Call number
636.1 MCD
Collection
Publication
Vintage (2020), Edition: Illustrated, 352 pages
Description
"When Chris McDougall agreed to take in a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. But when he arrived Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman's body, but to heal his mind as well. It turns out, the best way to soothe a donkey is to give it a job and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run. He'd heard about burro racing -- a unique type of race out west where humans and donkeys run together in a call-back to mining days -- and decided he and Sherman would enter the World Championship in Colorado. Easier said than done. In the course of Sherman's training, Chris would have to recruit several other runners, both human and equine, and call upon the wisdom of burro racers, goat farmers, Amish running club members, and a group of irrepressible female long-haul truckers. Along the way, he shows us the life-changing power of animals, nature, and community"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member labdaddy4
An enjoyable and interesting book. The core of the book is a tale of the niche sport of burro racing, While this is a very unusual and uncommon athletic endeavor primarily found among the more "hard core" factions of the ultra distance running community - the book weaves so many threads together
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that it becomes so much more than a book about a group of "crazy distance runners". The primary setting for the story is southern Lancaster County, PA in the heart of Amish/Mennonite country. The author manages to blend elements ranging from suicide and depression & youth athletics and academics to family bonds and emotional healing & ultra distance running and multi-cultural tolerance. The book reads more like a collection of short stories or long-form essays - it jumps from setting to setting and theme to theme but overall it is a satisfying book that challenges many concepts and commonly held conceptions. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beamis12
Hard for this little rescued donkey not to worm his way into your heart. Animal loverscrejoice, there are some big animal characters within and some pretty big human characters as well. Takes place in Amish country, Pennsylvania, the author tells the story of Sherman and his preparation for a big.
The Amish community, their lifestyle, of which I'm actually quite familiar as my son and his family live in Amish country, Indiana. Wonderful people, honest, hard-working and terrific food, Craftsman. He also discussed mental illness, depression, and the effect it has on the person, friends and family. Autism, spectrum disorders, may be more prevalent than one thinks. The way people cope, how they manage.
An all around terrific book, told well. The author narrates his own bookman's though sometimes I felt his voice was a bit too dramatic on the whole his earnestness son me over.
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Donkey race, but also takes the opportunity to include much more.The Amish community, their lifestyle, of which I'm actually quite familiar as my son and his family live in Amish country, Indiana. Wonderful people, honest, hard-working and terrific food, Craftsman. He also discussed mental illness, depression, and the effect it has on the person, friends and family. Autism, spectrum disorders, may be more prevalent than one thinks. The way people cope, how they manage.
An all around terrific book, told well. The author narrates his own bookman's though sometimes I felt his voice was a bit too dramatic on the whole his earnestness son me over.
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LibraryThing member Katyefk
I am not a runner or a particular animal lover, but this book made me want to go get outside and walk more and see some donkeys in person. I'd also like to visit the Amish country area. It was a really interesting story that I never would have read except it was our book club's choice. We had a
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great discussion and everyone really liked the book. My husband wants to read it now and he is a runner. Show Less
LibraryThing member maggie1944
Recommend this for those who like quirky stories about people rescuing animals from an inappropriate home life. Who ever heard of running marathons at the side of a donkey? It is a quick and easy read if you need some break from staring at the walls of your home office, or living room, or rec room.
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Wherever you are, this is a fun book. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookbrig
This is an interesting read, and I definitely know a lot more about donkeys, Leadville, the Amish, and running than I did previously. If you're in the mood for a quick, informative, and sometimes funny read the audiobook was quite entertaining.
LibraryThing member JRlibrary
This book was about SO much more than teaching a rescue donkey to run in a challenging race. It covers everything from the animal human bond to the health benefits of living off the grid. It is weirdly inspiring and positive and made me feel refreshed and energized just reading it. Perhaps I
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enjoyed it because of my own love of all things furry, perhaps because burro racing was a topic about which I knew nothing but for whatever reason I loved every page. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member Judiex
Christopher McDougall was a war correspondent for Associated Press. Eventually he got married, moved to New York City with his wife and two young daughters, decided he really did not like living in a big city, and moved to a farm in Lancaster County, PA, home to the USA’s largest Amish community.
