It seemed I was always dropped in the middle of historic historic homesteads without an explanatory placardin sight. The backstories were mine to imagine and the future was up to me.
-Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
I’ve really been enjoying my nighttime reading, and I’m finding myself reading more than I have in years.
This edition of book club is Never Burn Your Moving Boxes: A True Tale of a Real-Life Cowboy Wife written by Jolyn Young.
You get get your copy directly here at Trafalgar Square books!
When I first picked this up I imagined a book set back in time a bit. I imagined Jolyn was looking back decades later. Nope. I was horribly wrong.
As a matter of fact, Jolyn is about my age (guessing) and very much in the present. She is an author and a comedian and has really made herself quite an interesting life. In other words, she is far from just a cowboy wife.
I am so vastly removed from the “Wild West” here in the Northeast that I failed to realize how Western things still can be. Throughout the book, Jolyn would text and mention modern technologies but then would return to no cell service, isolated areas hours from civilization. It makes me realize how truly out of touch I am and that I need to take a trip out west and experience some things!
I still couldn’t believe I was living my twelve-year-old self’s dream. I wrote the story, filed it with my editor, and didn’t think too much about either Dano or Jim again.
-Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
That said this book is a fascinating glimpse into modern cowboy life. It’s wild and hard to fathom so much open land. Around here it seems all the good land is getting farther and farther apart, and we’re getting far too developed.
Never Burn Your Moving Boxes is a love story written tactfully and thoughtfully. Jolyn and her husband Jim met for a photo shoot in an article before they became love interests. It wasn’t until later that they went on their first date. I felt the raw excitement, curiosity, and timidity in that first date. A forty-five-minute drive can be awkward if the date isn’t going well.
The book navigates an on-again-off-again relationship until one day they finally end up together. They found themselves finally in each other’s arms again. An unexpected pregnancy left her in a mental predicament about marriage.
The marriage and proposal were far from a fairy tale. It’s never what one picture’s for their life. But it was REAL. I really respect how real and honest it was. It didn’t have to be perfect. They were together. Happy. Married. Living Life together the best way they knew how.
We walked back down the hallway and into the reception area hand in hand, just like we’d arrived. I didn’t feel any different. I thought I might feel some strong emotion-happiness or excitement, contentment or even regret-but I just felt tired and pregnant.
-Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
The book can be a culture shock, too. Some of the things Jolyn talks about casually would blow my mind. Dropping a horse off to slaughter, horse roping, the living conditions, and more. I couldn’t dream of doing any of these in today’s world.
I was trying to find something to smile about to combat the gloom of canning horses that we’d called by name and earnestly tried to get a long with. The check was a pittance and beside the point.
–Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
The amount of driving Jolyn does in this book is amazing to me. We whine and complain about a 45-minute drive…we won’t trailer 2.5 hours away, ride, and trailer them home on the same day. Even our trip to Kentucky was incredibly foreign to us…but out west long drives are normal.
We follow Jolyn as she and Jim start their family. They move to different places…it seems “hard times” is simply a way of life. But they make it work. Dirty home to dirty home Jolyn manages to clean up and make it livable. She writes her articles, raises her babies, and loves her husband.
Jolyn takes us through the struggles in their relationship; Jim’s struggle with addiction. It’s so REAL, so RAW, and hits close to home for a lot of people. It’s very relatable.
She leaves us on a cliffhanger as they embark on yet a new adventure. I won’t give it all way but I have to hope that we may someday learn about what happens next. I’m invested (signs of a great read)!
Final Word:
I settled into my saddle and looked up between my horse’s ears. The morning air still pleasantly cool, and I was alone in the warm-up pen at the frairgrounds.
–Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
Never Burn Your Moving Boxes is an interesting story. It’s not what I was expecting, but that’s beside the point.
It is not HORSEY. It is not a story about a cowgirl, either. She was a cowgirl but the focus is on her life as a cowboy wife. She had spent time as a cowgirl but it seemed to fade away as soon as Jim got involved…and more so after children. There were moments where we got to see her cowgirl come out but the focus was her duty as a wife and mother. It made me sad and wonder where did Jolyn go?
But that’s just it…we evolve and change. We’re on an everchanging journey with many chapters in our own books. She has every right to wear her wife and mom title with pride.
I find it incredibly noble that Jolyn was able to make the best out of nearly every underwhelming (or overwhelmingly bad) situation. You can tell this woman is strong, brave, smart, clever. She knows her values, and she’s resilient. Some situations described would have broken most people…and it’s definitely not the life for me (as much as I want to “experience being a cowboy”)…but she trucked on through each and every time.
There’s something to learn here…and to admire greatly.
It felt like our first dance as a married couple, the one a bride and groom traditionally do at a wedding reception to a favorite slow song with all eyes on them-the one we hadn’t had. The song was a fast one and later I couldn’t remember the name of it, but that didn’t matter, either.
What mattered was that he chose to dance with me.
–Jolyn Young, Never Burn Your Moving Boxes
I also want to add that I buy most of my horse books from Trafalgar Square Books. I’m excited to say that I am an affiliate with the publisher, and so proud to be. Trafalgar Square embodies the spirit of horse people…. they ARE horse people. The operation is based in an old barn in Vermont and run by only a few people…people you can talk to and meet in person at events. It’s not a big corporate conglomerate, and for that I am grateful. This happens to be one of such books. You can find your copy through my affiliate link here, it’ll let TSB know I sent you!
Never Burn Your Moving Boxes: A True Tale of a Real-Life Cowboy Wife by Jolyn Young
The Green Horseman 
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