Goat Song : My Island Angora Goat Farm [Paperback]

Susan Clark Basquin; Susan Basquin (Author), Susan Basquin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2000

Starting with one billy goat, 20 does, and a book about goats, author Susan Basquin began her foray into goat farming on Washington Island in Lake Michigan. Her herd grew to 100, and she found reserves of strength and determination to pull her through all sorts of dilemmas and near-disasters.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Basquin is a journalist living in Santa Fe, NM.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: J.N. Townsend Publishing; 1 edition (September 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880158280
• ISBN-13: 978-1880158289
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,696,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Goats and Life, November 27, 2000

By 

Richard McCord (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Song : My Island Angora Goat Farm (Paperback)

This is a marvelous first time out for an author who took to heart the adage "Write about what you know." Yet what Susan Basquin came to know was something few women learn. Late in her 40s, after several years as a writer for a weekly newspaper in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she accepted an invitation from her brother to start a goat farm on an island in Lake michigan, off the tip of a peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin. She wanted to do something different--and different this book is.

It is full of life and death and the natural order of things--which, of course, is life and death. Knowing nothing about goats or farming or island life, or anything else that she had chosen, Basquin just did it. Starting with 21 angora goats, whose wool someday was supposed to bring a profit, she set about keeping them alive and growing the flock, which ultimately numbered 100. The emphasis soon centered on keeping them alive.

Disease, accident and injury were her companions, and she learned how to cope with each of them. With the help of the tight-knit island community, she became a farmer equal to anyone. But isolation--and sometimes loneliness--also became familiar to her. For six years she ran the farm. But then her brother decided to shut it down.

Basquin returned to Santa Fe, and now has written this memoir. it sings with a commitment to life, and the new life she found for herself, surrounded by goats on an island. This is not a life that most women, or men, would choose. But for anyone with an imagination, it is a compelling read. It will make you wish you had been there--and glad you were not. It will expand your concept of the possible. What is still waiting for us all?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goat Song, January 24, 2001

By 

Carol Ronan (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Song : My Island Angora Goat Farm (Paperback)

I am/was interested in raising angora goats. This book provided valuable and informative information on that topic in a wonderful, well written story. I haven't decided if it talked me out of the dream or further embedded the dream but the story was great.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of gentle strength, December 29, 2000

By 

Carolyn S. Nitz (Northfield, Minnesota United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Song : My Island Angora Goat Farm (Paperback)

A poetic narrative, this book reflects life on a large scale as it tells Susan's story of raising angora goats on a small Lake Michigan island. I was touched by the depth of feeling Susan expressed in vividly describing everything from learning to know and care for the goats to living in an isolated community which generously offered friendship and support to a new resident and her risky venture.