Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just sevent...
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Jan 19, 2012
Ashley
rated it: 
So after checking this out for the 3rd time to try to finish this book I can sum it up in a few good quotes from the book. It was a very slow read. I’m so happy I finally finished it. But I couldn’t just let this one go. The book was about an elderly lady living in a mining town helping others through their life. It was about how forgiveness heals your soul as well as the other person’s soul.
Very misleading title-Prayers for sale (a sign outside her home, the meaning behind it) More...
Very misleading title-Prayers for sale (a sign outside her home, the meaning behind it) More...
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Mar 05, 2009
Sharon
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Sandra Dallas' novel takes its title from a sign on Hennie Comfort's fence, carved when she was "so happy that she had prayers for sale, since there was nothing to ask for." Hennie is an 86-year-old twice-widowed woman living in a small mining town called Middle Swan, Colorado, during the Great Depression.
The "prayers for sale" sign brings Nit Spindle, a 17-year-old newlywed girl, to Hennie's door, requesting a prayer for her stillborn daughter Effie. The two wo More...
The "prayers for sale" sign brings Nit Spindle, a 17-year-old newlywed girl, to Hennie's door, requesting a prayer for her stillborn daughter Effie. The two wo More...
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Mar 06, 2011
Melissa
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I'm usually able to get through a book fairly quickly... but this one just kind of stumped me. I couldn't get into it. I know there were so many people who liked this one... but I just wasn't a fan.
I think part of my problem was that I just didn't like Hennie. She's telling Nit these stories to help her adjust to living in her new home... but the stories are DEPRESSING!! "This woman left her husband and that father killed his own baby and this person died and that baby d More...
I think part of my problem was that I just didn't like Hennie. She's telling Nit these stories to help her adjust to living in her new home... but the stories are DEPRESSING!! "This woman left her husband and that father killed his own baby and this person died and that baby d More...
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Jan 26, 2012
Mary
rated it: 
I have been looking for another good book for some months and I finally found it. Inbetween, I have been reading 11/22/63 by Steven King, but it is a very large book and some times I just want a small easy to hold one. This is it!
On June Ahern's(Author of The Skye in June, which was a great book and I gave it 5 stars) recommendation I decided to read it. It was charming, Prayers for Sale got me on the first page and I stayed with it right to the end and I was very sorry that it end More...
On June Ahern's(Author of The Skye in June, which was a great book and I gave it 5 stars) recommendation I decided to read it. It was charming, Prayers for Sale got me on the first page and I stayed with it right to the end and I was very sorry that it end More...
Jan 14, 2012
June
rated it:
Widow Hennie Comfort is eighty and six years old and is faced with the fact that she is old - too old to be living alone in her mountain home in a mining town of Middle Swan, Colorado. Her only child, a daughter wants her mother to live with her in Iowa and Hennie is reluctant. Still, she knows that another winter in the mountains will be too hard on her, so she’s made up her mind at the end of the year to move-in with her daughter. It’s within that year the story, set in 1936 during the Great D
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Dec 31, 2011
Tamhack
rated it:
"Hennie chuckled. "That's another story, but its a short one, and I'll tell it. Jake and I had been married three or four years when I told him I was so happy that I nothing else to pray for. 'Why," says I, 'I've got prayers to sell' He was so tickled by what I said that he made the sign for me and nailed it to the fence . It was joke, but every now and then somebody like you comes along asking for prayers, and like I told you, no money will buy them, but I'm happy to say them fo
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Nov 25, 2011
Sally
rated it: 
This book completely filled me with the joy of female friendships, courage and resilience in hard times, the beauty and power of story-telling and life experienced in a time period and location I'll never know on my own.
Hennie Comfort, an 86 year old woman, has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado.
Nit Spindle is just 17 years old and newly married. She and her husband have recently moved to the high country in search of work. It More...
Hennie Comfort, an 86 year old woman, has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado.
Nit Spindle is just 17 years old and newly married. She and her husband have recently moved to the high country in search of work. It More...
