Customer Reviews

Goat Song : My Island Angora Goat Farm

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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?

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.

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.

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?

I really enjoyed this book, particularly since I have a good friend who raises angora goats and I am also a native of Wisconsin. The book made me homesick for Wisconsin and it was also a wonderful story of the range of emotions generated by raising animals.

When Susan Basquin's brother suggested they join forces and develop an Angora goat farm on Lake Michigan's remote Washington Island, she jumped at the offer. The isolation and rural environment would offer her free time for writing and contemplation -- or so she thought. What Susan found out first hand is the sheer physical and mental effort that goes into raising a herd of temperamental goats. For the next six years she struggled, growing founder of her animals, and discovering unknown reserves of strength and energy within herself. Goat Song: My Island Angora Goat Farm is the riveting memoir of Susan's life on Washington Island, a fascinating chronicle of her affection for her animals, her determination to overcome feelings of insecurity, and her reflections on island life. Goat Song is ardently recommended reading for anyone who has ever felt the urge to get away from it all and take the rural life in some isolated Eden.

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?