dori decamillis                                                                                 my steamboat reviews

If you think you know Steamboat, think again. This story of a ranch town cum ski resort, by a native who knew it all back when, will make you rethink not only Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but that "same small town in each of us," as the songwriter said.

In these pages you will meet a mother with a profanity habit who fling cats into snowbanks and plays sad folk songs on the ukulele; a father who emerges only rarely from his deep silences to laught manically at his own jokes and teach his teenage daughters how to play dirty basketball; townspeople who include lecherous old dudes hanging around the local pool, former race car drivers at the wheel of the scool bus, and history teachers who issue bomb threats.

Dori DeCamillis (nee Duckels) tells of her unique family, peculiar neighbors, and reassuringly American hometown with honesty, grace, and most inportantly humor. A cross between Patrick McManus and Garrison Keillor, DeCamillis gives us a town and cast of characters not soon forgotten.

--Avery Hurt, author of Bullet With Your Name On It

What a great book about growing up in rural Steamboat, Colorado before and while it becomes the famous resort town we now know. At the center of these true stories is the unconventional Duckels family, whose adventures and anecdotes are at turns funny, surprising, and even shocking. The author shares her experiences honestly and without a heavy hand towards nostalgia. This is not a memoir that parades a family's dirty laundry, but instead shares with the reader those funny, weird, goofy and spontaneous things that happen in a less than typical family. My Steamboat made me remember my own stories, and reminded me that the place and time in which we grow up is a finite proposition. But, as DeCamillis reminds, is always worth the trip home.

--Steve Dunlap, video producer

Link to Tom Ross review in Steamboat Today 12.01.09

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