I just finished this book and wanted to share a quick review with the board and encourage you to give it a read.
The Hill Ranch Racers is a book about family, motorcycles and ranching. Set in Southern Colorado on a ranch owned by the Hill family, there are two things on the ranch, work and work. The family has used motorcycles to perform work on their cattle ranch for years and they are very much a part of the working equipment on the farm.
The story starts by recounting a privateer racer making an appearance at a national race and the ensuing tragedy of that race. I'll say that I was "all in" by the third sentence of the book. As a club racer, who has made an attempt at a national level race, the description of the event was vivid and the excitement palpable.
The excitement in terms of both triumph, and heartbreak, carries throughout the book. We see families come together and get a sense for the community that binds motorcyclists together. This is my favorite aspect of the book. I don't know a single human that doesn't "geek out" on something. For me it's motorcycles, but it doesn't really matter what it is. It could be horses, airplanes, RC cars or cribbage, we all choose to do something that brings us into proximity with others that have similar interests, and in doing so we extend our families to those groups. It is this aspect of the book that I appreciate most, because it shows both the power of these extended "families" and and challenge that we are each presented with as we choose to let new people into our lives.
In the introduction the author says that the names are made up, but these names relate closely to people I know both in name and personality. It honors the spirits of these people, but it does even more than that. I believe that everything we choose to pass our time on would have people that meet these descriptions. The quiet expert, the enthusiastic teacher, the young protoge, the skilled salesman and the rich kid are all represented here and we get to see these people in various aspects that allowed me to be both judgmental of, and empathetic towards their positions in life.
Nick does a beautiful job of crafting a story in "The Hill Ranch Racers", one that will resonate with motorcyclists, but isn't limited to that audience. It's an easy read, and one that I'm sharing at a slower pace with my 4 year old sons. I'll wrap this review up by saying, they can't wait for the next chapter.
You can find a copy here:
http://www.amazon.com/Hill-Ranch-Rac...l+ranch+racers
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicane-Trackdays/89490667018
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Originally Posted by j0ker
