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The Color of the Wild
An original, inspiring work of literary non-fiction; an unconventional memoir of woman and land. The Color of the Wild is the beautifully told story of one woman’s life, love, family, resolve and determination.
More than a memoir, with stunning stories interspersed and intertwined with powerful poetry, prose, and stunning photographs, Gin’s captivating tone and intimate view bring to life the drama and trauma of one year on her family’s ranch, scenic and secluded, surrounded by and a part of the wild world around them.
Set high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, along the Headwaters of the Rio Grande, Gin opens her world to the reader with stunning honesty, and compassionate grace, sharing this captivating, personal tale of home, belonging, commitment to land and family. Their life is living testament to the power and clarity of love, life and the natural world.
Along the Continental Divide, high in the San Juan Mountains where the Rio Grande is born, lies a wilderness as proud and strong-willed as the woman who chose to build a life there.
Here unfolds the story of this woman, her son, horses, and a mountain—and the man who rides with them into a life where no one has lived before. In this country where winters are harsh, wild, and remote, author Gin Getz learns to bend and grow within the trust of shared isolation.
Parallel with the story of living on the mountain is a darker
tale of heartbreak that threatens to tear apart their attachment to the wilderness. Gin lives under a dark cloud as her husband’s family disintegrates over issues of pride and ownership; a story rarely told but so common throughout the West.
Along the way, Gin’s readers enter a world of deep beauty, fresh perceptions, simple humor and breathtaking writing as The Color of the Wild unfolds, season by season, through one year on the mountain.
More than a memoir, with stunning stories interspersed and intertwined with powerful poetry, prose, and stunning photographs, Gin’s captivating tone and intimate view bring to life the drama and trauma of one year on her family’s ranch, scenic and secluded, surrounded by and a part of the wild world around them.
Set high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, along the Headwaters of the Rio Grande, Gin opens her world to the reader with stunning honesty, and compassionate grace, sharing this captivating, personal tale of home, belonging, commitment to land and family. Their life is living testament to the power and clarity of love, life and the natural world.
Along the Continental Divide, high in the San Juan Mountains where the Rio Grande is born, lies a wilderness as proud and strong-willed as the woman who chose to build a life there.
Here unfolds the story of this woman, her son, horses, and a mountain—and the man who rides with them into a life where no one has lived before. In this country where winters are harsh, wild, and remote, author Gin Getz learns to bend and grow within the trust of shared isolation.
Parallel with the story of living on the mountain is a darker
tale of heartbreak that threatens to tear apart their attachment to the wilderness. Gin lives under a dark cloud as her husband’s family disintegrates over issues of pride and ownership; a story rarely told but so common throughout the West.
Along the way, Gin’s readers enter a world of deep beauty, fresh perceptions, simple humor and breathtaking writing as The Color of the Wild unfolds, season by season, through one year on the mountain.
200 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2014
1 person is currently reading
589 people want to read
About the author
Gin Getz
2 books7 followersGin Getz is an author based out of the high mountains in southwestern Colorado. She writes from her remote, off-grid ranch far and away from town, telephone and traffic on a wild mountain she calls home with her husband, son and a bunch of four legged and feathered friends.
Gin’s website can be visited at www.GinGetz.com .
Gin’s website can be visited at www.GinGetz.com .
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 13, 2016
There is such an admirable sense of self offered through out this book. A beautiful reminder of the strength within. Her poems are perfectly placed through out the book. The month by month chapters offer the reader such a beautiful way to wander through her book. I just loved the natural quality to this book all the way through. The photographs are stunning, the poetry beyond thoughtful, the stories so real and inviting you feel like you are right there, living in the moment with her.
Highly recommend this book.
Highly recommend this book.
February 14, 2014
A true story of love, grit, survival, tragedy, and triumph. A story about a strong, passionate, determined woman being successful in the harshest conditions. A story giving the reader a glimpse of year round living in the beautiful, but wild and sometimes ruthless Colorado Rockies. A story of coming to grips with, and conquering all that life can dish out.
I loved the book and highly recommend you experience Gin's amazing journey.
I loved the book and highly recommend you experience Gin's amazing journey.
March 8, 2014
Passionate, Primal, and Wild!
I am overcome. Vibrant Life. Heart rending Grief. Poetry and images that capture both, without a single wasted word. Who knew a beautiful life is a vibrant tapestry of loss, pain, and suffering transformed by tears, time, and love? Gin tenderly, yet with firmness, captures and gives voice to the events that shaped her journey while sharing the life, death, and rebirth of the high mountain valley in which she lives.
The Color of the Wild provides readers a glimpse and feel of what living on a ranch in the wilderness, far away and cut off from neighbors, is like. It is rough and challenging. But the healing, peace, and solitude within is met with unexpected seasonal rewards; such as the songs of frogs in a mountain pond.
