{"id":3643,"date":"2025-07-23T11:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:16:00","slug":"book-review-prairie-valkyries-dont-canter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3643","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Cecil Homer<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Literary Fiction<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798891326323<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 352 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Amazon<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Bookshop<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer<\/em><\/p>\n

The empowering story of a warrior woman in academia who forges a life of freedom for herself and her child<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cecil Homer\u2019s Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter<\/em> is a book that wrestles with some big questions. The first one, and maybe the biggest, is: What is power?<\/p>\n

Jennifer thinks she knows the answer by the time she\u2019s earned her Ph.D. She says, \u201cSome might call it freedom, but I want more. Power to have others do what I want\u2014for me\u2026Others have dictated to me for too long. It\u2019s time to reverse course.\u201d<\/strong> It\u2019s a blunt introduction to a driven woman, but it\u2019s also humanizing. Jennifer is intelligent, always asking questions, and a little naive about human interaction.<\/p>\n

This shortcoming adds texture and tension throughout the story. Jennifer has an interest in ethnography that doesn\u2019t gel with the adherence to data that her male professors share. As an assistant professor, her assertions raise eyebrows (and some veiled threats ) from the tenured men in her orbit. As relentless as she is with her studies, it won\u2019t help her if she can\u2019t evolve into someone who can navigate the politics around her.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s fascinating about Valkyries<\/em> is that the writing style closely mirrors Jennifer\u2019s state of mind. On the one hand, the prose is frenetic, like the mind as it tries to fire through different and complicated processes at lightning speed. When calculating early in the book, for instance, readers see Jennifer in a frazzled state, trying to figure out something new and unfamiliar. \u201cThat was not easy: OK, the picture made sense, but the calculations didn\u2019t; well, just memorize how to do it and live another day. Keep Professor Dahl happy.\u201d<\/strong> Homer is excellent at capturing the fractured pace of a stressed-out mind.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this almost skintight closeness to Jennifer\u2019s mindset can create a sense of coldness or a bit of a distance. More than a few times, I found myself making notes like \u201cJennifer\u2019s excited about her realization,\u201d only to have it occur to me that I was drawing conclusions of my own. There is no quickening of the pulse, no elaboration on her emotions\u2014only my feeling that she should be excited and that she seemed to be taking shortcuts in the moment. When some big moments happen, Valkyries<\/em> leaves some to the imagination.<\/p>\n

None of that, however, is meant to minimize or take away from Jennifer\u2019s determination. That level of drive is necessary for a woman navigating a male-dominated world in recent post-Nixon America. And, despite the several empathetic and supportive men who find their way into her life (the three Daddies that Jennifer\u2019s daughter Valky says, \u201cI have had for all my life\u201d<\/strong>), that hardness is mandatory for a twentieth century woman like Jennifer who wants to show her daughter that personal power, accomplishment, and self-determination are possible in a world often set on dismissing their ambitions.<\/p>\n

Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter<\/em> is an inspired story fueled by and formed around the unapologetic feminism it depicts. An altogether rewarding reading experience.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Amazon<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Bookshop<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thank you for reading Eric Mayrhofer\u2019s book review of Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter <\/em>by Cecil Homer! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Book Reviews<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>IBR Blog<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/span>Resources for Writers<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

\t\t\t<\/p><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Book Review: Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter by Cecil Homer Genre: Literary Fiction ISBN: 9798891326323 Print Length: 352 pages Publisher: Atmosphere Press Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer The empowering story of a warrior woman in academia who forges a life of freedom for herself and her child Cecil Homer\u2019s Prairie Valkyries Don\u2019t Canter is a book that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}