Rural Life Books - Page 5

Onions in the Stew

Betty Bard MacDonald

List Price: $23.95 By: G. K. Hall & Company Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $14.80

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

You know how sometimes friendship blossoms in the Þrst few moments of meeting? “Something clicked,” we say. Well, that’s what discovering Betty MacDonald was like for me: I happened to read a couple of pages of one of her books and — click — knew right away that here was a vivacious writer whose friendly, funny, and Þery company I was really going to enjoy. Although MacDonald’s Þrst and most popular book, The Egg and I, has remained in print since its original publication, her three other volumes have been unavailable for decades. The Plague and I recounts MacDonald’s experiences in a Seattle sanitarium, where the author spent almost a year (1938-39) battling tuberculosis. The White Plague was no laughing matter, but MacDonald nonetheless makes a sprightly tale of her brush with something deadly. Anybody Can Do Anything is a high-spirited, hilarious celebration of how “the warmth and loyalty and laughter of a big family” brightened their weathering of The Great Depression. In Onions in the Stew, MacDonald is in unbuttonedly frolicsome form as she describes how, with husband and daughters, she set to work making a life on a rough-and-tumble island in Puget Sound, a ferry-ride from Seattle.

Case Files of the Tracker: True Stories from America's Greatest Outdoors

Tom Brown

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 71 new & used starting at $1.08

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Can't he use any more descriptive words? 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 16 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book yesterday from Barnes and Nobels bookstore. I liked the title and thought, "This might be a good read." I read half of it yesterday. The book was so monotonous. He keeps using the word "Cenntrical ring" and "track" too much. I couldn't get past a page without reading the word track. It became so repetitive that it was chore to continue reading this book. I hated it.

Editorial Review:

From the remote Pine Barrens of New Jersey to the wilds of Wyoming, Tom Brown has earned the mantle of America's Greatest Tracker-someone who, with the help of an Apache elder, has developed his senses to such a degree that he can "read" the environment around him in ways that seem almost magical.

Now, for the first time, he shares vivid accounts of his most fascinating cases as an outdoors detective, including:

€ The search for a diabetic child before he goes into insulin shock
€ The struggle to apprehend an armed criminal who put a bullet in his back
€ The hunt for a tiger loose in the New Jersey wilderness
€ The incredible search for a missing teenager where the police had turned up no clues
€ His astonishing determination that the cause of a police officer's death was not a suicide, but in fact, a murder!
€ and more

The Big Open: On Foot Across Tibet's Chang Tang

Rick Ridgeway

Amazon Price: $26.00 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: National Geographic Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very interesting 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This is another strong Ridgeway book. Although he doesn't have the wide range of material to draw from as in the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, this book is still fascinating. Anyone who reads this will be intrigued by the fate of the chiru, appalled that so many people could be convinced that their fur could be collected off bushes and rocks (including major magazine publications), and interested in the dynamics of four determined personalities working together to cross the Chang Tang. Highly recommended.

The Big Open 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Ridgeway does it again with a thoughtful, engaging story of a trek across the high tundra of Tibet looking for the calving grounds of the Chiru, an antelope which is in danger of extinction from killing it for it's wool. With Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and the late Galen Rowell; one gets to know these characters as friends and I'm envious of the time they were able to spend crossing an amazing landscape seen by few westerners since 1903. The Chiru were the reason for the trek and hopefully this book will help in their protection.

Editorial Review:

On foot and on their own, four adventurers brave the challenges of nature on a 275-mile trek through one of the most beautiful—and most remote—regions of the world.

When Chores Were Done: Boyhood Stories

Jerry Apps

Amazon Price: $13.56 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Voyageur Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $8.49

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Editorial Review:

The Midwest in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s was a special place-a place where parents and children worked side by side to eke out a living from the land, and neighbors stuck by each other through good times and bad.

In this affectionate, insightful collection of stories, Jerry Apps takes us to that world. He relives the toughness of farm life-plowing the soil with horses, milking cows by hand, putting in long days with heavy, dangerous machinery. He shows us the lighter side too, as he peddles his father's massive rutabaga harvest and gets to know the neighbor boys-and their personal dictionary of cuss words. We meet Frank, Pinky, and Harry, three farmers whose love of music could transform an entire community; Morty, the odd loner whom only a few wild animals could understand; and Fanny, the extraordinary collie whose role on the farm was as important as that of any human being.

Withing each story we see just how warm, loving, and supremely educational growing up on a farm could be, for it is here that a young child learns not only how to take the head off a chicken and drive a tractor like a grown-up, but to deal with illness, disability, and death. Resonating with poingnancy and humor, When Chores Were Done contains stories you'll want to read over and over again. Jerry Apps is a master storyteller who writes through the eyes of a child and with the wisdom of a man. Through the tales are personal, their lessons are universal.

Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher's Year

Ora E. Anderson

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Ohio University Press Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $9.26

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Out of the Woods: A Bird Watcher’s Year is a journey through the seasons and a joyous celebration of growing old. In fifty-nine essays and poems, Ora E. Anderson, birder, bird carver, naturalist, and nature writer, reveals the insights and recollections of a keen-eyed observer of nature, both human and avian. The essays follow the rivers and creeks, the highways and little-known byways of Appalachia, and along the way we become nearly as familiar with its numerous bird, plant, and animal species as with the author himself.

These are not the memories of a single year, however, but of a long lifetime spent immersed in the natural world. Out of the Woods, presented with humor and passion, is an account of a well-lived, productive, and satisfying life. The essays offer an intimate portrait of a half century of life on Anderson’s beloved old farm (more nearly a nature preserve), where he lived in harmony with birds and nature and followed the rhythm of the seasons. We are invited to share the joys—and the disappointments and sorrows—inherent in such a life.

