- I bought it on a whim on my last trip to Barnes and Noble.
I also recommend:
- Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler
- Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
Summary from GoodReads:
The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and routine, but when the burned body of a mixed-blood boy named Johnnie Sanders is discovered, his death shocks a part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp. And it is a matter of strangely personal importance to Doc Holliday, the frail twenty-six-year-old dentist who has just opened an office at No. 24, Dodge House.
My Review:
I have absolutely no idea why I felt so compelled to purchase this book by Mary Doria Russell. Consider these facts:
- I did not like The Sparrow by the same author
- I have absolutely no interest in Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp or any western legends.
- The cover was so beautiful I was sure the book would be a disappointment and not live up to it.
Hands down, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Throw all those points above aside, Mary Doria Russell has awoken a passionate interest in those old cowboys that I never, ever thought was even there. I fell in love with Doc Holliday through the pages of this story and… even more so in love with Wyatt Earp.
This story is so incredibly poignant, harsh, riveting, honest, heart-warming, real and.. I can’t even go on, I’m just struggling with finding the words to talk about how amazing this story is. I really thought I would never read another book by Mary Doria Russell after struggling through The Sparrow, but I’ve seriously turned my opinion around so fast on her that I think I have whiplash.
I don’t know what prompted me to pick this book up off the shelf and buy it, but thank goodness I did. Beautiful writing and the perfect story for me to read this week.
Check out these review(s):
