Monday, April 2, 2012

The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

Bibliography
Drummond,, Ree. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. New York: William Morrow, 2011.

My Thoughts
I read this book over the weekend and could hardly put it down because it is such a cute love story. The book chronicles Ree & Ladd (Marlboro Man) Drummond's courtship and first year of marriage.

This biography begins when Ree decides she's moving home for a brief period before staring a "new" life in Chicago. Little did she know how much her life plan was about to be altered. She meets "Marlboro Man" at a local bar. She's smitten, but he doesn't call for four months. When he does call, Ree's heart melts at the sound of his voice. As I've watched her show, I can hear the raspy, deep cowboy Ladd's voice, and my heart melts a little, too.

She's got a plan, but Marlboro Man takes control. He asks her not to leave for Chicago. She doesn't. Their love grows and eventually they are married. It is amazing how they drove back and forth for each other. I feel like I know this couple. I feel like I can hear Ree explaining to Ladd over the phone how much of a morning person she is. He plays along with her. You can feel their love.

I can sympathize when she goes to a Drummond Family wedding and ends up in the bathroom for twenty minutes. What are the rules of etiquette here? When her facial goes awry and she spends her honeymoon throwing up, I thought that these things can't really be happening to her! Unfortunately, they did.

I loved traveling down memory land with Ree. I hope her children will one day appreciate that she took the time to write down her love story. She's very honest and doesn't sugar coat her thoughts and feelings. I hope that one day, she'll pick up where this story ends and write about how she's overcome some of her idolized views of living on the ranch and how she became famous for being an "accidental country girl"--what put her on the literary/cooking map?

One ironic thing about her story is that she was married on the same day as a friend of mine, one year later. (I had to do some research about when ASU beat Nebraska to figure this one out).