“How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us.”On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn … threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the earth, the ranch most of all. Alongside her devoted Irish wolfhounds and a spirited troupe of horses, donkeys, and Icelandic sheep, the ranch becomes Houston’s sanctuary, a place where she discovers how the natural world has mothered and healed her after a childhood of horrific parental abuse and neglect.
In essays as lucid and invigorating as mountain air, Deep Creek delivers Houston’s most profound meditations yet on how “to live simultaneously inside the wonder and the grief…to love the damaged world and do what I can to help it thrive.”
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There is so much beauty, wisdom, and truth in this book, I felt the pages almost humming in my hands. I was riveted and enlightened, inspired and consoled. This is a book for all of us, right now.
This book is endlessly wise, funny, and full of heart. To say that its clear-eyed, doom-laden ― yet loving ― message is important and timely would be an understatement. It is unapologetically sincere, utterly moving.
I really loved reading this book. The book is an autobiography but it is also about finding your home and place in the world. The author found a ranch in Colorado and has spent her life living there and protecting it. I did find the chapter on the fires too long and I learned more about wildfires than I needed. The rest of the book was quick and easy to read and held my attention. There is a lot humor despite some harrowing situations. The author also shows how important it is to be part of the natural world. Enjoy
Houston has a great range of vision, and she’s fun to read. She gets the land right… In this perfectly American memoir, a restless heart finds its place.
An excellent memoir from a 2020 Colorado Book Award winner. You don’t have to be a lover of Colorado and farm life, but you’ll love the book even more if you are.
Houston paints a vivid picture of life surrounded by mountains and national forest, with few people and many loved and beloved animals. She makes the reader feel the peace, the solitude and joy of rural life plus all the hardship–rugged winters, wildfire threat, life on a shoestring and, as a frequent flier, a five-hour ride to the airport. This paean to the land reminds us to respect the earth now threatened by climate change. A heartfelt and inspiring read.
Pam Houston is one of my favorite authors and now that I have read this latest of hers I have a better understanding of her earlier works. Her words speak to me as if they are from my own experiences!
So, so good. I love all of Pam’s work, but this might be my new favourite. I felt this book right in my chest.
Deep Creek is a love letter to earth, animals, and the best of humanity. Pam Houston has taken our heartache and woven it back into hope. Her stories of love, loss, and a life lived in relationship to land give us good reasons not to give up on ourselves or each other. This is the book we need right now to remind us how to endure ― passionately. An unstoppable heart song.
Pam Houston writes with fiery and compassionate love for our planet—in particular her 120-acre ranch in the Colorado Rockies. My heart melted for the determined way she persevered, wept for the abuse she survived, cheered as she found true mothering from the natural world—the mountains, trees, and animals, and opened wide as she offered her wisdom and hope for the healing of all of it. Highly recommend.