Diana is a great storyteller and created a wonderful memoir! I really enjoyed reading about Diana's 1950s to 1960s youth in the three-state area of northwest Colorado, northeast Utah, and southern Wyoming. Her life was exciting compared to mine during the same decades. Critical to her story also is the colorful history of the region with renown outlaws and the Bassett women and the impact of that on her family's long history in the area. ( )

"Riding the Edge of an Era Growing up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail" by Diana Allen Kouris

Growing up in Casper, I rode my two wheeled Black Stallion to neighbor ranches down the street. My friends would get out their horses and we would round up cows and have races for hours. My dad, thankfully, thought it was amusing that he got no respect for his geology profession as I wanted him to be a rancher so I could have a real horse and ride like the wind! Diana Allen Kouris lived my imaginary life in Brown's Park intersecting the borders of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Reading "Riding The Edge" gave me a close look into the life I should have had as a child and the life I wouldn't have the nerve or physicality to survive. She had an irascible older brother and a tough older sister and together they roamed the hills where outlaws had tread. They family stuck together, their community was supportive and the history comes complete with characters you will learn to love. Childhood was marked by traveling into Rock Springs for school and back to the ranch on the weekends and holidays. The family were horse people, land caretakers and hard workers. Those traits were passed on and expected from even the smallest. Non-stop adventures will take you back to a slower pace where values started and ended with family, community and hard work. This is a treasure from the past no matter where your dreams began. ( )