear and towards the end was so enraged I almost threw the book, but I simply cannot stop thinking about it! I'm dying to discuss it with someone.

It is the beautiful and heartbr More...

7 comments like (32 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Annalisa rated it:

The reason I loved this book comes down to one word: authenticity. I bought into this woman's life and believed these characters. I have this vivid picture in my mind of this ranch out in the middle of nowhere with Sarah out there putting laundry on the line with a pistol tucked in her rugged apron.

I don't like western movies or get into frontier stories and was worried, especially by the title, that the grammar would rake on my nerves. But the story is about a thirst for education More...

11 comments like (20 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2008

Amanda rated it:

This is, UNEQUIVOCALLY, the best love story I have read.

I devoured this book -- I simply could not put it down. The beginning was gritty, heart-wrenching, and a grammatical mess. Yet, this is part of the author's brilliance. As the main character, Sarah, matures, she is strengthened by her experiences. And as Sarah educates herself at every opportunity, the grammar and story-telling improve.

Without giving anything away, I cannot put into words the romance between Sarah an More...

2 comments like (18 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2009

katie rated it:

i began this book several years ago. i thought it was a non-fictional journal, and once i found out that it was fictional i couldn't get back into the book. Since that time, my mom and sister have pleaded with me to finish this book, as it is an all-time favorite for both of them. i finally heeded their suggestion, and i am so glad i did! i devoured this book and couldn't wait to read each day. set in the late 19th century and written as a journal, it is a captivating story of a feisty, det More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Margaret rated it:

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2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2008

Jenn rated it:

Title: These is My Words
Author: Nancy Turner
Genre: fictional diary, family, romance
Pages: 384
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Reviewed by: Jenn
Description: This book is a novel written in diary format, as Sarah Prine tells her own story of living in the Arizona Territories from 1881-1901. Over this course of time, the rugged, uneducated, vivacious young Sarah grows into an informed, reflective, sincere (and still feisty) woman. The novel shows the dangers, excite More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 31, 2011

Wendy rated it:

I debated between 2 and 4 stars, but after all is said and done I wouldn't recommend the book to my friends, so it came down to 2. As for reading enjoyment and ability to hold my interest, this book gets a 5. However, the first 30 pages contain enough trauma to send any woman to a pyschiatrist for years! Rape, murder, tragic child deaths, Indian attacks, attempted abduction, etc. It was a bit too much for me to handle.

Although the description says "inspired by the author's More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2007

Jen rated it:

I totally DID NOT want to read this book, but did for a book group. I loved it. It reminded me of my grandma who grew up AZ and the crazy, hard life that she had. I remember feeling like she was kind of strange, uneducated, and maybe a little scary because she was so tough... she had like 18 inch biceps-- we are talking strong. She was just so different from my other very educated,very classy, rich grandma that I was close to growing up. After reading this book I really wished I would have taken More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Stacy rated it:

This book was highly recommended by a friend, and I was surprised to see that a ton of my Goodreads friends loved it too. I finally got around to reading it with a measure of initial skepticism. After all, I had never heard of this book and the novel cover was inconspicuous, plain. Plus, I don't really read much historical fiction normally.

Well, I fell head over heels for this book, which is based on records of the author's own ancestors who were settlers in the Arizona Territories i More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2009

Cindy rated it:

I enjoy historical fiction sometimes, but I'm not much into the Western. But this one was recommended by a friend. She just loved it. I decided to give it a try, but couldn't get a paper copy. But they did have the audiobook, so I checked it out.

I am so glad I did! I was absolutely hooked from the very first CD. It starts out with an Indian ambush, the death of a child, and a brutal attack on some unsuspecting girls, and that was just the first CD!

The story is told as jou More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2009

Mandy rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Kimberly rated it:

I am enjoying this book more than any book I have read in a long time. I love that this is a real life setting about a powerful courageous woman of our time. It shows the struggles and triumphs of life, and I can relate to it in so many ways. I love it!

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2008

Rachelle rated it:

This is pretty much my favorite book I've ever read along with it's sequel Sarah's Quilt. First of all, it is a beautiful love story. I cried so much. Any book that makes me feel really emotional, I consider to be a good book. But it is also an incredible tale of determination and down right stubborness. I love that Sarah learned to read, loved learning and by so doing changed her life. I love the way she endured challenges. I want to read it again so I can put more details in here.

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Dani rated it:

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4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2009

Mehrsa rated it:

I probably would not have finished this book if I were not reading it for book club. I enjoyed reading it at times, but mostly, I was trying not to roll my eyes and just appreciate that it was Nancy Turner's first novel and it's good for a first shot (although I have read some incredible first novels before). The book is about a woman growing up in the Arizona territories and is written in diary format.

The Good: It's a nice historical novel that really makes you get what life was li More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Camie rated it:

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it as stories of the early American West are not really my preferred genre, but I really loved it. I thought, since Sarah’s writing went from rough to more refined, that I might have a hard time getting into it and following what was happening. But, although Sarah’s vocabulary might not be very large in the beginning, this has no effect on her ability to be articulate and engaging. I found Turner’s diary-style story very easy to slip into and hard to put d More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Anne rated it:

I'm surprised at my reaction to this book. I am *in love* with Jack Elliott! I know he is too incredible to be believable, almost a Superman in cowboy boots and a mustache, but I believed the story anyway. And between Jack and Sarah Prine there were enough adventures to fill the first two seasons of a TV show, but I was caught up in all of it anyway.