Aug 08, 2011
Georgia
rated it:
Set in 1936, with the Great Depression having taken its toll, Prayers for Sale is the story of a unique intergenerational friendship, forgiveness, healing. The central character, 86-year-old Hennie Comfort, has lived in Middle Swan, in the high country of the Rocky Mountains, since before CO became a state. When she first meets 17-year-old Nit Spindle, a newcomer whose husband has taken a job in the local gold mine, Hennie is drawn to the young, lonely, isolated girl who is grieving. More...
May 25, 2011
John
rated it:
This is by far one of the better books I've read over the past couple of months and will definitely be one of my favorites. This was also the first book that I’ve read that was written by Sandra Dallas and I expect to read more of her work for she has mastered the art of storytelling as far as I’m concerned.
This is a story of 2 women (86 year old Hennie Comfort and 17 year old Nit Spindle) who develop an unlikely friendship after the younger of the two arrives in Colorado from Kentuc More...
This is a story of 2 women (86 year old Hennie Comfort and 17 year old Nit Spindle) who develop an unlikely friendship after the younger of the two arrives in Colorado from Kentuc More...
May 07, 2011
Book Concierge
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Audio book read by Maggi-Meg Reed
2.5**
The novel is set in a small Colorado mining town, high in the Rockies, during the Depression-era. Hennie Comfort is an 86-year-old widow who has lived in Middle Swan since shortly after the Civil War. 17-year-old Nit Spindle is newly arrived with her husband from Kentucky. The young girl sees a sign in Hennie’s yard – “Prayers for Sale” – and gets the courage to ask for a prayer. Thus begins a friendship, and the old woman’s mission to ge More...
2.5**
The novel is set in a small Colorado mining town, high in the Rockies, during the Depression-era. Hennie Comfort is an 86-year-old widow who has lived in Middle Swan since shortly after the Civil War. 17-year-old Nit Spindle is newly arrived with her husband from Kentucky. The young girl sees a sign in Hennie’s yard – “Prayers for Sale” – and gets the courage to ask for a prayer. Thus begins a friendship, and the old woman’s mission to ge More...
Apr 08, 2011
Keilani
rated it:
I think this is my favorite of her books, but I'm not sure why. The main character is an elderly woman who befriends a very young woman who moves into the high mountain mining town. As she befriends the younger woman and helps her adjust to this new life, she tells stories of her past and stories of people she's known. I've never been a fan of short stories, there's never enough either to get me hooked or if I am hooked, then I'm disgusted when they end quickly, but this manner of short stori
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Feb 28, 2011
Valerie
rated it:
This book took me a long time to read. It wasn’t a book that you would stay up all night to read to get to the next chapter. I would read a chapter here and there. After reading it I wasn’t inspired by the tragic one after the other stories about her life. I must admit that after reading the first couple chapters, I didn’t think I could finish the book. The author, Sandra Dallas, uses way too much shock value when she writes. I found it hard reading about the loss of Hennie’s family, the death o
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Feb 15, 2011
Kathy
rated it:
Oh lord, I hated this book...it was so good. I cried and remembered and cried. Thank god, it had an ending with which I could live.
Arriving fresh in Middle Swan, a mining camp in the Colorado Rockies, from tragedy after the Civil War, Ila Mae, as she was then known, has come to Middle Swan to possibly marry a friend of her childhood friend. We learn of Hennie's 70 years in Middle Swan while Hennie is in her last year there when she befriends Nit Spindle, a young newlywed who has follow More...
Arriving fresh in Middle Swan, a mining camp in the Colorado Rockies, from tragedy after the Civil War, Ila Mae, as she was then known, has come to Middle Swan to possibly marry a friend of her childhood friend. We learn of Hennie's 70 years in Middle Swan while Hennie is in her last year there when she befriends Nit Spindle, a young newlywed who has follow More...
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Aug 06, 2010
Louise
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Eighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort lives up in the high country of the Rocky Mountains in 1936. Hennie has lived in Middle Swan, Colorado, since before Colorado was named.
Hennie meets seventeen-year-old Nit Spindle after Nit sees a sign out front of Hennie’s house that says: “Prayers for Sale”. Hennie doesn’t charge for prayers but she’ll say one for anyone. Young Nit is a lonely girl so Hennie invites her into her home and discovers her husband has come to look for work in the sm More...
