Sitting here in Calgary on a 160 acre farm with rescued horses, looking at the Canadian Rockies I see a book – Beautiful Jim Key by Mim Eichler Rivas. Quick skim before I get back to work shows this is a book well worth reading. Jim Key was a horse who apparently was as smart and educated as a 12 year old. At the St. Louis Fair, he selected letters from a random line up to spell Alice Roosevelt, who was there. A shout from the crowd asked for Nick Longworth’s name (who was not a beau at the time and married Alice 2 years later!) to be spelled. The horse spelled just the last name and put it right after Alice Roosevelt!!

Looking forward to reading this book. I find the best books when I teach. It was while teaching a very small group in Pasadena that I discovered Rita GoldenGelman’s Tales of a Female Nomad and started a friendship.