Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains

by Linda M. Hasselstrom

Book Overview

In Feels Like Far, award-winning author Linda Hasselstrom paints an intimate portrait of family, love, work, nature, and survival against the backdrop of the far-flung South Dakota prairie. Sixteen linked stories tell of the joy of training a first horse, the heartbreak of finding a fatally injured cow, the beauty of cavorting nighthawks, the stubbornness of her father, a rigid old rancher who bucks at old age, the deep, almost spiritual bond she...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618124950
• ISBN13: 9780618124954
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Slice of life!

I really enjoyed "Feels Like Far: A Rancher's Life on the Great Plains" by Linda Hasselstrom. The accounts she chose to include are all common to us with aging parents. Family needs, wishes and dynamics all play important roles in how well we relate to one another. Sometimes the "unspoken" is more powerful than what is said. The one quibble I could make is that I was compelled to sit up and read the whole book in one sitting, but I am looking forward now to re-reading "Feels like Far" and savoring the stories individually. Wish I had more self-control the first time around. Sleep is good too! (-:

I couldn't put this book down

I unboxed this book, flipped open some pages to preview and before I knew it, I had read 60 pages standing in my kitchen. Legs buckling, I sat and finshed the book in one sitting. The book is compelling because Hasselstrom's storytelling makes you want to read further, but also because her writing mesmerizes the soul. I found myself rereading sentences and hanging on the beauty of her unique prose. "How does she write like this?" I kept asking myself. Her ability to take you within the moment is unsurpassed. You don't need to be a cowgirl to enjoy this book, but if you are, you'll finish it in one sitting--or standing--like I did.

Touching...

Reading this book was a wonderful experience. What a touching story of a family that develops as all families do; realizing we love our family members even more when we accept them loving us the only way they know how. All this against the backdrop of a still unspoiled area of America. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this region, history or living.Allen

A Beautiful Book

People from the prairies of South Dakota and North Dakota aren't pretentious. Well, some might be, but they tend to stand out in miserable ways. Linda Hasselstrom's writing is like the people of her home: careful, persistent, simple, surprisingly complex, fascinating. Your own family and home may be very different from Hasselstrom's, but through her writing you'll gain a better understanding of your own people and place of origin. Hasselstrom is a master; she shows us how to cherish the tribes we were born into, despite the inevitable losses and disappointments of life. She ranks right up there with Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl.