Chosen Forever: A Memoir
Chosen Forever: A Memoir book cover

Chosen Forever: A Memoir

Hardcover – June 1, 2008

by
Price
$31.63
Format
Hardcover
Pages
278
Publisher
Soho Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1569474921
Dimensions
5.39 x 1.04 x 7.77 inches
Weight
14.4 ounces

Description

From Publishers Weekly Far better than a book tour chronicle has any right to be, Richards' follow-up to her bestseller Chosen by a Horse again shows her gift for clarity in description, of both her physical surroundings and the landscapes of her heart and mind. The publicity campaign (and cover photo) focus on Richards's surprise romance with renowned photographer Dennis Stock, who appears at one of her book signings: "I remember thinking that no one like that would ever be interested in someone like me." But he was interested, so much so that there's little suspense involved their relationship. While her observations about later-in-life love are spot-on, the heart of Richards' book is how she comes to accept herself as a worthwhile author, despite crushingly low self-esteem. As she travels around the country, reconnecting with folks from her past and addressing small audiences, she reveals an infectious passion for her craft; that Chosen by a Horse turns out to be a phenomenon, and that Stock ends up marrying her, just makes Richards's work of self-discovery sweeter. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Richards reflects onxa0how rich life becomes when one travels her own best path. Orphaned early in life,xa0Richards struggled to connect with the world until a horse named Lay Me Down taught her how to trust another creature and to love deeply. These hard-learned lessons became herxa0emotional bedrock. As she chronicles her travelsxa0acrossxa0the countryxa0to promote her very successful Chosen by a Horse (2006), she is stoically honest about her battles with anxiety and alcoholism. Book tours are far from glamorous, and Richards allows her readers a rare glimpse into what goes through the mind of a nervous authorxa0as shexa0wipes sweaty palms on her black trousers on the way to thexa0podium to read. But she does meet her future husband, Dennis Stock,xa0along the way. A talented photojournalist, hexa0gently and determinedly woos her, believing that fatexa0brought them together. Richards writes more courageously than she perhaps realizes, and each page of this uplifting book will touch a chord in everyone who enjoyed her first book. --Pamela Crossland Susan Richards is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Chosen by a Horse. She lives in New York with her husband. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • “Richards reflects on how rich life becomes when one travels her own best path. . . . Richards writes more courageously than she perhaps realizes, and each page of this uplifting book will touch a chord in everyone who enjoyed her first book.”--
  • Booklist
  • “Charismatic. . . Engaging writing by an honest self-explorer.”--
  • Kirkus Reviews
  • Praise for
  • Chosen by a Horse
  • : “An inspired story of what family means, and what the loss of one can do to us, and for us.”—
  • The Boston Globe
  • “An incredibly moving story, beautifully written and insightful.”—
  • The Roanoke Times
  • “Two kindred spirits find each other in this beautifully written memoir.”—Temple Grandin, author of
  • Animals in Translation
  • When Susan Richards adopted an abused horse rescued by the local SPCA, she didn’t know how Lay Me Down’s loving nature would touch her heart—and change her life. Susan, a writing teacher, had lost her mother at the age of five and been abandoned by her father to uncaring relatives; she had endured an unhappy marriage ending in divorce and had self-medicated for anxiety and repressed anger with alcohol. For more than a decade, she aspired to be published, but it was only with the memoir she wrote to honor Lay Me Down that she achieved this goal. The book led to a book tour, in the course of which Susan reconnected with family and friends. But even more joyously, at the second reading on her tour she met the man who had sold her his house twenty-four years earlier, a world-famous photographer, Dennis Stock. And they fell in love.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(129)
★★★★
25%
(54)
★★★
15%
(32)
★★
7%
(15)
★
-7%
(-15)

Most Helpful Reviews

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What a whiner

Maybe it's my fault for thinking this book would be a continuation of the Chosen by a Horse story. When I bought the book, I was looking forward to catching up what had become friends to me: Hotshot, Tempo, Georgia, Allie, and Dr. Grice.

Well, all the horses are dead, Allie and the author barely speak, and Dr. Grice has moved on.

So what is this book about? Book tours. A tedious account of each book tour the author goes on to promote her first published book. We get a weather report for each day of every reading, an audience count, and whether the author went directly to her hotel or out to dinner afterwards. If I had a fork, I would have stuck myself in the head with it, but I kept thinking: Maybe it gets better. It doesn't.

The first book, [[ASIN:0156031175 Chosen by a Horse]], was poetic and filled with love. This book, Chosen Forever, is filled with whining about a difficult childhood and has none of the magic of the first book.
26 people found this helpful
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Satisfying Sequel

Chosen Forever can be seen as another stanza in Susan Richards's loving ode to her departed horse, Lay Me Down. Once again, Richards has expressed their mutual love beautifully. However, this book goes much farther than the first memoir, because Richards has come much farther as a person. I would think that Chosen Forever was a more difficult book for Richards to write because she had to rely more on herself to fill the emotional void left by Lay Me Down's death. I appreciated her account of her journey to getting published, and how her readings turned out; because she came to value the fallow periods in life as well as the high points.