Hennie meets seventeen-year-old Nit Spindle after Nit sees a sign out front of Hennie’s house that says: “Prayers for Sale”. Hennie doesn’t charge for prayers but she’ll say one for anyone. Young Nit is a lonely girl so Hennie invites her into her home and discovers her husband has come to look for work in the sm More...
Jul 22, 2010
Set in Colorado during the Great Depression, Prayers for Sale is the story of friendship, secrets, heartache, and life in the mountains. Octogenarian Hennie Comfort befriends 17-year-old newlywed Nit Spindle when Hennie’s life is at a crossroads. Hennie is 86 years old and physically cannot stay on the mountain for another winter. Her daughter in Iowa has offered her a room in her home; however, Hennie’s heart is not sure it can live away from her beloved home and favorite trails. Hennie kno
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Sep 05, 2009
Robin
rated it:
The year is 1935 and 86 year old Hennie Comfort has lived in a mountain gold mining town for the last 70 years. Her daughter thinks it is time that she comes "down the mountain" to live with her. While Hennie is treasuring her last months on the mountain she meets 17 year old Nit Spindle, who has just moved here with her husband. Nit Spindle is in need of some prayers and a friend. Hennie is there for her and over the next 9 months, over some quiltin' and coffee she passes on her st
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Jul 06, 2009
Kathy
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It's 1936 and the Great Depression has taken its toll. ighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort has lived in Middle Swan, CO - up in the high country of the snow-covered Rocky Mountains - since before it was Colorado. When she first meets 17-year old Nit Spindle, Hennie is drawn to the young grieving girl. Nit and her husband have come to this small mining town in search of work, but the loneliness and loss Nit feels are almost too much to bear. One day she notices an old sign that reads, "Pray
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Jul 02, 2009
Rosanne
rated it:
This was a very interesting book not only because I am a quilter but it told a lovely story. The main characters Hennie and Nit become fast friends. Hennie is 86 and Nit is very young and a new member to the Swan community. Based at a dregding camp in Colorado things could not be more rural and basic. Hard working men who risk their lives daily on the dredge come home to equally hard working homemakers. Hennie befriends the newcomer Nit and the two become instant friends bound together by their
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Apr 20, 2009
Julie
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Prayers for Sale, written by Sandra Dallas happens during the early 20th century where many areas are suffering from depression. It talks about a 17-year old teenager, Nit who has just married. She and her husband moves to the high country in search for a job. They have been suffering largely being unemployed, low on incomes, so they decided to go to another area to search for opportunities. After moving into the new area, Nit notices this woman who has prayers for sale, she didn't understand bu
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Jul 12, 2011
Amy
rated it: 
Terrible. Just terrible. I would ban this book if I could, and not because of the actual content. It’s because the writing is so simplistic, it upset any semblance of literary-ness (I’m so upset, I can’t think of actual words).
[Full disclosure: I was specifically looking for a light and quick read. I guess I got one, although I’ve read light reads that didn’t insult my intelligence like this.)
My main complaint is Dallas left nothing to the imagination. Anything that h More...
[Full disclosure: I was specifically looking for a light and quick read. I guess I got one, although I’ve read light reads that didn’t insult my intelligence like this.)
My main complaint is Dallas left nothing to the imagination. Anything that h More...
Apr 20, 2011
Donna
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book! It didn't have a discernible plot, which usually drives me crazy, but I think the novelty of the setting and characters made up for it.
The story is primarily about an 86 yr. old woman, Hennie, who has lived through the civil war, WWI and the Great Depression. She was born, raised and married in Tennessee, and later moved to Middle Swan, Colorado, a mining town 10,000 feet up the mountains. The secondary character is Nit Spindle, a young wife who has just a More...
The story is primarily about an 86 yr. old woman, Hennie, who has lived through the civil war, WWI and the Great Depression. She was born, raised and married in Tennessee, and later moved to Middle Swan, Colorado, a mining town 10,000 feet up the mountains. The secondary character is Nit Spindle, a young wife who has just a More...
Jun 11, 2009
Staci
rated it:
The stories, that is what draws you into this wonderful book. The stories that are weaved into present day and links you to the past. Hennie is eighty-seven years old and she's experienced pretty much everything life can throw at a person: husband dying in the Civil War, brutality at the hands of a cruel man, losing her only child, living in harsh conditions, becoming a widow for the second time. She posts a sign on her fence out front that says, "Prayers for Sale." There's a sto More...
