Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Blue Rodeo
    Unavailable
    Blue Rodeo
    Unavailable
    Blue Rodeo
    Ebook379 pages7 hours

    Blue Rodeo

    By Jo-Ann Mapson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Those who do not remember family history are condemned to repeat it...Haunted by a failed marriage, a resentful son left deaf by a bout of meningitis, and the slow death of her artistic aspirations, Margaret Yearwood takes refuge in Blue Dog, New Mexico. There, in the shadow of Shiprock Mountain, and in the unlikely arms of Owen Garrett, she finds the courage to love again, and to be loved. And she comes to realize that even the most primal wounds scar over and that there's nothing so renewable or so healing as passion. This is a bittersweet story of ordinary people who must learn to heal family bonds before they are permanently severed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061739491
    Unavailable
    Blue Rodeo
    Author

    Jo-Ann Mapson

    Jo-Ann Mapson, a third generation Californian, grew up in Fullerton as a middle child with four siblings. She dropped out of college to marry, but later finished a creative writing degree at California State University, Long Beach. Following her son's birth in 1978, Mapson worked an assortment of odd jobs teaching horseback riding, cleaning houses, typing resumes, and working retail. After earning a graduate degree from Vermont College's low residency program, she taught at Orange Coast College for six years before turning to full-time writing in 1996. Mapson is the author of the acclaimed novels Shadow Ranch, Blue Rodeo, Hank Chloe, and Loving Chloe."The land is as much a character as the people," Mapson has said. Whether writing about the stark beauty of a California canyon or the poverty of an Arizona reservation, Mapson's landscapes are imbued with life. Setting her fiction in the Southwest, Mapson writes about a region that she knows well; after growing up in California and living for a time in Arizona and New Mexico, Mapson lives today in Cosa Mesa, California. She attributes her focus on setting to the influence of Wallace Stegner.Like many of her characters, Mapson has ridden horses since she was a child. She owns a 35-year-old Appaloosa and has said that she learned about writing from learning to jump her horse, Tonto. "I realized," she said, "that the same thing that had been wrong with my riding was the same thing that had been wrong with my writing. In riding there is a term called `the moment of suspension,' when you're over the fence, just hanging in the air. I had to give myself up to it, let go, trust the motion. Once I got that right, everything fell into place."

    Read more from Jo Ann Mapson

    Related to Blue Rodeo

    Related ebooks

    Marriage & Divorce For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      Friend Or Foe?

      Aug 24, 2023

      Sitting on the grass beside my girlfriend Grace, I spotted a familiar face approaching from across the park. ‘Can I join you?’ Chelsea, then 17, smiled, plonking herself down. It was March 2018 and I’d been with Grace, then 16, for six months. I was

      4 min read

    • Article

      Too late FOR LOVE?

      Jun 8, 2022

      Too late FOR LOVE?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Taken At Birth

      Aug 19, 2021

      Taken At Birth
      4 min read

    • Article

      Being Wrong

      Dec 10, 2023

      “I am just not ready to see her, to sit down and eat a meal as if she has done nothing wrong.” Katie spoke to her sister through the cell phone as she rushed to the school to pick up Tommy. “I can see her at Sharon’s shower on Saturday, and I will be

      12 min read

    • Article

      Evidence

      Mar 6, 2023

      Evidence
      25 min read

    • Article

      The Sound Of Crickets

      Jul 10, 2022

      The Sound Of Crickets
      9 min read

    • Article

      We All Live in Uncertain

      Jul 30, 2020

      “Think of Caddo as a maze of lakes within lakes,” says John Winn, proprietor of Caddo Outback Tours, as the two of us settle into a small Go-Devil boat roped to a dock in Uncertain, on the border of northern Louisiana. For two decades, Winn has given

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Grocer

      Nov 25, 2022

      The Grocer
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Way Things TURN OUT

      Jun 3, 2020

      The Way Things TURN OUT
      7 min read

    • Article

      My first year WITHOUT MY MOM

      Mar 16, 2020

      My first year WITHOUT MY MOM
      3 min read

    • Article

      Heavenߴs Visitor

      Mar 1, 2024

      Heavenߴs Visitor
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Reluctant Grandma

      Jul 25, 2023

      The Reluctant Grandma
      5 min read

    • Article

      All In The Family

      Nov 1, 2022

      All In The Family
      2 min read

    • Article

      In His hands

      Oct 28, 2021

      In His hands
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Problem With Lilly

      Feb 1, 2024

      The Problem With Lilly
      6 min read

    • Article

      Q&A Percy Daggs III

      Mar 26, 2022

      Q&A Percy Daggs III
      5 min read

    • Article

      I Do So, Like Durian

      Jun 10, 2021

      The 504-streetcar grated against the curve of the tracks as it entered the station. It pulled to a stop directly in front of Holly. The doors opened with such a clunk that she stepped back, treading on the toes of the person behind her. She was block

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Books of Summer

      May 20, 2023

      The Books of Summer
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Blue Rodeo

    4/5

    34 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      In Blue Rodeo, a western romance, author Jo-Ann Mapson explores the question, “How do you go about leaving yourself?” As the novel opens, Maggie Yearwood leaves California to move to Blue Dog, a fictional small town set in northern New Mexico, so that her son can attend a nearby boarding school for deaf children.In Blue Dog, just about every character is trying to shed a painful past:-- Peter Yearwood, an angry 15-year-old, newly deaf following a life-threatening bout with meningitis;-- Maggie, his 40-year-old mother, bearing the scars of several miscarriages, the abandonment of her graduate-school education and art career, and divorce from a Hollywood screenwriter;-- Nori, Maggie’s sister, who deprives herself of food, love, and a fulfilling career;-- Owen Garrett, sheepherder and hardware store sales clerk, in his 50s, running from a failed marriage, the abandonment of his daughter, alcoholism, and the consequences of having killed another man in a bar fight; and-- Joe Yazzi, trying to escape his memories of the Vietnam War, social inequities, and the demons of alcohol and mental illness.Only the animals -- an assortment of dogs, sheep, and a horse – appear to lead balanced lives. As time passes, however, the characters transform themselves for the better through forgiveness, love, and caring.Mapson has keen understanding of psychology, and writes tenderly of Peter’s adjustment and personal growth. Her insights into the adult characters could be presented more subtlety, but I especially liked her description of Owen’s relationship with his blue heeler, Hopeful: “He was a good dog, smarter than most, and comfort on cold nights when what you needed most was to hear the sound of your own voice, no response necessary, just the kinds of foolish utterings that convinced you that you were still tethered to the planet.”The characters, storyline, and redemption theme in Blue Rodeo bear some similarity to those in The Horse Whisperer by Nicolas Evans, published the following year. If you enjoy regional literature, you will appreciate the authenticity of Mapson’s New Mexico.
    • 5/5
      It has been a while since I read Jo-Ann Mapson. Don't know why as I do enjoy her writing.