The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

I just MAY have to get on the Pioneer Bandwagon after this. The jury is still out but they are coming closer to forming a conclusion. To date, I've not really been a big fan of the Pioneer Woman, in part because she's so wordy when sharing a recipe. When I'm looking up a recipe online, I like just finding the recipe. Especially if I'm trying to print it out off of my home computer. Then, too, everyone I know seems to be raving about Ree Drummond at present and that makes her a fad. Since I don't do fads, I don't really go for The Pioneer Woman.

That said, when offered a chance to review the new paperback The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--a Love Story I thought I might as well take the chance. I kept this book as my "bathroom reader" for a few days, trying to decide whether or not I liked it well enough to bring it out of the bathroom and focus significant attention to it. Due to the fact that it is written in a way that includes lots of pauses and stops mid-chapter, it actually does make a very convenient bathroom read. There are easy stopping points all over the place! This book was eventually removed from that room, but then only because we had a smoke problem in our home and had to be relocated! I grabbed Black Heels to Tractor Wheels on the way out the door because I was half into it and because it makes for light reading, which is exactly what I wanted.

Not having much to do in our temporary home, I promptly caught a cold and curled up in bed with this book. And I ended up liking it. (But I think that's mostly because of everything that is happening in life right now. I don't know what I would have enjoyed it so thoroughly if I had my regular routine.) That said, this book is an intriguing idea. In it, The Pioneer Woman (a.k.a. Ree Drummond) shares how she met and married her husband, whom she refers to as Marlboro Man. It is a simple but interesting love story. When I first started it, I was asking myself why I would want to read the "every day love story" of someone I don't even know. I think that's the catch. I don't know The Pioneer Woman. If I followed her blog and knew her better, I'd probably care more. Likewise, if any number of you decided to share your own personal love stories, I'd be very curious and interested to hear about them because they'd be about you and would allow me to know you better. Therefore, I definitely think that Black Heels to Tractor Wheels could find a decent sized admiring audience. I imagine that The Pioneer Woman could also potentially collect a few new fans (*cough*cough* like myself) because who doesn't like a good real life love story? Drummond has a very unique writing voice and I found myself rather amused as I read along.

I'm not going to use this review to tell you about their romance. If you want to know about it, you should probably just read the book for yourself. Reading it is like sitting down to share a meal with a really good story teller. You don't want to have heard the "Facebook update" of their story before you get to hear the real deal. You want to laugh at the right moments and be surprised by the right things. If I told you their story, I would have effectively killed off a future conversation that you could be having directly with The Pioneer Woman herself. (I want a nickname for myself that is all in caps just like her.)

I will only say this: she and Marlboro Man do a lot of making out. She tells you about it, yes she does. The conservative readers among you will want to know that while she's not exactly discrete in sharing about their passions. That said, they also seem to have known when it was time to say goodnight and separate before things escalated into a sexual relationship that they appear to have wanted to save for marriage. Neither of them are Christians by this book's profession. She is an Episcopalian by habit, I would say, and I do not believe Marlboro Man claims faith (although she did mention he knew a lot of obscure Bible stories.) I say that only to keep you from expecting a conservative tale. Because she does a decent enough job referring to their "make out" sessions as only that, and because she was describing a passionate love for her future-and-then-actual husband, I found myself able to read it without being too put off by their manner of expressing affection.

What Ree Drummond describes in this book is being extremely attracted to her husband and then coming to realize what this relationship ultimately meant for her as a wife and a woman. I thought her thought processes, as she came to the point where she realized that she was in love and wanted to marry him, were intriguing. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew her. She feels like someone that I could have a conversation with.

All of the above stated, their story is over thirteen years old, according to the pictures that I'm looking at on The Website I Have Previously Avoided.

Oh well. Her story and her website makes for a fun diversion. I might as well just give in and say it:

I think I like The Pioneer Woman.

I like her because she's a Type A personality that you really want to have over and enjoy an evening of fellowship with. I like her because she tells you how she feels. I like her because she recognizes how important it is to love one's husband and show him so.

This is not a book that I'd likely recommend to anyone and everyone, due to the make-out sessions and occasional foul language. However, it's a fun story about something that really happened and is continuing to happen. And it is diverting when you need something easy to read!

Thanks to William Morrow (a division of Harper Collins) for sending a copy of this book my way in exchange for sharing my honest opinion which I have now done. You're welcome, everyone.

***

Despite my complaint that The Pioneer Woman is rather verbose when sharing recipes, I think I can understand the why behind that a little bit more after talking about these pancakes. They kind of made me want to sing and dance a little.