Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This is the thread for These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901. Buddy read begins April 2022.

I am going to read this one.

I would like to use this book in the fiction/nonfiction challenge. Possibly pair it with No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland.

I’m so excited to reread this with this group! Marilyn that sounds like a fantastic pairing and I added it too! Thank you!

Thanks, Marilyn. I had not heard of the Cleaveland book before. Sounds fascinating.

Just recently I read this book so I could join this discussion. Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say. . . .See you soon.

Marilyn I am making note of Agnes Morley Cleaveland in case I want women's voices for Wild West study. Thanks.

I’ve read No Life for a Lady and recommend it. It was of particular interest because I live in New Mexico.

Wonderful to know it’s a recommended book, Annette!

Annette wrote: "I’ve read No Life for a Lady and recommend it..."

Thanks for the rec!

I have too many reads on for April, so I started this one early. OMG, I love it!!! Fits right in with the books we read earlier about the settling of the West. Great companion to Enemy Women as well. Huge thank you to whomever originally suggested this one.

💕💕💕It was me!!! Your initial reaction makes me smile, Sara! This is a favorite of mine! I’ve read the entire series. So glad to spread the love for Agnes Prine!

I went right over and added the two other books. I will want to read them as soon after finishing this one as possible. I adore the "voice" of Sarah...so genuine. Thank you, Lori!!!

I just read this several months ago so it will be fun to join in the conversation!

I’m hoping to read this soon. Too many good books are calling!

That kind of month for me, too, Annette, but glad I didn't pass on this one.

Thanks for the extra push, Sara!

I have started These Is my Words and I am finding Sarah to be a colorful and purely authentic character!

She seemed the same to me, Terry. I got completely swept up in this one.

I used These is My Words to fill Bingo Card square
I5: Literary Prize for your Country or Region. I live in Corpus Christi , Texas where the American Southwest meets the American South.

Buddy Read + Bingo Selection = WinnerWinner

www.nancyeturner.com

Winner, Arizona Author of the Year, OneBook Arizona

Nicely done, Cynda.

Marilyn wrote: "I would like to use this book in the fiction/nonfiction challenge. Possibly pair it with No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland."

Sounds like a great pairing, Marilyn! I've added it to my TBR list. Thank you!

Cynda wrote: "Marilyn I am making note of Agnes Morley Cleaveland in case I want women's voices for Wild West study. Thanks."

Cynda~ For your Wild West study, have you read Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel? It is fantastic! As a matter of fact, I have read it three times (a little obsessed, perhaps? LOL), and it was the impetus for my husband and I following the Oregon Trail back in 2010.

I just picked up These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 from my local library today. I had to put in an interlibrary loan request for it, but I'm so glad it came in time. The flyleaf says this is her first book with no mention of any sequels, so I'm glad to hear that she has written more.

I am looking forward to our discussion this month. Great to see everyone back!

Thanks for the info on "Women's Diaries", Shirley. I have added it to my TBR.

Sara wrote: "Thanks for the info on "Women's Diaries", Shirley. I have added it to my TBR."

You’re very welcome, Sara. It’s a wonderful book! It shows the hardships along the Oregon Trail from the women’s perspective.

Shirley, I see that this book that you name is on a GR list:
The Old West in First Person:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

This looks like one of the good list resources GR has on or near the topic of wild west.

Cynda wrote: "Shirley, I see that this book that you name is on a GR list:
The Old West in First Person:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

This looks like one of the good l..."

Thank you, Cynda! That does indeed look like a great western literature resource. I didn't realize there were so many first-person narratives. I love it! I've "Liked" the list for future reference.

The book sounds wonderful! I'm hoping to start it tomorrow.

Thank you for all of these excellent suggestions! I'm excited! I really liked this book and thought it was fantastically written, but I generally prefer nonfiction over historical fiction, so I'm grateful for the recommendations!

Sarah is quite a spitfire for a young woman! The trail to Arizona is so full of danger that I wonder how many of the pioneers will survive. Captain Jack seems to be a good leader who also has a warm heart.

I agree, Connie, and it amazes me that so many were willing to put so much at risk. The loss of life for so many different reasons was very sad. Of course, there was a lot of loss of life, even if you stayed put.

