Reading Kathy Greenwood’s account of growing up on a small ranch in southeastern New Mexico, I kept wondering where she had heard the story of my life. From her ill-starred introduction into the fine art of milking a recalcitrant Jersey cow to her uneasy homecoming from graduate school, she kept reflecting incidents out of my own West Texas experience. In many ways she reflects the life of almost everyone–man or woman–who has grown up on a ranch … She writes with a sparkle and a keen wit. –Elmer Kelton

Heart-Diamond describes the author’s experiences growing up on a working cattle ranch in Southeastern New Mexico. In a series of sketches that begins with an incident in her childhood and concludes with her return to the ranch after a lengthy absence, the book features various members of her family in settings and situations typical of daily life not only on the Heart-Diamond but on any small, family-operated ranch: rounding up cattle, fixing windmills, helping a heifer to calve. At the same time that the sketches celebrate western culture and the love that holds the family together, their touch is light and humorous.

As a book written from a woman’s point of view, Heart-Diamond offers some unique commentary on the cowboy way of life.