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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Oct 10, 2020  
Stop by my blog, and read an emotionally charged deleted scene from the literary fiction novel LOW WATER CROSSING by Dana Glossbrenner. Enter the GIVEAWAY to win a signed copy of the book or signed copies of both books in the Sulfur Gap Series - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-low-water.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Low Water Crossing is a tribute to those who endure heartache and nevertheless celebrate, to those who wait—and live full lives while waiting.

A backhoe unearths a human skeleton buried on Wayne Cheadham’s West Texas ranch. The investigation points a grisly finger at Wayne’s first wife. And so begins the wild ride through twenty-five years of love and heartbreak.

Wayne’s a highly eligible bachelor who runs into trouble, first because he’s naïve, and next because, well, life is unpredictable. He’s a loveable guy with a peaceful outlook. Just about anyone wants the best for him, dang it. To cope with sadness, he arranges for an old steel-girded bridge to be placed in the dry pasture in front of his house. Says it helps him adjust his perspective. Others say it’s the world’s largest yard ornament. He takes in stray emus and abandoned horses and becomes a mentor to a loveable little boy without much family. He sits and ponders his plight at a low-water crossing over the creek.

A cast of characters from the fictional small West Texas town of Sulfur Gap—the staff of a high school burger shop hangout on the Interstate, coffee groups at the Navaho Café, hair stylists from the Wild Hare, a local sheriff and his deputies, and the band at the local honky-tonk—knits together the community surrounding Wayne, and all bring their own quirks. People you’d find anywhere, some with thicker Texas twangs than others.

The town, the ranch, and familiar Texas cities such as San Angelo, Abilene, and Austin provide a backdrop for universal themes of love, grief, and loyalty.
     
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed the World
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed the World
Michael Lewis | 2016 | Business & Finance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Clearly, we only know a fraction of our minds
We know that the field of behavioral economics is a kind of the wild west of the sciences, filled with speculation, outlaws, and not a little shenanigans. And yet it is by far one of the most fascinating and controversial sciences on the popular stage.

This story is almost like a love affair between two visionary scholars, Daniel Kahneman and the late Amos Tversky. Their shared admiration and respect for one another, and opposite personalities, led them across the world from Israel, in the pursuit for knowledge.

The author notes the halo effect in which people see favourable attributes and let that impression impact the assessment of other attributes. Kahneman and Tversky later refer to this as Representativeness involving premature characterisation of an object or an individual.

While this is less plot driven than the author's other works The Blind Side, Moneyball, and The Big Short, it is still an endearing tale.
  
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Ross (3282 KP) rated Red Country in Books

Nov 29, 2017  
Red Country
Red Country
Joe Abercrombie | 2012 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hinted at returns of previous main characters (0 more)
The Western setting (0 more)
This book is the third standalone set in the world of the First Law trilogy and sees farm girl Shy (with a dark secret history) and her 9-fingered step-father return from market to find their farm burned and Shy's siblings abducted.
They duly follow the trail of the kidnappers and end up embroiled in a journey through the "wild west" of this world with groups of travellers seeking their fortune and without exception ending destitute in grubby town Crease.
A number of familiar faces (or hands) return in this book, as well as a number of new characters. I didn't really like the western setting, being totally incongruous with the rest of the books set in the same world, and the mysticism implied near the end was not very well explored (a similar gripe about the first trilogy).
A good read, but really for completists, not to be read as a standalone book.
  
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Tobin Bell recommended Jeremiah Johnson (1972) in Movies (curated)

 
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
1972 | Action, Western

"There is a film called Jeremiah Johnson that was directed by Sydney Pollack with Robert Redford. It’s about 1830s mountain men, and I’ve always been fascinated by those guys who, in the 1830s, when the West was still totally wild ? there were no homesteaders, no settlers ? guys who would go out there and live in the mountains amidst the Indians and carve out a living, catching beaver and muskrat and whatever else they were catching, skinning them and bringing the hides back, so they could be turned into hats for fashionable people in London. There’s some really great music in it. I loved the nature and the Rocky Mountains; I think it actually was shot in the early days of the Sundance institute out in the Salt Lake area, although the story has it happening in the Rocky Mountains, probably a little east of there. Montana, Wyoming, that area. So, love that film."

Source
  
Nothing can be hidden that won’t be revealed.

When her father dies, Katherine Levinson discovers her parents have kept secrets that render her happy childhood a farce. She and her gravely ill mother face eviction, and she has no choice but to appeal to the brother she’s never seen, the famous cattle baron, Rhyan Cason. Over her gravely ill mother’s objections, they move to Nebraska and the sprawling cattle ranch, Sollano.

Instead of the warm welcome, Katherine expects, she and her mother are met with whispers and scorn in the little prairie town near Sollano. Gradually, the sins of her parents’ past surface

and Katherine begins to doubt her very identity. With her brother busy with cattle rustlers and her mother too ill to be bothered, Katherine turns to Colt Holliman, a soft-spoken neighboring rancher, for comfort.

Tired of waiting for the right woman to come along, Colt has promised to wait for Charley Ryder, an acclaimed female sharpshooter and equestrian acrobat with the Wild West Show, but it’s becoming clear Charley loves the show more than him. As his attraction to Katherine grows, he finds himself spiritually conflicted. How can he break from past commitments and follow his heart?

Then unexpected danger strikes, testing Katherine’s and Colt’s faith in God—and each other.

My Thoughts: This was a delightful novel to read, the storyline is based in Nebraska. Nebraska is known for their corn, beef , horses ,rodeos and sugar beets! I lived in Nebraska and this brought back some great memories for me. The author has done a phenomenal job of bringing the reader into the ranching life. I love that she brings in the Wild West shows as well, there is so much history from the west that people don't have any idea that living in the west is truly like and the author has given the reader a great glimpse of the history.