As a boy and young man I grew up in the San Luis Valley, in the long shadows of the San Juan mountains where Gin works, lives, and loves. The sun went to bed there. Water, white gold to farmers there and elsewhere along the Rio Grande, came from the mountains. Violent summer hail storms brought random ruin. The constant green coupled with an ever changing palette of red, yellow and gold marked the passing seasons.
Gin Getz has created a multilayered artwork as timeless as the mighty Rio Grande that flows from the Great Divide. Like the river giving life on its journey, Gin's work gives voice to mountains that cannot speak for themselves as she shares the wounds, healing, and love of her journey. A must read for anyone that needs to step away from the busyness of life into the healing solitude of the wilderness.
I am overcome. Vibrant Life. Heart rending Grief. Poetry and images that capture both, without a single wasted word. Who knew a beautiful life is a vibrant tapestry of loss, pain, and suffering transformed by tears, time, and love? Gin tenderly, yet with firmness, captures and gives voice to the events that shaped her journey while sharing the life, death, and rebirth of the high mountain valley in which she lives.
The Color of the Wild provides readers a glimpse and feel of what living on a ranch in the wilderness, far away and cut off from neighbors, is like. It is rough and challenging. But the healing, peace, and solitude within is met with unexpected seasonal rewards; such as the songs of frogs in a mountain pond.
As a boy and young man I grew up in the San Luis Valley, in the long shadows of the San Juan mountains where Gin works, lives, and loves. The sun went to bed there. Water, white gold to farmers there and elsewhere along the Rio Grande, came from the mountains. Violent summer hail storms brought random ruin. The constant green coupled with an ever changing palette of red, yellow and gold marked the passing seasons.
Gin Getz has created a multilayered artwork as timeless as the mighty Rio Grande that flows from the Great Divide. Like the river giving life on its journey, Gin's work gives voice to mountains that cannot speak for themselves as she shares the wounds, healing, and love of her journey. A must read for anyone that needs to step away from the busyness of life into the healing solitude of the wilderness.
March 6, 2014
Just when you think all the adventures have been done. Just when you think only big, loud and pushy people can survive a winter's wild wonderland. Just when the world has convinced you it's impossible to live without all the latest conveniences and trappings...
...along comes three people who show us another way to think.
Whether they nurture domesticity in the folds of a Colorado mountaintop, ride horseback into backbreaking "ditch clearing" duties that determine the direction water will flow...whether they grieve over the ravages of a relentlessly destructive beetle or mend each others hearts after the inevitable loss of beloved animals, when you read this book, you'll live with three hardy souls, rendered as tender and fragile as the aspen leaf in autumn, who take time to hunker down and wallow in gratitude over nature's endless and abundant giving and taking away.
Yes, it takes grit. But it takes more.
Let Gin Getz show you.
...along comes three people who show us another way to think.
Whether they nurture domesticity in the folds of a Colorado mountaintop, ride horseback into backbreaking "ditch clearing" duties that determine the direction water will flow...whether they grieve over the ravages of a relentlessly destructive beetle or mend each others hearts after the inevitable loss of beloved animals, when you read this book, you'll live with three hardy souls, rendered as tender and fragile as the aspen leaf in autumn, who take time to hunker down and wallow in gratitude over nature's endless and abundant giving and taking away.
Yes, it takes grit. But it takes more.
Let Gin Getz show you.
July 27, 2014
Along the Continental Divide lies a wilderness as proud and strong-willed as the woman who chose to build a life there. Here unfolds the story of this woman, her son, horses, and a mountain-and the man who rides with them into a life where no one has lived before. A tale of angst and how the author wants to leave. A self serving story with little appeal.
February 22, 2014
This book chronicles a year in the life at an off the grid guest ranch high in the Rockies, next to the Weminuche Wilderness. It’s a story about getting ready to leave this place – mentally and physically. In the first chapter author, Gin Getz looks back at that year and says that ‘she is still here’. She then goes on to introduce the readers to her family and herself and their animals and the place they call home. From January through December she describes the life they live and also the past the brought her to this place – in prose and poetry. Then again, there is a deeper story and that is the innate connection she has to this place and it to her. She describes the land as a mother, a lover, a place to lose herself and then to find herself.
Getz describes in articulate detail the intimate relationship she has with her son and husband and her animals. The reader gets to know the bond between wife and husband, mother and child and how they draw strength from each other. The pain that she suffers with the death of a young horse is gripping and heart breaking. There is also the pain inflicted by hurtful in-laws. She shares with the reader the good times too – time spent snowshoeing in the silent winter on the flanks of her beloved mountain; walking along the river; time with her horses, traveling to the high country; time with her husband and son in quiet contemplation and hard at work as an experienced and coordinated team. She is a woman comfortable with herself – able to care for the ranch alone when the others have taken snow machines over the mountain to enjoy a night in a more ‘civilized’ place. She is able to be alone without being lonely. She is also a survivor – having lived through many experiences that might have left someone else defeated and ready to give in to someone else’s pressures. Through it all she manages to maintain a deep connection to the land and her dogs and horses and family.