I couldn't put this book down, because I couldn't help but feel the human drama as Richards gradually let her guard down enough to fall in love(probably for the first time)and marry the serenely mature Dennis Stock. Despite an emotionally tragic childhood, and unfortunate first marriage, Richards discovered that middle age is no reason not to seek or have love in one's life. Furthermore, she teaches that it's OK to be a work in progress. In short, Chosen Forever is an inspiration, and well worth the time.
18 people found this helpful
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A Triumphant Sequel

Susan Richards' fluid writing style gracefully transitions between the present -- the book tour readings in which she speaks from her precious and towering debut memoir, Chosen By A Horse -- and the ever-threatening past which looms darkly in the form of a very real sense that she doesn't belong and is undeserving of this praise for her writing, and then fears, what if no one should come (to a book reading)? Never forgotten in this her second book is the shining effect of her fallen horse heroes who, constantly share mind space in the stiller water moments of her daily life. Where human caregivers often abandoned her as a child, the horses carried her in those dark days following a second failed marriage. Although not untrammeled by her life's many despairing moments, Richards unexpectedly finds romance at one of her readings in the form of a man captivated by her as so many readers were by the sheer heart and inspiration found in the expression of the author toward her horse, Lay Me Down, in her debut memoir. Richards overcomes her self doubts and unbridled fears and embraces this man with a sense of destiny, as she explains it. And the way she ultimately chooses to her heart -- to both of theirs -- is through the comforts and smells and swishing tails of horses in a show barn while out on a casual date.
9 people found this helpful
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the rest of the tale

If you loved Chosen by a Horse, and I did, then you'll want to read Chosen by Love, the story of what Susan Richards did after the death of Lay Me Down. Susan's childhood and youth were dreadful. She only pulled herself together for the sake of her beloved pets and it was only due to Lay Me Down that she was able to break free of her horrid past and actually live. Living let's her write the original memoir, promote the book, meet a decent man and have the courage to trust and love him. Reading Chosen by Love is like seeing a hard luck relative FINALLy cAtch the break you always knew they deserved. It's a triumphant end.
9 people found this helpful
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quiet and luminous

I read Chosen by a Horse several times and gave copies to many people, so when Richards came out with a second book, I was excited but a bit nervous. Would this be a sophomore effort, written quickly and thrown on the market? Imagine my relief, then, to actually read it. This book keeps the quiet, thoughtful, bare-bones-honest tone that I loved so much in her first book, but grants the reader a different--if equally powerful--look at the possibilities of transformation in life.

Here is a woman who lived a relatively solitary existence of grief and healing and then, in her late fifties, becomes a New-York-Times-bestselling author in love with an internationally-renowned artist. I'm interested in that transformation and how someone of Richards' temperament handles it. It takes a talented writer like Richards to explore such an evolution without arrogance or artifice. I admire her ability to see the possibilities of change in such different situations--the rescue of a needy animal and the catapult to sudden fame and love--and to write of both so beautifully.
7 people found this helpful
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Loved the horses, but I barely made it through this one

Ugh. I barely made it through this book. It was not very interesting. There were nice flashes of entertaining story-telling, but for the most part, this book was just a day by tedious day recounting of her book tour. Who was there, who the owner of the store was, how many people showed up (and how she felt about this) and where she ate afterward.

I think the success of "Chosen by a Horse" just made the author more narcissistic than before, and mostly we get 'treated' to more recounting of who in her family did her wrong in her life. At a certain point, one must just choose to move on and not dwell on the pain. If that's not possible, perhaps journal-ling or talk therapy would be helpful.

The part of the Chosen Forever that kept me going was reading about Dennis Stock. He sounds like such a great guy that I wanted to hear more about him. I just wish the editors of the book could have coaxed a re-write that more focused not on a book tour or old memories of past trauma, but on the relationships that she forms as a result of her experience with "Lay Me Down," the racehorse she rescued and who she grew to love so much. It seemed that a whole village had sprung up to support the author during that time, and I wondered what happened to them all.

As a horse lover, I was actually shocked at learning of the circumstances of her beloved Morgan mare Georgia's death. She died of founder. Once a horse is foundered, she should not be allowed to eat grass, yet Georgia was pastured her entire life, it seems. What's more, she had foundered before and recovered several times, so she should never have been pastured and allowed to eat grass again. Mistakes like these made me doubt the expertise of her vet and her friend Allie, who was made out in "Chosen by a Horse" to be a horse-whisperer type. But again, maybe we don't have the whole story here. Nevertheless, it was a great disappointment. My mom loved "Chosen by a Horse," and had had a similar experience to the author, dealing with a sick horse. I had hoped my mom would enjoy reading a continuation of Chosen by Horse. It's a shame.
6 people found this helpful
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A wonderful read

having so enjoyed Chosen By A Horse, Chosen Forever was even a braver and stronger memoir.
I didn't want to put it down.
5 people found this helpful
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Pretty good

Having read Chosen by a Horse, I was excited and anxious to read Chosen Forever. I found it to be just as readable but not quite as compelling.

I believe in Richards's mind, she is living her own life as a tribute to Lay Me Down. It was very difficult for her to go on a book tour, but she wanted to honor the courage that LMD had shown in the face of terrible circumstances. It is somewhat tedious to hear the continual recitation of Richards's sad life, but it is meant to be uplifting that she is dealing with her issues and pushing herself to get out there and live. Personally, I find Dennis Stock's courtship a little creepy, maybe because Richards is naturally rather suspicious of other people and their motives so she makes him seem kind of stalker-y. I really want them to be happy together, but I am not convinced. Anyway, I recommend the book, not as highly as CBAH, but I love Richards's writing and hope she has more to say.
4 people found this helpful
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A woman putting her life together, healing old wounds.

Even if you don't like horses, but like an honest memoir with a happy ending after much struggle and healing....
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Nice candid memoir of the life of a writer. Not too much drama. enjoyable

I loved this book. Kind of a sequel to Chosen by a Horse. A nice memoir with a candid look into the life of a writer and the possibilities of love and destiny later in life.

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