Book Review – Sharing Our Horizon

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Sharing our Horizon: A Journey Through the Scottish Highlands with Two Adopted Whippets by [Tran, Xenia]

(Cover photo taken from Amazon)

Paperback: 84 pages

Publisher: Holistic Linguistics (30 Sept. 2018)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1916470424

ISBN-13: 978-1916470422

Paperback: £9.99    Kindle: £5.99

Written by Xenia Tran, who may be better known to users of WordPress as the author of Whippet Wisdom.

First, a disclaimer – my Kindle only does black and white so I can’t tell you what the pictures look like in colour. They are good, dynamic shots in monochrome, so I expect they will be as good or better in colour.

There are 59 poems in this book, which makes it a proper collection, with an identity and a life of its own. A lot of the books I’ve bought recently have been a bit sparse to say the least and have failed to pass this test.

My initial reaction on reading the book was that the haibun and longer poems were the best parts and the haiku were, surprisingly, trailing behind. I’ve re-read the book twice and revised my opinion slightly – I still think the haibun and the longer poems (up to 44 words) are the best of the book but the haiku are looking a lot better now.

I think this was probably a case of it being easy to overlook haiku when there are more substantial pieces to read, and when you are keen to read it to the end and see what it contains. A slower re-reading gives the haiku more chance to work on the reader. To be fair the real point is that I should read more slowly, rather than that the haiku are at fault.

So there you go, a good read and much better than the average offering. I’m looking forward to the next book now.

There is more information here if you want it.

13 thoughts on “Book Review – Sharing Our Horizon”

  2. whippetwisdom

    Thank you so much for your kind words and this lovely review Simon, I am so happy you enjoyed our book. It is always nice to read poems again and take your time with them. I am currently reading ‘The Flame’, a collection of Leonard Cohen’s poems and notes. Many of these poems became songs and it’s nice to see where they started from. If you enjoy Leonard Cohen’s songs you might enjoy this book too. Work on our second book has begun and it will hopefully be out in the Autumn. Thank you again for this lovely review and we wish you and Julia a blessed and very happy New Year ! 🤗🕊

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    1. quercuscommunity

      So many poems, so little time…
      I’ve just been reading a review of The Flame, but it will have to join my list of good intentions.
      Good luck with the second book and Happy New Year to you all.

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  4. arlingwoman

    Yes, a slower reading is better, I’ve found. Unfortunately, it means I read less poetry than fiction because I reread poetry and rarely reread fiction. It also bears rereading because it’s more sensitive to internal changes that you bring to it. Thanks for the review and Happy new year!

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