My Head Is Full of Books: Audiobooks with Don Review: WINTER COUNTS (+Friday56 LinkUp)

"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Thursday, October 23, 2025

Audiobooks with Don Review: WINTER COUNTS (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Book Beginnings quote:

I leaned back in my old Ford Pinto, listening to the sounds coming from the Depot, the reservations only tavern.

Friday56 quote:

There is no word for goodbye in Lakota. That's what my mother used to tell me. Sure, there are words like toksa, which meant "later," that were used by people as a modern substitute. She'd told me later that the Lakota people didn't use a term for farewell because of the idea that we are forever connected. To say goodbye would mean the circle was broken.

Summary:

Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the US legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver punishment, the kind that can't be forgotten. But when heroin makes its way onto the reservation and finds Virgil's nephew, his vigilantism suddenly gets personal. He enlists the help of an ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where they are coming from and how to make them stop. As Virgil starts to put all the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his native identity. He realizes that being Native American in the 21st Century comes at a tremendous cost. (Publisher)

Review: Over a year ago I accepted a Goodreads challenge to read/record a book set in all fifty states and territories of the US. Winters Counts, set in South Dakota, allows me to check off the last state and dust my hands of this challenge. Fortunately for me Don was willing to listen to the audiobook with me masterfully narrated by Darrell Dennis. We both look for opportunities to learn more about Native American cultures and Winter Counts did a great job allowing us a peek inside the Rosebud Reservation in the southern part of the state.

Though the book was a mystery it was also very insightful full of thoughtful quotes like these:

“I wondered what it was like to live without that weight on your shoulders, the weight of the murdered ancestors, the stolen land, the abused children, the burden every Native person carries.”

“What I’d discovered was that sadness is like an abandoned car left out in a field for good—it changes a little over the years, but doesn’t ever disappear. You may forget about it for a while, but it’s still there, rusting away, until you notice it again.”

“There is no word for goodbye in Lakota. That's what my mother used to tell me. Sure, there are words like toksa, which meant "later," that were used by people as a modern substitute. She'd told me later that the Lakota people didn't use a term for farewell because of the idea that we are forever connected. To say goodbye would mean the circle was broken.”

It always shocks me when this happens, but Don liked the audiobook better than I did. He thought the mystery was compelling and the insights about reservation living both truthful and instructive. I was a more impatient than Don with the pacing of the story -- slow, slow, fastfastfast. I think it is more obvious in audiobooks than in print because I will find my mind wandering and I'll realize I lost the thread and have to catch up at some place. But all together, I did like the story.