This is a story full of passion and adventure, quiet times and high lonely mountains, hard work and peaceful evenings next to a warm fire. Gin Getz has created a story with enough history to allow the reader to see glimpses of Getz’s motivations and raw emotions that have led her to this place where she is at home. She does this with well-crafted prose and poetry that flows like a mountain stream and also with her stunning black and white photos of the place and her family and her animals. I highly recommend this book.
Getz describes in articulate detail the intimate relationship she has with her son and husband and her animals. The reader gets to know the bond between wife and husband, mother and child and how they draw strength from each other. The pain that she suffers with the death of a young horse is gripping and heart breaking. There is also the pain inflicted by hurtful in-laws. She shares with the reader the good times too – time spent snowshoeing in the silent winter on the flanks of her beloved mountain; walking along the river; time with her horses, traveling to the high country; time with her husband and son in quiet contemplation and hard at work as an experienced and coordinated team. She is a woman comfortable with herself – able to care for the ranch alone when the others have taken snow machines over the mountain to enjoy a night in a more ‘civilized’ place. She is able to be alone without being lonely. She is also a survivor – having lived through many experiences that might have left someone else defeated and ready to give in to someone else’s pressures. Through it all she manages to maintain a deep connection to the land and her dogs and horses and family.
This is a story full of passion and adventure, quiet times and high lonely mountains, hard work and peaceful evenings next to a warm fire. Gin Getz has created a story with enough history to allow the reader to see glimpses of Getz’s motivations and raw emotions that have led her to this place where she is at home. She does this with well-crafted prose and poetry that flows like a mountain stream and also with her stunning black and white photos of the place and her family and her animals. I highly recommend this book.
May 2, 2014
The Color of The Wild is a fascinating read about a woman who escapes from Manhattan to live a hard life, 10,000 feet higher in the remote Rocky Mountains where she and her family of three are snowbound much of the year. It is a hard life up there, and it is described by a “hard” woman, though much softness also shines through especially as concerns her love for her animals and for the wildness of her chosen lands.
The reader is invited to ride along with her as she handles a tough childhood and then segues into adventures such as her time on a Grecian beach, her handling of a brutal would be rapist, etc – all told with no punches withheld in an engaging manner, so that we get to know and appreciate this woman.
And we get to really know her as she rises to the challenges of living in the cold and daunting mountains, which also cuddle her spirit and the things she loves.
This is a great read for anyone wanting to explore the evolution of spirit, the lovely harshness of life in deep Nature, the love of family that comes out vividly, and the strength and depth of this woman.
April 17, 2014
"The Color of the Wild" was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city I live in. A nature lover like Getz, it is nice to revisit nature through the photos, poetry, and personal stories that she shares. Getz is a nomad (in the most positive sense of the word) at heart, having grown up most of her life without firm roots to ground her. She has experienced city life, mountain, country, and the coasts. In the end, she was only able to ground herself within the mountain.
I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Getz is a strong woman (both inside and out) who has learned much from nature. Sadly, nature takes from her as much as it gives. Raising animals in the mountains is hard work and family problems don't make things easy either. In the wide open terrain, family feuds can suffocate anyone.
I am glad to have received this book through Goodreads First Reads. I recommend it for any nature lover out there. It is a great breath of fresh air in the hustle of every day.
I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Getz is a strong woman (both inside and out) who has learned much from nature. Sadly, nature takes from her as much as it gives. Raising animals in the mountains is hard work and family problems don't make things easy either. In the wide open terrain, family feuds can suffocate anyone.
I am glad to have received this book through Goodreads First Reads. I recommend it for any nature lover out there. It is a great breath of fresh air in the hustle of every day.
August 20, 2014
The Color of the Wild is a memoir of a woman's search for a connection with nature and finding it on a lonesome mountain in Colorado, with a husband and son.
Mostly, this just felt like a bunch of diary entries and scribbled poetry put together. Some parts were definitely beautiful, and it's good to hear about a strong woman continuing to be a strong woman, but most of the book was neither relatable enough, or amazing enough to warrant a book.
I felt like I was reading someone's diary, but couldn't find any of the juicy secrets!
Also, did her son have any experiences with people his own age growing up!? I could only imagine being a horny teenage boy stuck in a cabin with his mother and step-father all the time...
The short sections and frequent breaks in prose make this a great bathroom reader!
