Welcome to Litsy!

Looking forward to starting this book had it a while now and finally decided it was time to read it.

Thanks for passing on this book @Caroline2 - it certainly sounds intriguing! I thought my Mum might like it too as she loves travelogues / adventure type books but if it‘s a bit ‘millennial‘ as you thought, then she‘ll hate it! 🤣 Maybe I‘ll test it first before I pass it onto her rather than letting her read it first….

Love the cute squirrel card too! 😘

A true adventure story about a horse race across Mongolia. I‘ll forgive the author a little immaturity and weirdness since she was only 18 at the time. #ReadingAsia2021

A belated ARC, this was an unexpected joy to read!

19-year-old Lara applies to enter a 1000 mile horse race, across #Mongolia on a whim, at the very last minute. Her energy & enthusiasm shine through, & her appreciation for how ridiculous the whole thing was made me laugh.

It‘s a quick, light read, sometimes overwritten, but I enjoyed her musings & admired her scatty determination. Plus, I‘ve come away with some Mongolian authors to investigate.

Took my old kindle for the train home tonight & of course I‘d forgotten to load up any of the books I‘m reading. So I started this.

Really wasn‘t sure how I‘d get on - the author is young, impulsive & maybe a tad privileged. But so far it‘s a delightful fast read - you can‘t help but smile & shake your head at her!

Plus different cruise ships - these are the ones that have been living in Torbay rather than just-outside Torbay for the last year.

Book Mail!!!! 😀 👍 📚

This book was a fast, easy, adventure read. I had no idea there was a internationally known horse race in Mongolia until this book. Prior-Palmer hypnotizes you with the speed of her writing, both slowing down and speeding up to make you feel you on on the horse with her. She also pulled me in emotionally with her beautiful introspection. I highly recommend!

I feel like I am the odd one out. I was so annoyed with the author. What a privileged boring person she is. I was expecting so much more from this based off the race reviews and the premise. But the voice of the author made it boring, confusing, and anti climatic.
She writes like she is just wondering around trying to squeeze bad poetry out of a situation that should have been exciting and filled with culture.

5 books this month due to another epically long (1300+ pgs) novel and holds on audiobooks slowly trickling in. Tagged book was by far my favorite of this month‘s batch.

2 🎧 audio
1 🖥 ebooks
2 📚physical books
Fiction: 3
Nonfiction/essays/memoirs: 2
From my shelf: 0
#monthlywrapup #novemberstats

It‘s been a too long since I‘ve read a book that was too good to put down. But I finally found that in Rough Magic! You guys, this is an absolutely stellar memoir of Lara‘s experience in the Mongol Derby and becoming the first female and youngest winner. It doesn‘t matter that you know how the race ends. It‘s a beautiful and poetic journey to the finish line. An absolute joy!

#SoaringScores The Mongol Derby is the world‘s toughest horse race. A feat of endurance across the vast Mongolian plains once traversed by the people of Genghis Khan, competitors ride 25 horses across a distance of 1000km.

In 2013 Lara Prior-Palmer – nineteen, underprepared but seeking the great unknown – decides on a whim to enter the race. What happened next was history in the making. #SuperFeats
I listened on audio 👍🏻🎧

Updating my #nonfiction2019 bingo card. I‘m counting the tagged book as one with animals, and She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey for Book with an unlikable character (there are MANY in it.) #nonfiction2019

@Riveted_Reader_Melissa

1000 miles...on horseback...across Mongolia. Not exactly something you sign up for sporadically, but that's just what 19 year-old Lara did. Undertrained, underprepared, and underestimated, she ends up being not only the youngest but the first female ever to win this grueling race. It's a great adventure story and I always enjoy a good tale of folks who set out to do the seemingly impossible.

This was my book club book for this month. I enjoyed reading about the author‘s experience in an endurance race in Mongolia. I‘d never heard of endurance racing, and it was interesting to follow along with the author, who entered on a whim, as she realized what she‘d gotten herself into! There was some suspense about the outcome even though the description of the book tells you how it turns out.

If you‘ve noticed I‘ve been MIA, this is where I‘ve been. I miss you all, but I don‘t have the mental energy to keep up at the moment. I‘ll be back eventually though, I promise.
Extra apologies to anyone with a birthday coming up. You‘ve all been so good to me, I hate to forget your special day, but I just know I won‘t be making up parcels anytime soon.
All my best Litsy Family ❤️📚

I loved this book. A completely unprepared 19 year old races in and wins the Mongol Derby. Racing over 1,000 km, it is the world‘s longest endurance horse race. Mountains and vast plains of nothingness, boredom, fatigue and wild horses that are often unmanageable. Prior-Palmer was born on my birthday so her musings about her life experience, while meandering and sometimes self-indulgent, were so familiar to me that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A journey about a woman learning how to trust herself...a description of fighting through your physical pain and mentally convincing yourself you might just make it. How sometimes being unprepared, untrained, and untamed gets you right to where you need to be.

This book!!! I can‘t tell you how much I‘m enjoying it. And the author‘s birthday is the same as mine, so there‘s that. We share so many similarities.