Yes, Sara, you’re right. Many pioneers left their homes to get away from the diseases that were a scourge in their home communities.

Good point, Sara and Terry. The water and air were not healthy in the crowded cities, childbirth was dangerous, surgery was not sterile, people were often malnourished, and there were no antibiotics to treat what would be mild infections today. (I probably wouldn't be alive today without modern antibiotics.)

It was interesting that Sarah did not even have ink to write her diary. On page 3, she writes:
"Papa gave me a can of hoof black to use for writing and I have whittled some quills from our old rooster's tail feathers. He said he never saw a body more set on writing letters than me."

I love that her father recognizes her need to write. It would be all to easy to tell her to stop wasting time and do a chore. :o)

Connie, I would have died in childbirth, as my daughter was born by Caesarian section after a long difficult labor. However, without modern medicine, I might never have gotten pregnant to start with.

It is amazing sometimes to think of the ways in which people died then that would be considered minor problems today; and something like your labor, Terry, would have been a definite death sentence for a woman on the trail. Simple things, like a lack of sanitation killed many who would have survived otherwise. When you realize that it was not uncommon for women to have eight or more babies, it is a wonder that any lived to an old age.

Cynda wrote: "The charts at the bottom the CDC website shows in graphics what we are talking about--without the sense of love and wonder. . . .


https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...

I am so happy to be back in Sarah's world. Not happy about all of the hardships and tragedies but happy because she is such a sassy, unladylike young girl but I love her!

I have to compare her to the Lawrence sisters, the Quakers. Such polar opposites in personality and actions - Sarah doesn't want to talk about "boys" like Savannah does, nor does Sarah know what it's like to live with sisters having 4 (I believe) brothers. She gets educated about what it's like to be a girly girl but then on page 7-8 (view spoiler)[she gets joy when the girls are shocked that she goes out and shoots a deer for their supper! (hide spoiler)]

I had forgotten how quickly the turmoil begins when on page 14-16 (view spoiler)[ poor Ulyssa is brutalized and Savannah almost has her throat slit. Sarah is such a brave girl here saving these girls' lives and then to be shunned by the Lawrences was heartbreaking. And the Indian who offered her the scalps was very cool - He was literally showing her his respect in that action. (hide spoiler)]

I think Sarah thinks like most of us girls do when we are young and wanting to fall in love. The other girls are prettier and she thinks she's plain, too tall (this was me!), too skinny and straight, with blah colored hair. For me, it doesn't really matter what Sarah looks like but I love to read about her progression to feeling attractive.

Ok, Captain Elliot is fabulous! I love on pg 43 when she finds the wagon (view spoiler)[full of books and she bargains with him over the horses and the value of the books! My favorite Sarahism so far is when she tells him the dictionary was worth a horse and a half so you have to find a one horse book! She is rambunctious and savvy and I love all of the negativity she exhibits towards him because it's so obvious she like him! (hide spoiler)]

Ok, I could go on and on but I wouldn't be reading! 😝

Lori's comments: (view spoiler)[I was also brokenhearted that the Lawrence's punished Sarah after she had literally saved them. She has such a natural courage.

I fell for Captain Elliot faster than Sarah did. The way she describes his smile always made me smile as well. I was laughing when they were bargaining over the books and she hated parting with any of them. I could relate.

I also love the way Sarah fails to really be able to identify her own feelings. She doesn't want to like the Captain, she wants to find him rough and uncouth, but she can't really fight that charisma that draws her to him. He is so gentle and kind in all the right places! (hide spoiler)]

Last year I read
Texas Women on the Cattle Trails edited by Sara R. Massey
and
Voices from the Wild Horse Desert: The Vaquero Families of the King and Kenedy Ranches by Jane Clements Monday.

Having lived in Kingsville, TX for a few years, I am familiar with the ranching experience into the late 20th century.

The ranching experience described in the novel is real, not in anyway exaggerated, rather tamed down to not get in the way of the story.

I knew the man when he showed up. I love him too.

Addition to message 41.