Jul 05, 2009
Judy
rated it:
I liked this book, but was expecting more from the reviews that I had read and from the fact that Barnes and Noble was really pushing its sales. The theme of the book is friendship and how it can take you by surprise at unexpected moments. The main character is Hennie Comfort, an 86 year old woman, who has lived in Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was a state. She befriends a young woman, Nit, who moved into the mining camp with her husband in 1936 during the height of the Depression. L
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Aug 28, 2011
Sandra
rated it:
Great feel good book....
OVERVIEW:
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married. She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work. It's 1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suffered greatly. Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign outside of her house that promises "Prayer More...
OVERVIEW:
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in the mountains of Middle Swan, Colorado since before it was Colorado. Nit Spindle is just seventeen and newly married. She and her husband have just moved to the high country in search of work. It's 1936 and the depression has ravaged the country and Nit and her husband have suffered greatly. Hennie notices the young woman loitering near the old sign outside of her house that promises "Prayer More...
May 25, 2011
Debbie
rated it:
Not sure if I should give this 2 or 3 stars. I would call it ok, brimming on good. I liked the “story” but within the story the main character, Hennie told a lot of stories. I get that she lived 86yrs and had a lot to tell. In a good way, her stories set the scene for the town, its inhabitants, its history and Hennie’s life. In another way, there were just TOO many stories. Every time I would get excited and engrossed in the story, she would cut in or should I should I say “faded” into some stor
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Dec 14, 2011
Bonnie
rated it:
Hennie Comfort, 86, is a storyteller who indoctrinates Nit Spindle, 17, into the life of a mountain woman. The setting is the mining town of Middle Swan, CO. The year is 1935 and Hennie's stories outline a life that is both painfully difficult and excruciatingly beautiful.
The women of the town all have mining as their common thread. Nit being new to the town and her husband an outsider who took a local job doesn't put her in the warm embrace of the women whose husband may have wanted More...
The women of the town all have mining as their common thread. Nit being new to the town and her husband an outsider who took a local job doesn't put her in the warm embrace of the women whose husband may have wanted More...
Feb 09, 2012
Joyce
rated it:
I enjoyed this book Prayers for Sale, even more than Sandra Dallas' book Whiter Than Snow which I thought was a great book. Through the main character in the book, Dallas shows her extraordinary talent as a storyteller. Set in the early 1900's in a mining community in Colorado, Dallas gives a detailed view of what life was life in a mining community at that time, the dangers they faced and the ways in which the women endured such a harsh life. Dallas obviously has a thorough knowledge of muc
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Apr 06, 2010
Kristin
rated it:
This was a sweet little story about the friendship between 86-year-old Hennie and teenager Nit in a Colorado mining town called Middle Swan during the Great Depression. The two women seem like they would have nothing in common, but they share a love for quilting and they've both experienced the worst kind of loss. Their friendship grows as Nit adjusts to living in the isolated mountain town, and Hennie entertains her new friend with stories of her past and of the other residents of Middle Swan
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Jun 23, 2009
Maurynne
rated it:
I enjoyed the book & characters very much. I wish the editors had been so daring as to leave the book a collection of interrelated stories a la Olive Kitteredge; the only flaw in the book to me was that the patching of the quilt was awkward (transitions). In the middles & starts of some chapters I felt like these characters whom I knew & had grown to love already were presented as strangers.
Otherwise it was a very captivating look into American lives and mining from the Civil War to the 19 More...
Otherwise it was a very captivating look into American lives and mining from the Civil War to the 19 More...
Jun 14, 2009
Donna
rated it:
Sandra Dallas has done a wonderful job with this book. Middle Swan, Colorado is a mining town, and as you can imagine, it has a full cast of interesting characters living there. From the miners to the wives to the hookers, you will be pulled into their world.
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in Middle Swan for over sixty years. Her stories gave me a glimpse into the people and situations that have made up her life. (I would love to hear more!) Nit Spindle is seventeen when More...
Hennie Comfort is eighty-six and has lived in Middle Swan for over sixty years. Her stories gave me a glimpse into the people and situations that have made up her life. (I would love to hear more!) Nit Spindle is seventeen when More...
