Reviews
Loving Larry
is a
riveting page-turner that reads like a good
novel. Penny Wormet has written an honest,
heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story
of Elaine Hall’s struggle to hold her family and
life together in the face of her husband Larry’s
severe bipolar disease and eventual death.
Deftly woven through Wormet’s narrative is the
story of Larry Hall Cutting Horses, home of some
of the foremost performance horses in the world.
Saddle up for a great ride!
~Sally Harrison, Author/Editor
In splendid fashion, two
lifelong friends have united to capture the
trials and tribulations of an extraordinary
person. From beginning to end, this touching
saga of a beautiful woman, her family, and her
horses, warms the heart and touches the soul. In
unabridged detail, we relive a chronicled life
of humble beginnings to one of enviable heights,
yet riddled with adversity…a sobering reminder
that the gift of life on Earth is laced with
tragedy and heartache. Skillfully intertwined in
this account is an engaging look at the horses,
people, and pulse of the National Cutting Horse
Association.
Fueled by an unerring
faith in our Lord and empowered by an
unrelenting philanthropic thirst, we gain a
vivid appreciation of one woman’s yearning to
maintain a happy and wholesome family setting,
to strive for success in a male-dominated
cutting horse industry, and to attend to those
less fortunate.
This autobiographical
account is written as a tribute to a loving and
gifted husband and father inconceivably
afflicted with mental illness, and of a fabled
genetic line of cutting horse. I close the book
realizing that the unheralded figure is usually
adorned in pink….the woman behind the man and
the horse. Both within and outside the chapters
of this reading, I have been touched deeply by
the horse, Peptoboonsmal, and by the
woman that named him. I am ever so grateful that
both have entered my life.
Dickson D. Varner, DVM,
MS, Diplomat ACT
Professor and Chief of
Theriogenology
Pin Oak Stud Chair of
Stallion Reproductive Studies
Department of Large Animal
Clinical Sciences
College of Veterinary
Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Texas A&M University
A “Boon” to history’s
biographical works! Loving Larry is truly a
brilliant literary accomplishment. This
collaboration of life-long friends has produced
an unprecedented masterpiece. Mrs. Hall, who’s
life-story reflects a selfless, prayerful, and
relentless business-woman’s pursuit of God’s
Will, is an inspiration to those who are without
hope and are challenged with life’s roadblocks
and tragedies. Mrs. Wormet, a first-time author,
has risen to the challenge and succeeded with
flying colors. After reading throughout the
night I found it inconceivable that I should put
the book down until I had finished it. Imagine
my astonishment upon learning, post hoc, that
this work was Mrs. Wormet’s first major literary
endeavor. A heroic and humbling read, Loving
Larry has Best Seller written all over it.
~Devin Hayes
Business Owner/Consultant/Marine Biologist
"This is an amazing and
moving book, a true-to-life account of faith
triumphant over the most severe affliction and
pressure. The testimony to the power of God and
the eternal love of Jesus Christ is
unmistakable. Penny's skillful and sensitive
narrative will draw you in and hold you
spellbound with anticipation, to the very last
page. You will care for the people here. You
will experience the full spectrum of their
emotions in a way few authors can manage to
convey, and you will watch in awe as the loving
providence of God unfolds around and through
Elaine Hall."
~Pastor John R. Krebs
If you even think
you might know someone who is bipolar, then
Loving Larry is a definite read for you. Written
by Penny Wormet as told to her by Elaine Hall,
the wife of Larry Hall, it is a first-hand
account of the life of the late Larry Hall who
suffered from bipolar disease.
More descriptive than any
words a doctor can offer and more explanatory
that any textbook can impart, the 374-page story
provides an insightful glimpse into the inner
working of the bipolar mind. You walk with
Elaine as she lives through Larry’s triumphs of
building an equine empire, and you struggle with
her through his tragedies, including the
inability to live to experience his empire’s
fulfillment.
While bipolar awareness is
a major theme, it is only a part of the
education Loving Larry offers. If you think
you might like first-hand knowledge about an
individual’s walk with God, then again, this is
a definite read for you. Elaine pulls no punches
as she describes how her faith sustained her
during Larry’s tragic life, and then continued
to sustain her as she strived to carry on his
equine business through their stallion
Peptoboonsmal.
Still, there is more here
than Elaine’s straightforward insight into the
often unmentionable bipolar disease and the
often controversial subject of religion. The
book is in reality, her love story, both for her
husband and for their stallion, and that is what
wraps and cushions the devastating blows of
bipolar while enlightening the strengths of
religion.
Loving Larry will leave
you thinking. You’ll think about the difficulty
of an illness, perhaps dream about the
excitement of owning a great horse, maybe even
question your own mortality. One thing for sure,
though, it will leave you thinking.
~Gala Nettles
Free Lance Writer and Columnist
If you're in the cutting
horse business and you're familiar with
Peptoboonsmal, one of the leading sires in the
industry, this book is a must to read. A true
story that reads like a suspense novel,
Loving Larry is a story about Larry and
Elaine Hall and Larry's innate ability to buy
and breed great cutting horses. Life turned
tragic when Larry was diagnosed with bipolar
disease and eventually died. While most people
in the industry had never met Elaine, as she
played a very silent role in the industry, she
took Larry's dreams of owning a super horse and
made them a reality. She not only stayed in the
horse business but promoted Peptoboonsmal to his
rightful spot as one of the leading sires in the
industry.
~Glory Ann Kurtz, Executive
Editor, Quarter Horse News
Based on the true story of
well-known cutting horse breeder Elaine Hall,
Loving Larry combines romance, drama
and cutting lore in 380 pages that pull the
reader in for a first-class adventure.
In her first book, Penny
Wormet demonstrates a fine ear for dialog, and a
great sense of pacing. She devoted several years
to meticulous research of the cutting horse
industry, and that effort has paid off
handsomely in the atmosphere and realism of her
well-told story.
The book includes an
appendix of pedigrees, earnings and produce
statistics of the horses whose lives are
intertwined with the people in this story.
There's also a first-rate list of references
Wormet consulted to help give her story the ring
of truth.
~Alan Gold, Director of
Publishing, Cutting Horse Chatter
‘Penny Wormet’s “Loving
Larry” is an accurate and moving account of
manic-depressive order and how that disease
ultimately stole Larry Hall from himself and
from his family. We do not often speak of these
illnesses when they touch our lives because they
manifest as behaviors: sometimes dangerous,
often embarrassing and almost always
inexplicable. Ms. Wormet does and outstanding
job of describing the struggle of a man with an
illness he can’t understand or control, and his
family’s efforts to deal with his distorted
thinking, frightening mood swings, and shattered
insight into his need for treatment. As a
psychiatrist, who specializes in the treatment
of persons with severe mental illness, I applaud
Elaine Hall’s courage in coming forth with this
story and for her expression of the deep faith
that has brought her through it all.’
~Judith Hunter, MD
Medical Director, Forensic Psychiatry
Dallas Metrocare Services
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