Chris agreed and ended up getting a donkey that had been owned by a hoarder. The animal was in terrible physical and mental condition but, with advice and help from some neighbors, he decided to give it a chance figuring it would just hang around the yard.. They named him Sherman. One key bit of advice was to give Sherman a job as a way to help him. Chris had heard about donkey races in Colorado and thought that might fill the bill.
RUNNING WITH SHERMAN not only tells the story of how training Sherman for racing (which also meant training people to run with him), but also how working with and training animals helps people, especially those with physical or mental conditions that would normally hold them back.
Prehistoric people learned to survive by watching and copying animals. They would follow wolves and grab leftover meat after the wolves finished eating. They began to cooperate with them for the benefit of both. People had to be aware of and react to/with them to survive. But as the culture changed, so did the relationships. People moved into homes and kept the animals outside. Now we buy our food in stores to which we travel in private automobiles. More than six million cats and dogs are dumped at shelters annually, many of which are destroyed daily. Our best friends are not longer pets but screens.
Nevertheless, there is a strong, innate human-animal bond. McDougall tells of a project at Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane where they discovered that taking care of an animal.
While living among the Amish community, Chris became aware of their lives and practices. The main foci were community and family. When they heard of new ideas and things, the community would discuss them and, as a group, decide whether they were beneficial or not and then decide whether or not to adopt them. Speed and envy were not priorities.
RUNNING WITH SHERMAN is the not only of Sherman but of the effect and challenges of people and animals on and with each other. It’s only when they can communicate and work together can they succeed. It’s an interesting, well written read, very much different than most of the books about relationships and challenges that are usually on the market. Reading it should change one’s perspective.
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A short time later, one of his daughters decided she wanted a donkey. Chris agreed and ended up getting a donkey that had been owned by a hoarder. The animal was in terrible physical and mental condition but, with advice and help from some neighbors, he decided to give it a chance figuring it would just hang around the yard.. They named him Sherman. One key bit of advice was to give Sherman a job as a way to help him. Chris had heard about donkey races in Colorado and thought that might fill the bill.
RUNNING WITH SHERMAN not only tells the story of how training Sherman for racing (which also meant training people to run with him), but also how working with and training animals helps people, especially those with physical or mental conditions that would normally hold them back.
Prehistoric people learned to survive by watching and copying animals. They would follow wolves and grab leftover meat after the wolves finished eating. They began to cooperate with them for the benefit of both. People had to be aware of and react to/with them to survive. But as the culture changed, so did the relationships. People moved into homes and kept the animals outside. Now we buy our food in stores to which we travel in private automobiles. More than six million cats and dogs are dumped at shelters annually, many of which are destroyed daily. Our best friends are not longer pets but screens.
Nevertheless, there is a strong, innate human-animal bond. McDougall tells of a project at Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane where they discovered that taking care of an animal.
While living among the Amish community, Chris became aware of their lives and practices. The main foci were community and family. When they heard of new ideas and things, the community would discuss them and, as a group, decide whether they were beneficial or not and then decide whether or not to adopt them. Speed and envy were not priorities.
RUNNING WITH SHERMAN is the not only of Sherman but of the effect and challenges of people and animals on and with each other. It’s only when they can communicate and work together can they succeed. It’s an interesting, well written read, very much different than most of the books about relationships and challenges that are usually on the market. Reading it should change one’s perspective.
Show Less
LibraryThing member murderbydeath
A good friend of mine - whose idea of a good time is competing in triathlons - and I met for our weekly coffee/tea a couple of weeks ago, and she said "I have a book I think you'd like." I looked at her with heavy scepticism, because she reads running books and cookbooks, and I'd rather starve than
So I brought the book home, and when MT saw it, he said, with heavy scepticism, "Is that supposed to be for me to read?", thereby proving that the only person he thought less likely to be interested in the book than himself, was me. So I started explaining how the book ended up on our coffee table and as I did, I opened it to the first page.
And was completely captivated. I don't mean "oh, this actually looks good" in an idle sort of way, I mean once I started reading it, I couldn't stop and I heard MT ask about 30 minutes later: "Did you mean to start reading that now?" Er... no, but shhh...
Part of this easy engagement definitely stemmed from my friend's assurances that the story ended well; if she hadn't sworn up and down that this was so, I'd have thrown the book down before I got to page 2 and refused to touch it again. The donkey may end up in a great place, but he doesn't start there. Horrifying fact: donkey's hooves never stop growing; they have to be trimmed or else they start curling upwards.
The story in a nutshell is this: the author, a runner, agrees to shelter and rehabilitate a donkey rescued from a hoarder. Part of the donkey's recovery success depends on being given a purpose, and at a loss for anything more purposeful, and with a secret curiosity about the sport of donkey racing, the author starts the donkey on the long path from death's door to racing fit.
That nutshell makes it sound like it's still more about racing than the more sedentary reader would like, but it isn't. This book is about the donkey - Sherman - and his fellow goat and equine friends, Lawrence, Flower and Matilda; it's about the people involved in helping Sherman be his best donkey self, and, as filler to pad out the page count, a lot of interesting asides about related topics, such as the history of donkey racing (honest to god, it's a thing), the people involved in racing donkeys, the benefits of animal/human relations, the benefits and dangers (in excess) of athletic training, depression, and the Amish. Yes, the Amish. It works.
McDougall is, at heart, a journalist, and the writing style and narrative reflect that. It's well written and an easy read, but it lacks that formal, reserved style sometimes found in similar books. It's chatty, and his personality comes through clearly, as does Sherman's and his furry friends. Who are awesome, by the way.
Running with Sherman is the best kind of feel good book, where the animal triumphs in the end, and everybody wins. As the reader who'd rather be eaten than run (not really, but it's a close thing), I'd happily recommend this book to anybody looking for an easy but worthwhile read.
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cook, and be eaten rather than run. "No, really; it's written by a runner, but it's about a donkey and I SWEAR nothing bad happens to the donkey, and it's ends happily." She knows me well.So I brought the book home, and when MT saw it, he said, with heavy scepticism, "Is that supposed to be for me to read?", thereby proving that the only person he thought less likely to be interested in the book than himself, was me. So I started explaining how the book ended up on our coffee table and as I did, I opened it to the first page.
And was completely captivated. I don't mean "oh, this actually looks good" in an idle sort of way, I mean once I started reading it, I couldn't stop and I heard MT ask about 30 minutes later: "Did you mean to start reading that now?" Er... no, but shhh...
Part of this easy engagement definitely stemmed from my friend's assurances that the story ended well; if she hadn't sworn up and down that this was so, I'd have thrown the book down before I got to page 2 and refused to touch it again. The donkey may end up in a great place, but he doesn't start there. Horrifying fact: donkey's hooves never stop growing; they have to be trimmed or else they start curling upwards.
The story in a nutshell is this: the author, a runner, agrees to shelter and rehabilitate a donkey rescued from a hoarder. Part of the donkey's recovery success depends on being given a purpose, and at a loss for anything more purposeful, and with a secret curiosity about the sport of donkey racing, the author starts the donkey on the long path from death's door to racing fit.
That nutshell makes it sound like it's still more about racing than the more sedentary reader would like, but it isn't. This book is about the donkey - Sherman - and his fellow goat and equine friends, Lawrence, Flower and Matilda; it's about the people involved in helping Sherman be his best donkey self, and, as filler to pad out the page count, a lot of interesting asides about related topics, such as the history of donkey racing (honest to god, it's a thing), the people involved in racing donkeys, the benefits of animal/human relations, the benefits and dangers (in excess) of athletic training, depression, and the Amish. Yes, the Amish. It works.
McDougall is, at heart, a journalist, and the writing style and narrative reflect that. It's well written and an easy read, but it lacks that formal, reserved style sometimes found in similar books. It's chatty, and his personality comes through clearly, as does Sherman's and his furry friends. Who are awesome, by the way.
Running with Sherman is the best kind of feel good book, where the animal triumphs in the end, and everybody wins. As the reader who'd rather be eaten than run (not really, but it's a close thing), I'd happily recommend this book to anybody looking for an easy but worthwhile read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mcorbink
I'm enjoying the book although it is not a page turner like some of the books I read. I definitely want to finish it, the story of the young donkey being the main thread, it is interwoven with many threads leading in different directions but coming back to Sherman and each animal and person who
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comes in contact with him. Show Less
ISBN
0525433252 / 9780525433255