Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

This novel takes place in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800’s. It’s a harsh place to try to carve out a life and this novel explores that harshness in detail. There are brutal encounters with the Native Americans, windstorms, drought, illness and all manner of sufferings for the Prine family in this book. The resilience and grit of our main character, Sarah, is truly remarkable. But the real reason we love this book so much is for the love story between Sarah Prine and Captain Jack Elliot. It is definitely a love story for the ages! Read my full review below to find out just how much I love Captain Jack Elliot! And after reading the review and the book, feel free to leave a comment. I’d like to know that I’m not alone in my love for and obsession with the Captain!

Shannon’s Rating — PG-13 (some graphic war violence)

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LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!

First of all, let’s talk about how this is the WORST title for a book ever! I passionately love “These is my Words,” by Nancy E. Turner so naturally I’ve told people about it a million times since I first read it back in 2007. Every time I start to tell people about this book and I mention to them the title, they inevitable look at me weird. They think I must surely be saying the title wrong. They say something like, “Don’t you mean, These ARE my Words?” Then I launch into my explanation of why it’s titled like that with intentional poor grammar. “You see,” I’ll say, “The book is written in journal form and the main character, Sarah, starts off her journal fairly illiterate. So, the first few pages of the book have poor grammar as she struggles to write. But she quickly gains more education and the writing in her journal improves and isn’t as difficult to read.” The person I’m explaining this to then says, “Oh, I see,” and we move on to me telling them about why I think they should read this book. All in all, I wish the author would have titled the book differently, if only to save me from having this same conversation over and over!

Now that’s out of the way, we can talk about why you should read this book if you haven’t already. As I said earlier, the novel is written in journal form but don’t let that distract you from reading it. It takes a little bit to get used to but trust me, it’ll be worth it in the end. So don’t give up on it.  The novel is set in the Arizona Territories between 1881-1902. It’s a brutal part of the world and the novel certainly covers it’s share of this brutality. Sarah is the novel’s protagonist and author of the journal. She’s feisty, tough, resilient, loveable, accepting and surprisingly poetic for someone with little-to-no education. She describes things in such a beautiful way that often make me stop reading and ponder. Once while describing herself and all the hardships she had been through she said…

“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.”

I love the way Sarah notices and thinks about the world and the people around her. You’ll definitely find yourself rooting for her all throughout the years covered in her journal.

But let’s talk about the REAL reason why we read this novel…

Why do women read and watch Pride and Prejudice? Is it for the beautiful descriptions of balls and gowns in Jane Austen’s world? No. It’s for Mr. Darcy. Why do we all read and watch Gone With the Wind? Is it for the majestic images of the Southern landscape and history of the Civil War? No. It’s for Rhett Butler. Why do we all watch the movie, Titanic, over and over? Is it for the cool special effects and action of the Titanic’s sinking? No. It’s for Jack Dawson. Why do we watch Dirty Dancing Havana Nights? Is it for the beautiful cinematography of Havana and the fun dancing sequences? No. It’s for Javier Suarez. (Now if you don’t know who this is, or what I’m talking about on this one…I need you to stop reading this post, go watch Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, experience Javier’s smile and then come back and finishing reading.) Certain books and movies have certain leading men that stand out and stick with us. Well, Captain Jack Elliot in “These Is My Words,” is right up there with the men I’ve mentioned above. If you love Mr. Darcy, Rhett Butler, Jack Dawson, or Javier Suarez… you will come to equally love Captain Jack Elliot.

I hesitate to say that this book is a “guilty pleasure” read, but it kind of is. The courting and romance of Sarah and Captain Elliot is one of my most favorite in the world of fiction. Watching them meet, interact and eventually fall in love is pure joy to experience. Some books make you laugh out loud while you read them, this book makes me smile. Over and over, I’ll notice myself smiling while reading Sarah’s journal entries that involve her interactions with Captain Elliot.

I read “These Is My Words” for the first time with one of my book clubs years ago. I’ll always remember that particular book club because of the reaction of one of my dear friends that night. She came to book club thinking that the “These is my Words” was a true story that contained the real journals of Sarah Prine. I can see how this would be an easy mistake based on the format of the novel. Well, when we started discussing the book and she found out the book was actually a fictional story based very loosely on one of the author’s ancestors, my friend was devastated. We all thought it was hilarious, but she did not!! She spent the whole book club mad. We’d be casually discussing something in the book and she would spontaneously throw up her arms and loudly declare…”I just can’t believe it’s not true!!” As funny as that night was, I understand my friend’s dismay. Whenever I reread this novel, as I often do (guilty pleasure, after all!) I find myself wishing that this story was true. Captain Jack Elliot needs to be a real person, just like Mr. Darcy, Rhett Butler, Jack Dawson and Javier Suarez need to actually exist. But I guess we’ll all just have to settle with them existing in our imaginations!