Margaret CoelWatching Eagles Soar

This book has a very interesting but different format. It is a collection of short stories and a couple of essays. I was glad that my favorite conflicted characters, Father John and Vicky Holden were included in the stories, sometimes separately, sometimes together. I feel that some of the short stories left me hanging, but then short stories often do that to the reader. I enjoyed the new character, Molly Brown, introduced in a couple of the stories. She is a character from Colorado's 1850's gold rush fevered past who has a sharp intelligence and a taste for adventure and setting things right. She also desires to climb Denver's social ladder. I especially enjoyed and appreciated Coel's two essays. They gave me a real look into the world of the writer; how and why she writes what she writes and what are her muses. She explains her love of history, especially of the West and how she likes to include the past in her stories of the present. Yes, her method does create interesting stories. Coel is a true woman of the West as her story subjects reveal.

It's an anthology of short stories that are really interesting. I love her stories about the Wind River reservation.

I have been a fan of this author for many years. This collection of short stories is a change of pace from what I have previously read by Ms. Coel. Many take place on the Wind River Reservation with the familiar characters of Vicky and Father John. But there are other locales in some of the stories, too. There are also 2 essays at the end of the book. Those alone were worth the price of the book. They are an interesting look into writing and specifically how this author gets her ideas, writes, researches. I loved the personal touch of these essays. I loved the nod to the author of An Unfinished Life, too, one of my favorites, in book and film. I'm not usually much of a short story reader, but each and every one in this book kept me interested and wanting more. All in all, I loved this book. Hated to see it end. Bravo, Ms. Coel.August 2020. I always regretted letting my copy of this book go. Now I see it available in Kindle format. Buying again and will never delete it.

Margaret Coel presented us with some short stories where she tried out some interesting ideas. A ghost town. Life on the Rez. Unfortunately, the stories on reservation life all melded into one indistinguishable lump. All had to to with angry young men making poor decisions, and the deterioration of life and society when alcoholism is rife. It may very well be too often true, but surely not everyone is a drunk, or a girl/ woman/ or child(ren) willing to stay and be beaten up by a drunk. These are proud people on their land, they know who they are (white society all to frequently had/ has problems because they DON'T have such an identity). The young men who join the military are once again warriors, and have that status among their families and community. I have seen their photos on display in restaurants and other locally owned establishments, and the pride visible, although guarded when talking to a tourist, on their family members' faces. There is far more variety than shown in these stories. Still, it was good to have a visit with the familiar 'family' of characters from her Windriver novels.

Don’t care for that short of stories.

First let me say that I love the Wind River mysteries of Margaret Coel, and this book contains a number of short stories that feature her main characters from that series, Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden. While these were good, many of my favorite pieces here involved other character such as Molly Brown or stand-alone stories. I also really enjoyed the two essays that wrap up this collection. Any short short collection is bound to have some hits and misses; this collection has way more hits than misses and even the misses are worth the read.

My favorite author. Her writing is full of feelings and just beautiful.

Every book I have read that Margaret Coel has written keeps me riveted and I feel I am living the life both in the present and the past. I love the West and never get tired of exploring and reading about it.