Katherine is such a loveable character, the reader feels her plight, her father has passed away, her mother is ill, there are bills to pay. What is she to do?



Katherine sends a letter to a brother she hasn't met which changes her life forever.


Katherine has many things to deal with, the lies that her parents told her, gossip, and of course love. How must it feel to fall in love with someone promised to another? will she repeat her mother's past?


It's not hard to fall in love with Colt. He is every woman's dream, including Katherine's but Colt is promised to Charley; who it seems cares more about herself than anyone else.


This is a novel full of love, mystery, and suspense. It also shows us what happens when the love of money and pride come into our lives. It also teaches us that we must lean on God for everything and to turn to him when times get troubled.


I enjoyed the author's writing and will certainly be looking forward to reading more from Elaine Manders.
  
Wynonna Earp  - Season 1
Wynonna Earp - Season 1
2016 | Sci-Fi
If Buffy grew up and moved to the wild west
I stumbled across this show on Netflix and almost immediately fell in love.

Wynonna Earp is a hard drinking, hard living 27 year old. She's the black sheep and the town fuck-up. She's spent years avoiding her family and her responsibilities, but when she finally returns to her home town of Purgatory, she finds that she can't outrun the family curse.


Now, if she ever hopes to break the curse and save her family, she must battle the seventy seven revenants of the Ghost River Triangle and send them back to hell. But at least she doesn't have to do it alone.


If you've been dying to find an at least decently written fantasy/supernatural TV show with witty dialogue and compelling relationships, this one is definitely for you.


Also if you're like me and will watch anything that has adorable and fully fleshed out lesbian relationships, this one is also for you. Wynonna's younger sister Wavery and the dashing town deputy are SO GAY in the BEST possible way.
  
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Nicholas Atkinson (0 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Red Dead Redemption 2 in Video Games

Jun 18, 2019  
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
2018 | Action/Adventure
Well first it's a next gen rockstar game so the graphics are on point and look amazing. The gameplay itself is pretty fluid and gunplay is really fun. Missions are fairly unique. (0 more)
The controls can get buggy from time to time and make your horse act weird or make it hard to run and jump on your horse. (1 more)
Sometimes i had to restart a at a checkpoint because it wouldn't progress on the story. The first chapter is horrid and takes 10 years to finish.
Pretty good but lacking
All in all it was a decent game but I wish they would have cut down the hand holding they do in the first chapter to like the first mission and let you do what you want from the start. It was the same way when online multiplayer dropped they made you do what they wanted you to do for like the first 2 hours. With that being said I loved the graphics, the missions were fun, being in the wild west lifestyle was fun, I would definitely recommend giving it a play.
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Oct 24, 2020  
Sneak a peek at every book in the MEMOIRS OF H.H. LOMAX Series (Western Historical Fiction) by Preston Lewis Author on my blog, and enter the GIVEAWAY to win a signed copy of First Herd to Abilene and/or North to Alaska by the author.

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-north-to.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS OF NORTH TO ALASKA:
WEALTH AND FAME IN THE WILD WEST ARE WHAT LOMAX SEEKS . . . HIS OWN BAD LUCK IS WHAT STANDS IN HIS WAY.

Swindled out of a mining fortune in Colorado and blamed for an ensuing murder, H. H. Lomax two decades later must finally face up to his past in Skagway, Alaska. Along the way, he encounters legendary madam Mattie Silks, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, novelist Jack London, and a talking dog.

To survive his previous missteps and avoid a prison sentence for theft, Lomax must outshoot infamous Western conman Soapy Smith, outwit an unrelenting Wells Fargo investigator, and outrun Shotgun Jake Townsend, the greatest frontier assassin who never was.
     
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David McK (3219 KP) rated The Lone Ranger (2013) in Movies

Sep 15, 2019 (Updated Feb 14, 2021)  
The Lone Ranger (2013)
The Lone Ranger (2013)
2013 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Western
"Hi Ho Silver away!"

Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Carribean) take on the classic Western for Disney, with Johnny Depp's Tonto pretty much playing the same character as his Captain Jack Sparrow, and with Armie Hammer taking on the role of The Lone Ranger.

Set as an elderly Tonto telling the story to a child visitor in a fairground in 1930s San Fransisco, this takes a while to get going (2hour 20 running time!), with a large part of the story settign the scene and the background to how the Lone Ranger came to be who he is/was.

Indeed, apart from a slight refrain at the beginning the stirring William Tell overture doesn't even get used until near the end of the movie (probably for the best, as an overuse would dilute its impact).

I also have to say that this is probably one for the big screen: the sweeping majestic shots of the Wild West do kind of lose their impact on a smaller TV screen!
  
The Six-Gun Tarot (Golgotha #1)
The Six-Gun Tarot (Golgotha #1)
R.S. Belcher | 2013 | Paranormal, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Diverse and intricate characters (2 more)
Descriptions
Complex Imagery
pacing gets a litle complicated and the flow is disrupted (0 more)
A very complex world set in a small Nevada town during 1869. R. S. Belcher grabs your interest and keeps you guessing on the intricate happenings of this strange town, Golgotha.
Seeped in lore and the paranormal it makes me wish I knew a bit more about Tarot as the chapters are named after one of the cards and I know I have missed a bit of the intricate layers that are contained in this book. This book does get a little esoteric and has some weighty comments on religion but doesn't preach at you and lets you make your own decisions. It is an appropriate product of the time it is set in (1869) so there are a few racist comments that show a small bit of what may have been like in the wild west or America around the time of the Civil War.
The flow of the book stunted me a little until I got used to flashbacks and realized that you back tract on the day for a different p.o.v., it added depth to the characters and world.