I mean after marriage, the focus changes more and more to friends and family. Having already described for us the realities of driving cattle, traveling on dusty trails, the narrator moves more to the hearth and home.

It was a pure pleasure to spend time with Sarah Prine and her Captain. I loved the authentic characters of the novel and the realism of the pioneering. I finished the book today and have to thank Lori for the suggestion.

I'm so glad to hear that you loved it Terry! I finished my second reading a few days ago and found that if you wait 9-10 years and reread a favorite book, it's almost like you're reading it the first time. I remembered some things but others I was pleasantly surprised by. For instance, I totally forgot about the woman that Ernest brings home for a wife. WOW! She was a test of Sarah's patience for sure!

I loved how the book was written with Jack's teasing and flirting, and Sarah's emotional outbursts tempering the heartbreaking elements of the pioneer life.

Lori, I saw that you have read the next two books in the series. Were they also written in diary form? It was interesting how the first diary entries were misspelled with poor grammar. Then, as Sarah read through her boxes of books, her writing skills improved. It was a wonderful diary, full of emotion and interesting details. I have pictures in my mind of all the characters and the wonderful dogs.

Connie,
I agree wholeheartedly about the way Jack's flirting really made this romance so much more sweet. And Sarah's fighting him along the way just added so much more. I absolutely love the use of the book with the scarlet velvet lady all the way through and how it was like the symbol of their love from the start. And when Sarah found the letter he never sent in his saddlebag with the book - Oh my goodness. Connie, I think Sarah's emotional outbursts (definitely a great way to describe them) are just so realistic.

The next 2 books are also written in diary format. I also noticed what you did, with the way Sarah's writing improved as the diaries went on. I'm so glad you noticed that because I think it is important to show her love of learning and education - she never went to school but it didn't stop her from learning.

Book 2 is the longest and only spans about 8 months in 1906. Book 3 picks up in 1906 and goes thru 1907.

In the afterword of my copy of These is My Words, there is an interview with Nancy Turner and she talks about how she got started with this novel. It started as a college short story assignment that she had to write about a real person. It's also interesting to know that Sarah didn't actually leave behind a diary. Most of the historical written records of the family were lost in a fire when Sarah's house burned. So most of the stories were oral histories. But in general, this is fiction so while Sarah is bigger than life in this novel, her great granddaughter had to fill in the blanks and create the history. And the diary format is what she chose to use. I still love it.

And the other thing I found fun was how she chose the name Elliot. It's because she loved Sam Elliot, the actor and his voice and everything about him was what she had in mind for Jack.

Lori, that's a great story about how the author chose the name Elliot because she loved Sam Elliot! It makes me love Jack even more!

Thanks for the information about the next books in the series.

Read through January 14, 1883:
I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through right now. I've only read comments through Message 43, as I didn't want to take the chance of reading spoilers.

I'm really enjoying Sarah's voice, as so many of you have said. It just dawned on me how much her writing style has changed from writing many words phonetically to spelling them correctly. What a subtle way Nancy Turner used to show that Sarah was slowly educating herself with the "found" books.

I'm hoping we find out more about Samantha's sister, Ulyssa, and that she found love. I was just so devastated at what happened to such a sweet, innocent girl. I can imagine her father must be blaming himself for what happened.

When Sarah discovered the mutilated body of the pioneer woman, I couldn't help but think of the treatment some women experienced in The Color of Lightning.

Part of me has been a little unbelieving that Sarah did not recognize that Captain Elliott was interested in her as a woman, nor that she recognized she had romantic feelings for him. I know she was inexperienced, but surely she could see through his game with the book, The Duchess of Warwick and Her Sorrows By the Sea. As much as I like Jimmy, and as much as I know he loves Sarah - how sad that he can't express his love to her. I can't help but feel that Captain Elliott is not out of the picture yet.

Shirley, I think down deep she knows Captain Elliott’s true feelings and she’s not ready to fully accept her own feelings yet. She wants love so badly she can’t recognize it. She thinks he’s a scoundrel and an Army man to boot. We see it and it makes for a wonderful story but Sarah has a bit of a stubborn streak in her! I do adore Captain E’s playful games.