Customer Reviews

Rivers of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered

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Gary Penley has captured a rural lifestyle that is now almost non-existent in this wonderful book. Although not so distant in time, the book transports the reader to a lifestyle where the close relationship of a family is necessary to survive the natural elements.

Gary captures this personal piece of American history in a way that keeps one feeling as though they have been transported back in time.

This is a book that is so full of emotion - bringing both frequent laughter and tears to the reader - that it is extemely difficult to put down before finishing. Whenever I started to be amazed at the hardships on the ranch, a story within the bigger story caused me to burst out laughing.

The book is unique and very much worth reading!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I guess it is because I relate to it having been born and raised in Southeastern Colorado during late 1930's on. This book is about an area I know well and gives a wonderful description of the area and folks there. A great area to live in with some of the best people on earth living there.

The land is hard and unforgiving to the weakhearted, warm and challenging to the determined. Gary did this book justice and my family enjoyed it. I want to buy our own copy to read it again and again. Thanks

In his book, Rivers of Wind, Gary Penley, introduces his grandfather called
Dad, as a person that every reader can relate to and remember fond memories of their own grandfather. Dad was a man with integrity, the ability to keep his word just on a hand shake, instilled hard work and the love of God. These characteristics were evidently passed on to Gary Penley and his brother, George.

As I read this book, I could easily relate and feel a connection with the memories of my own grandfather called George. I remember the strength that he demonstrated through the lean and hard times which made me who I am today.

In Rivers of Wind, Gary Penley crafts a vivid and absorbing recollection of his youth on a remote Colorado cattle ranch in the 1950's,where strong and loving family bonds were forged amidst the isolation, hardship, and danger of life on the high Plains.

Using his extraordinary writing skills, Penley creates a powerful narrative by weaving his passion for the land, and all the forces of nature which shaped it; with a poignant, often humorous, description of his family life -- his Mom, brother George and a resolute, larger-than-life pioneer grandfather, whom he calls Dad.

Foremost among those forces of nature with which the family must contend is the omnipotent, often capricious, wind. At times, dependable, nurturing "rivers of wind" drive the machinery that pumps life-sustaining water to the surface of that arid countryside; at other times, manifesting itself as the embodiment of death and destruction in the form of tornadoes, blizzards, and monstrous dust storms.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rivers of Wind. It is not only a touching and inspiring story, but also a valuable historical record for its detailed portrayal of life at the end of the pioneer era in the American West.

Rivers Of Wind: A Western Boyhood Remembered is the autobiographical story of how Gary Penley's growing up on a ranch in the plains of Colorado, the influence and example of his grandfather, his mother, and a yesteryear of ranch life that is gone now. Interwoven memories of the people, the geography of the land, the animals, and the climate of the high western plains, Rivers Of Wind is a kind of "window in time" that will engage the reader's rapt attention from first page to last. A tribute to a time and place now found only in memory, Rivers Of Wind is unique and enthusiastically recommended reading.

I enjoyed this book, sent to me by a high school friend, as I went to the same consolidated high school in Lamar, Colo. as the author (but 2 years ahead of him)and recognized many of the features of that time and place which he describes so well. I was a town kid instead of a country kid but it helps understand better the kids I went to school with. Gary is a great story teller. I hope he didn't stretch it too much in a few places (I don't remember rattle snakes when my friend and I were hiking outside of town--but maybe it was winter). And no, the Great Plains are NOT flat but rolling praire with great views to the horizon sometimes. It's BIG SKY country and I miss though it has been years since I've been there. Thanks, Gary.

I am an avid reader and this book, Rivers of Wind, was absolutely great. An easy and smooth book to read and every page was enjoyable. The author painted vivid pictures and I could see it like a movie. One of those books that you really hate it when you finish. I could have read it for a month. Thanks, Gary, whoever you are.

Tom Desaulniers
Leeds, AL

Mr. Penley gives personal details that review his life on the prarie such that reading this book made me feel I knew him. He included facts and opinions about the history of the area that will help document for years to come what took place in that area. His ability to show emotions with words and his willingness to be vulnerable with the details made this a very interesting book. I read his other book too, and highly recommend it as well.

I read this book with much anticapation as I also grew up in Lamar Colorado. Mr Penley's older brother George was a very good friend of my brother's and I have heard nothing of this family since we moved away in 1954. I remember most things as Mr. Penley did except that I lived in town. Oh ,those duststorms brought back such memories. I loved the book.

A great book. A story told honestly and from the heart. I related so well to the life and times depicted in this book I must have lived in Colorado in another life. It provided laughter and tears. This is a very hard book to put down.

I am certainly looking forward to Gary's next book.