Mostly, this just felt like a bunch of diary entries and scribbled poetry put together. Some parts were definitely beautiful, and it's good to hear about a strong woman continuing to be a strong woman, but most of the book was neither relatable enough, or amazing enough to warrant a book.
I felt like I was reading someone's diary, but couldn't find any of the juicy secrets!
Also, did her son have any experiences with people his own age growing up!? I could only imagine being a horny teenage boy stuck in a cabin with his mother and step-father all the time...
The short sections and frequent breaks in prose make this a great bathroom reader!
June 7, 2014
THE COLOR OF THE WILD is an extraordinary book and Gin Getz’s writing will definitely hold you captive. It was a joy to read this book. I was transported into her world, one of silence, one of glorious white, one of hardships, one of love, one of life. I was transported into her heart and soul.
I love the photo above of the author. Her face holds the secrets of her life. She makes no excuses for who she is or the road she has either chosen or perhaps the one that has chosen her. There’s a story along each laugh line, and each wrinkle has a tale to tell. It is the story of a very independent and strong woman who has, at times, struggled to find her place in the world. She writes with honesty and heart-felt emotion as she tells her story.
In THE COLOR OF THE WILD, the author used not only words, but beautiful photos and poetry to tell the reader about herself and the mountain on which she lives. I could find no fault with the book. I was transported into her life each time I picked the book up and opened it. It was a world I wanted to spend a lot of time in, a world where winter comes and stays for six months at a time. A world of white where every time you walk outside, you blaze a trail. A world where the air is fresh and clean and means only the survival of the fittest or the crazy. I am giving the book five stars, but truly, it deserves so much more.
Read quotes from the book at www.mylifeonestoryatatime.com
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I love the photo above of the author. Her face holds the secrets of her life. She makes no excuses for who she is or the road she has either chosen or perhaps the one that has chosen her. There’s a story along each laugh line, and each wrinkle has a tale to tell. It is the story of a very independent and strong woman who has, at times, struggled to find her place in the world. She writes with honesty and heart-felt emotion as she tells her story.
In THE COLOR OF THE WILD, the author used not only words, but beautiful photos and poetry to tell the reader about herself and the mountain on which she lives. I could find no fault with the book. I was transported into her life each time I picked the book up and opened it. It was a world I wanted to spend a lot of time in, a world where winter comes and stays for six months at a time. A world of white where every time you walk outside, you blaze a trail. A world where the air is fresh and clean and means only the survival of the fittest or the crazy. I am giving the book five stars, but truly, it deserves so much more.
Read quotes from the book at www.mylifeonestoryatatime.com
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 12, 2014
Only Gin Getz could have written this beautiful, heartwrenching, yet uplifting book. With her “outsider’s” eye, she brings her art training, her sophistication (she studied at NYU, designed clothes for Bloomie’s and has lived in France, rural Argentina, Greece, and Manhattan…), and her open heart to the wilds of the Colorado mountains. Her poetry is poignant, her photography gorgeous, her writing moving and eloquent.
Why would she choose this heartbreaking, backbreaking, spirit-challenging life? With deep introspection and unfettered honesty, Gin describes herself, her horses, her life, her family, and her world. She challenges her readers to delve deep within, to the very core of their being, to ask themselves who they truly are, why they live the life they do, what they would really rather be and do. Stripped to the essentials, what really matters most? This self-knowledge is rare, painful to acquire, yet essential for our maturity in wisdom. Having conquered her dragons, Gin is open to the beauty and marvel of her mountainous world. Gin Getz in this book provides us a rare glimpse into what—maybe—we could all be.
Why would she choose this heartbreaking, backbreaking, spirit-challenging life? With deep introspection and unfettered honesty, Gin describes herself, her horses, her life, her family, and her world. She challenges her readers to delve deep within, to the very core of their being, to ask themselves who they truly are, why they live the life they do, what they would really rather be and do. Stripped to the essentials, what really matters most? This self-knowledge is rare, painful to acquire, yet essential for our maturity in wisdom. Having conquered her dragons, Gin is open to the beauty and marvel of her mountainous world. Gin Getz in this book provides us a rare glimpse into what—maybe—we could all be.
July 2, 2015
Getz' writes about a year in the high Rockies and her profound connection to and love of nature. I read awestruck of her courage in facing the storms of life--natural and personal. Her raw strength inspired and frightened me, as I knew I could not have withstood what she embraced.
Getz is a strong writer, a lyrical writer; and, I strongly recommend her book.
Getz is a strong writer, a lyrical writer; and, I strongly recommend her book.
January 31, 2015
I couldn't finish it. I tried really hard to like it. Then I tried even harder to finish it, especially since it was a smaller book. But I couldn't get into it at all.
July 9, 2015
This book is filled with what my dreams are made of. Beautifully written. Awesome book for those in love with the mountains!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews