The New York Times bestselling author of Chosen by a Horse explains how caring for an animal taught her to care for herself.One day, at the age of thirty-one, Susan Richards realized that she was an alcoholic. She wrote it down in her journal, struck by the fact that it had taken nine years of waking up hung-over to name her illness. What had changed?Susan had a new horse, a spirited Morgan named Georgia, and, as she says: "It had some...

When she agrees to take on one of the abused horses just rescued by the local SPCA, a new chapter opens in Susan Richards's difficult life.She lost her mother at the age of five and was raised by uncaring relatives; she married unhappily and divorced; and she'd been an alcoholic. Now, at the age of forty-three, she lives with three horses who keep her company: the diva-like Georgia, boyish Tempo and hopelessly romantic Hotshot.While trying to capture another horse assigned ...

“Proof that love for another animal can alone make one human and humane: wit and crushing sadness chasing each other all across the page; intelligence and bravery and perfect literary pitch... Damn great.”—Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of Dark Horses and Black Beauties: Animals; Women, a Passion“A bold and sensitive memoir of what it means to open one’s heart to love... A magnificent read.”—Adele von Rust McCormick, Ph.D and Marlena Deborah McCormick, PhD, authors of

Susan Richards pinches a small bottle of scarlet red at the spa salon wearing a black tunic. From a long corridor to an office the blue light of an alarm flashes silently at an exclusive jewellers.Barbara Whitmore promoted at her bank in computer programming is not surprised to find this out. No coverage of the culprits on security cameras, she reacts in a cool manner monitored by two detectives.Francesco Rocca the glamorous and romantic jeweller in contact with an American...

“Richards reflects on how rich life becomes when one travels her own best path. . . . Richards writes more courageously than she perhaps realizes, and each page of this uplifting book will touch a chord in everyone who enjoyed her first book.”--Booklist“Charismatic. . . Engaging writing by an honest self-explorer.”--Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Chosen by a Horse:“An inspired story of what family means, and wha...

Far from Moscow and St Petersburg, there lies another Russia. Overlooked by the new urban elites and almost unknown to the West, in the great provincial hinterlands of the Volga River and Siberia, Russians struggle to reconcile their old traditions with a new and unfamiliar world. Returning again and again, for over a decade, to the deep heartland of this rapidly-evolving country, Susan Richards has encountered extraordinary people and forged lasting friendships. Through their unforgettabl...

The horse Susan Richards chose for rescue wouldn’t be corralled into her waiting trailer. Instead Lay Me Down, a former racehorse with a foal close on her heels, walked right up that ramp and into Susan’s life. This gentle creature—malnourished, plagued by pneumonia and an eye infection—had endured a rough road, but somehow her heart was still open and generous. It seemed fated that she would come into Susan’s paddock and teach her how to embrace the joys of life despite the dangers of liv...

One day, at the age of thirty-one, Susan Richards realized that she was an alcoholic. She wrote it down in her journal, struck by the fact that it had taken nine years of waking up hung-over to name her illness. What had changed?Susan had a new horse, a spirited Morgan named Georgia, and, as she says, "It had something to do with Georgia. It had something to do with making a commitment as enormous as caring for a horse that might live as my companion for the next forty years. It ha...

When Susan Richards adopted an abused horse rescued by the local SPCA, she didn’t know how Lay Me Down’s loving nature would touch her heart—and change her life.For more than a decade she had aspired to be a published writer but it was only with the memoir she wrote to honor Lay Me Down that she achieved this goal.The book led to a book tour in the course of which Susan reconnected with family and friends from who she had cut herself off. She had given up on romance, but at...

Chimes of bells and loud drums played as the car approached the crossroads with heather to each side.From deep purple and pink fuchsias in Los Angeles a British garage executive wins a free holiday.

A young investigative reporter, a best-selling author and a twenty-year old murder converge in a deadly dance. Jessica Kallan thinks working for her favorite author, Ethan Miller, is the job of a lifetime, until she realizes that researching a cold-case has resurrected a killer.

An "engrossing" memoir of finding comfort, company—and mischief—at the famed Georgia retreat for children with polio (Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air).Just after her eleventh birthday, Susan Richards Shreve was sent to the Polio Foundation in Warm Springs, Georgia. Famously founded by Franklin Delano Roosevelt after he was disabled by the disease himself, the haven would be her home, off and on, for the next two years. In this piercingly honest memoir, Sh...