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I found her writing a bit jumpy and hard to follow. I did like the idea of the race and it was fun to hear a bit about the Mongolian culture.

What a letdown. The topic kept my interest enough to finish (the only female and youngest competitor to ever win the Mongol Derby). The race is physically grueling and nearly impossible, yet the only emotion the author gave off was boredom. It read like she was just passively trotting along, allowing her mind to wander and give us mini flashbacks of her life that were irrelevant and snooze-worthy. You will NOT experience what the race felt like.

The library wins again over my boxes and shelves of books. A memoir of a woman riding her horse in the Mongolian Derby, a memoir of witness and resistance in El Salvador, and the thriller Miracle Creek? Yes, please.

With unabashed honesty, Lara Prior-Palmer shares her wild ride that earned her the title of both youngest & first female to win the Mongolian Derby ( a 10 day endurance horse race across Mongolia).
I almost wish I wasn‘t aware of the outcome because she was truly the underdog. I found her shameless bravado delightful & her drive to just pass/ beat the smug US rider Devan Horn amusing. At times her immaturity shows but that‘s part of her appeal.

Finishing up with my #audiopacking 💼🎒👜Im really enjoying this memoir of 19 year old Laura Prior-Palmer, a charming underdog competitor, who signs up for a long distance endurance horse race in Mongolia. The narrator is brilliant and making this memoir come to life ♥️

#AudioPacking Getting ready for my summer trip to visit friends and family in the States 🌏 🧳 I love the narrator‘s accent 🤓Have you read/listened to this audio @Megabooks ??? I think you‘d like it.

#bookfitnesschallenge check-in: I read three books this week, and walked 10,000+ steps everyday but one.😊📚📖 @wanderinglynn

#bfcr2 #bookfitnesschallenger2

Starting this tonight! 📖😊

#bookdragon #alwaysreading

“Perhaps if I had said to myself, at any moment in the race, I am being competitive. I want to win and I care, I might‘ve begun to find the whole competition boring. My competitiveness was like a kite I was refusing to pull down from the sky and examine. I think this increased its power over me. I rode with a mysterious compulsion, not knowing where it came from.”

Any other gap-year students reading this book and finding inspiration for your life? Theme of listnessness between stages of life- gap years. Longing for adventure or just to do something? Longing for oblivion? This book impresses me with its contemplation of why people do things during the less-structured parts of their life #buzzfeedbookclub

The prose reminds me so much of Priestdaddy! Not quite as funny, but the language is delightfully playful.

Thoroughly enjoyed Lara Prior-Palmer‘s memoir of competing in the Mongolian Derby. For eventing fans: anecdotes about her Aunt Lucinda are priceless.

I enjoyed this story a lot - what a crazy adventure! I didn't think races like this even existed. It made me wish I was more adventurous and athletic, myself.
Didn't always like her, though. She writes very well. It's just that whole "look at how unique and different I am!" quality that I dislike about memoirs in general. Like, yes, maybe you are, but chill. That's just my own judgment though, I might be being unfair. She is young.

"Mustn't squish the mole that lives in my heart"

Rough Magic is a memoir of the physical, mental, and emotional journey of the seemingly unprepared entrant in Mongol Derby to champion. Her writing style reminds me a bit of Dave Eggers. The story arc follows the trajectory of the race, but it meanders with inner thoughts, self-reflection, and poetry.

Library Haul - including Lara Prior-Palmer‘s book about riding in the Mongolian Derby.

Tonight, I‘m relaxing with a reread of one of the most freaking amazing memoirs I have read in a long time. Her writing is so incendiary, your eyes will boil in their sockets while you read it. If you like H IS FOR HAWK, WILD, or just feeling like your heart has been flayed open while you read, this book is for you. Out May 7th. 💙🧡💙

Available May 7th!
5🌟This memoir is intense and inspiring and wonderful! At 19 with no proper training Laura Prior-Palmer entered the worlds longest and toughest horse race. Riders usually spend years training and preparing for the harshness of this competition and many don't even finish. Her story is one of inspiration and intensity and determination. A truly wonderful read!
#bookreview #bookblogger

Excellent memoir from the youngest rider to win a race I wasn‘t even aware existed! I loved her writing style and humor. Some parts around the middle did feel a touch overwritten, but I greatly enjoyed the journey. #ARC

Rough Magic, the debut memoir from the youngest and first female winner of the toughest horse race in the world, is spellbinding. How a book can be so heady with poetry and yet make you read sitting straight up with adrenaline is certainly a feat. Prior-Palmer bares her loneliness, competitiveness, and frequent ridiculousness so freely you almost feel you‘re cantering through the Mongolian wilds beside her, and after reading this, I‘m ready to.

The subject matter of this book alone is enough to convince people to read it, a 19 year girl decides on a whim to participate in a 1,000km horse race across Mongolia. There are some really gorgeous moments of prose though, just beautiful writing. You‘ll be torn between wanting to hug Lara and smack her. A compelling read right to the end.

Morning reading. 🐴❤️📚