These Is My Words (1998) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Sarah: This is the main character and the book documents her journey through life in the Arizona territories in the 1800's.
• Captain Jack Eliiot: Captain of the army that travels to Arizona with Sarah's family
• Mama: pioneer woman who loses her husband and a young child, overcomes much hardship, very religious, supportive to her children
• Albert: Sarah's brother, married to Savannah
• Harland: Sarah's brother. First to get a formal education.
• Jimmy Reed: A friend of the family. Married to Sarah
• Ernest: Sarah's brother who enlists in the military
• Mason: Hired to help on the ranch.
• Melissa: Raised by Mama
• Charlie: Sarah's oldest son
• Papa: Sarah's Dad
• Gilbert: Sara's son
• Rose: Sara's horse
• George Lockwood: Jack's friend who saves him during war with the Indians.
• Mr. Lawrence: A friend of the Prine family and Savannah's father.
• Mrs. Barston: A woman who gives birth while on the trail.
• Mr. Raalle: He traveled on the trail with the Prines and settles in Arizona near the Prines.
• Suzanne: Sarah's daughter
• Celia: From back East, married to Earnest.
• Ruben: One of the boys in the Maldonado family. Helps Sarah on the ranch.
• Rudolfo: Rudolfo Maldonado works on Sarah's ranch.
• Mrs. Maldonado: Teaches the Prines to cook Mexican food and assist Sarah while giving birth to her children.
• Maldonados: The Maldonado family are neighbors of the Prines when they settle in Arizona.
• Mrs. Meyers: One of the family's that are on the trail with the Prines. Sarah does not like her as she is mean to the Prines.
• Mrs. Fish: The school teacher in Tucson.
• Mike Meyers: Has a shooting contest while on the trail. Sarah wins the contest.
• Albert: Sarah's brother who married Savannah
• Chess: Jack's dad who has a large farm in Texas

Quotes edit see section history

• “But I held my piece. I paid him his dollar--all in pennies.”

  Sarah (written after the doctor did not give her a satisfactory diagnosis of her daughter) Gotta love this lady!

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• It seems there is always a road with bends and forks to choose, and taking one path means you can never take another one. There’s no starting over nor undoing the steps I’ve taken.

  Highlighted by 114 Kindle customers

• Education doesn’t keep a person from being a fool, and the lack of it doesn’t keep a person from being intelligent.

  Highlighted by 86 Kindle customers

• Children are a burden to a mother, but not the way a heavy box is to a mule. Our children weigh hard on my heart, and thinking about them growing up honest and healthy, or just living to grow up at all, makes a load in my chest that is bigger than the safe at the bank, and more valuable to me than all the gold inside it.

  Highlighted by 79 Kindle customers

• She says a move is a time for lightening your load and starting things new.

  Highlighted by 77 Kindle customers

• Mama told me to make a special point to remember the best times of my life. There are so many hard things to live through, and latching on to the good things will give you strength to endure,

  Highlighted by 75 Kindle customers

• A friendly silence can speak between two who will walk together a long way, she said.

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• My life feels like a book left out on the porch, and the wind blows the pages faster and faster, turning always toward a new chapter faster than I can stop and read it.

  Highlighted by 68 Kindle customers

• It is a funny thing how much more proud people can be of themselves if they never step back and take a good look in a glass.

  Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers

• I wonder if we are just a little part of the world, like that rooster, and that the real things go on around us while we strut in our own yards trying to take charge of things.

  Highlighted by 51 Kindle customers

• Sometimes I feel like a tree on a hill, at the place where all the wind blows and the hail hits the hardest. All the people I love are down the side aways, sheltered under a great rock, and I am out of the fold, standing alone in the sun and the snow. I feel like I am not part of the rest somehow, although they welcome me and are kind. I see my family as they sit together and it is like they have a certain way between them that is beyond me. I wonder if other folks ever feel included yet alone. Maybe I am getting addled living out here on this ranch.

  Highlighted by 44 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tucson
• Texas
• San Angelo
• Mexico
• Arizona Territory

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Sarah's Quilt.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Nancy E. Turner (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Arizona Author Award (1999, Winner)
• Willa Cather Literary Award (Finalist, 1999, Finalist)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Westerns
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history