At first I was a little uncomfortable with the pace of the horrible things that happened to the Prine family in the beginning of the st More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Shelly rated it:

This book is about a girl, Sarah Agnes Prine, and her stories as a pioneer/territorial settler in the late 1800s. The book is her journal and she begins writing at about 14 years old, then it ends when she's in her 30s, though the entries are spotty and much more rare at the end. The character is VERY loosely based on the author's great-grandmother. The author is from Arizona and attended Pima Community College and the University of Arizona as an older adult.

At points in this book More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2011

Doug rated it:

Several years ago I watched an excellent PBS documentary of the Donner Party story. At the end of the program, having vicariously lived through the whole mess, they interviewed this older woman who had lived through it all to get her thoughts and advice: "don't take no shortcuts" was her main thought. I had to laugh thinking how trite that sounded after all of that. To some extent, "These is My Words" reminds me of that. I can picture Nancy Turner reading through journals and just shaking h More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2009

Amy rated it:

Okay, 1st of all I thought this book was drier than the Mojave itself. Something kept me from getting over the hump on this book and I have no idea what that was. I kept TRYING to like it...but no. Unlike my book club brethren, I just couldn't find the WOW behind this book. But given the fact that we are TWO weeks PAST book club and I just finished it, should tell you something. And it isn't for lack of time to be able to read it.

Here are my thoughts:
1) I liked Sarah. I though More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Angela rated it:

THIRD READ: 9/15/11
This needs to be a movie!

FIRST READ: 3/8/10 - 3/10/10

This book is AMAZING!

It was strongly recommended to me almost 2 years ago as a book that I must absolutely read. I finally checked it out, but honestly it just didn't sound that great. GoodReads had thousands of reviews and ratings and the average is still 4.5 out of 5. And still I was hesitant to pick it up. I listened to the audio book and instead of listening while I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2012

Donna rated it:

This fictional diary of a feisty young woman living in the American southwest during the late 1800s was an easy, fast-paced read with enough historical detail to raise it up above what I would categorize as a "romance" novel. I was bothered by the mechanics of the novel: the diary format wasn't believable, the attempt to show the heroine's growing literacy by gradually improving her spelling and grammar was inconsistent, and I thought the title was a poor choice. Nonetheless, I never More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 10, 2008

Shannon rated it:

***You may have received this review yesterday, but I didn't mean to post it since I hadn't finished compiling my thoughts. Sorry for the confusion. My complete review is below.***

I'll start by admitting that I would never have read this book if it hadn't been a book club selection. There are two main reasons it would never have made it on to my "To Read" list: 1) the title is incorrect grammar and 2) it is written in diary format.

I'm still not sure, even af More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 11, 2008

Lisa rated it:

I loved this book! I'm glad Sally Baird just informed me that there is a sequel.

I was quickly captivated by Sarah's strength of personality. The challenges the Prines endured seemed overwhelming, but not implausible. I admired Sarah's level-headedness & courage. And I just loved her romance with Captain Jack Elliot. I loved the scene, busy with children and cousins and family making lots of noise in a crowded room, when Jack mouths to Sarah "I love you." It felt real. More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Ashley rated it:

"Based on the real-life exploits of the author's great-grandmother, this fictionalized diary vividly details one woman's struggles with life and love in frontier Arizona at the end of the last century. When she begins recording her life, Sarah Prine is an intelligent, headstrong 18-year-old capable of holding her own on her family's settlement near Tucson. Her skill with a rifle fends off a constant barrage of Indian attacks and outlaw assaults. It also attracts a handsome Army captain name More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 09, 2008

Angie rated it:

As the subtitle suggests this is the journal of Sarah Prine and the story of her life in the Arizona Territories in the days of no law, bad men and rampaging Apaches. This was the best book that I have read in a long time. Usually I'm content if a book has a passible plot,but this book took me by surprise. The narrative is so real. Most of the story is fiction but is based on the life of a real pioneer. For instance, one of the amazing things about the story is the history fleshed out by the bo More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Hello, awesome book. I never imagined I would become so attached to a book inspired by the life of an early Arizona settler and history of that time. I mean, it couldn't be that interesting or compelling, right? Ha ha!!!
Oh how I love Sarah Prine! Her inconquerable spirit. Her yearning and self motivation to achieve the seeming impossible of her circumstances. The book begins a recounting of the daily life of Sarah Agnes Prine. It is in journal entry form, inspired by actual li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2010

Kelly rated it:

This book goes on my top 5 favorite books. Sarah is my hero. This book was so sad about the harsh realities of living in those times in the west. Almost every chapter my heart broke. I loved the romance and practicality of her marriage. She amazed me with her tenacity for life. And how she made the good times help her overcome the hard ones.She was a survival specilist. Her best characteristic I thought was her willingness to do whatever needed to be done. I related to Sarah with her husband Jac More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Beth rated it:

This is our latest book club pick — which gave me added incentive to get through the first chapter or so of this book. As you might guess from the grammatically-challenged title, the word choice and sentence structure of the main character, from whose voice the story emerges, doesn’t make for easy reading. It seems like a typical pioneer storyline, anyway — the family uproots the comforts of home in search of adventure elsewhere, leaving the characters trekking across endless days in which the m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 23, 2008

Kris rated it:

A first person account of a young woman and her family and their experiences in the new west. Set in the mid to late 1800's in Texas and Arizona while the settlers were making their claims in Indian territories. This book is Sarah's diary starting as a young girl through marriage and motherhood. The strength she shows is astounding, and the love story that evolves between her and a most unlikely suitor beats any romance novel. This is pure unadulterated love between a man and woman.
Prepa More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)