Generously illustrated with Julie Zickefoose’s detailed drawings and evocative sketches, this book will delight bird watchers, artists, naturalists, backyard gardeners, and anyone who is sometimes tempted to take a rutted, overgrown, and unused path just to see where it leads.

Living a Country Year: Wit and Wisdom from the Good Old Days

Jerry Apps

Amazon Price: $13.46 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Voyageur Press Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $6.54

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Editorial Review:

In his bestselling Every Farm Tells a Story, Jerry Apps brought color and detail to the dreams so many of us have of simple rural life. Here, in his signature style, he spins warm-hearted tales about growing up on a Midwestern dairy farm in the 1940s--stories that make his country year our own.

Wearing his hard-earned wisdom lightly, Apps tells a tale for each month of the year in the heart of the country, and adds aphorisms and the occasional recipe for good measure. We skate with him on a frozen pond on a moonlit night. We watch him drive the hired mans Model T touring car at the age of 10, recover from polio by driving a tractor during disking season, and learn to ride bareback on a pony named Ginger.

Whether shooting off firecrackers on the Fourth of July or suffering through "potato vacation" or overcoming stage fright at the annual Christmas program, Apps is a delightful companion, teaching us a gentle lesson as he learns. By turns witty and profound, his book reaffirms our nations rural heritage.

Cattitude Boxed Set

Christine Montaquila

Amazon Price: $17.50 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Stewart, Tabori and Chang Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $5.65

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Editorial Review:

The purrfect gift for the holidays!
Diecut slipcase with faux jewels

The ladies are back, and this time with a trilogy of feline fun. Christine Montaquila and Kim Levin’s bestselling “feline guides” are now available as a boxed set, including Cattitude: The Feline Guide to Being Fabulous, Catrimony: The Feline Guide to Ruling the Relationship, and Caternal Instincts: The Feline Guide to Mastering Motherhood. All three feature the unique black-and-white documentary-style photography and clever captions that have kept cat lovers wanting more.

In Cattitude, the felines give us the dish on living large for women in any stage of life, offering advice like “Accept your body. Augment your ego,” and “Realize a tiara is a state of mind.” In Catrimony they conquer the milestone of marriage with witty suggestions to “Hide the videotape” and “Devise a holiday evacuation plan.” And, finally, in Caternal Instincts the ladies get real about the challenges of parenting, encouraging every mom to “Buy stain resistant everything” and “Accept the fact that you’ll never pee alone again.” Perfect for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, or any gift-giving occasion, the Cattitude Boxed Set is for cat lovers, photography buffs, and everyone in between.

Humor from the Country

Jerry Apps

Amazon Price: $16.95 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Voyageur Press Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $1.76

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Blends nostalgia with his a special brand of storytelling 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Jerry Apps is a born storyteller and an observant historian of rural life in Wisconsin, past and present. In Humor From The Country, Apps has collected a wealth of anecdotes and stories celebrating the lighter side of country life. With stories based upon childhood memories, Apps reveals that country folk always knew how to have fun between their chores. Blending nostalgia with his own special brand of storytelling, Jerry Apps's Humor From The Country is a "must" for anyone who enjoys a trip down memory lane with a truly gifted guide.

Editorial Review:

Life during the early to middle twentieth century is often viewed as a time of backbreaking work for meager returns. Often, the strength and resiliency of family and neighbors is overlooked. Through stories based on childhood memories, master storyteller Jerry Apps gives us insights into the lighter side of country life.

The Peregrine (New York Review Books Classics)

J.A. Baker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

...red in tooth and claw 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is nature, hard core. The line between Baker and his prey disappears during the year he spends with these birds. Magnificent, heart-stopping, sense-exploding writing. I read it slowly because it made me more observant of everything I miss when I rush. Makes you a better creature on the earth for reading it.

Editorial Review:

With no prior knowledge of birds, the author is seized with an unexplained longing to track the peregrine falcons that hunt in the river valley behind his home each winter. Though his subjects are far more elusive than the pigeons and gulls on which they prey, on rare occasions he sees a peregrine roosting or bathing, or spots a fresh kill in the grass. He outlines their strict hunting ethos: take other birds only in flight, and spare only the leg and back meat for scavengers. As winter approaches, he resolves to shun the world of men in fierce pursuit of the falcon's inner life. As the landscape thaws, Baker shares the hawk's absolute terror in the face of the stumbling, erratic human beings encroaching on its territory. Veering swiftly from the mundane to the miraculous, Baker's self-effacing diary of a long winter in the wild is a triumph of pure and immediate description.

Seasons of Real Florida (Florida History and Culture)

Jeff Klinkenberg

Amazon Price: $18.21 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Press of Florida Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $8.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

No wonder Jeff Klinkenberg loves Florida. At any time of year he can find a place in the state that's ripe to enjoy or a person whose story has aged to perfection. Arranged by season, the book opens in the fall, which Klinkenberg says is like spring in the north - a time of celebration: "Having survived our harshest season, we feel renewed," Fair weather, good food, and the joys of nature lie ahead, described here in essays that are like time capsules of "old Florida values." Preserving the past, they reveal Klinkenberg's waggish appreciation of the state's history, folkways, and landscape, not to mention its ribs, smoked mullet, stone crab claws, and fresh lemonade. Many pieces focus off the beaten path and on modern rogues who seem to turn their backsides to the subdivisions and shopping malls that pave the state: Miss Ruby, whose fruit stand features rutabagas, boiled peanuts, and her own brightly colored plywood paintings; an 85-year-old resident of the remote island of Cayo Costa who hums Beethoven while she hunts for shells; the scientists who test mosquito repellent in Everglades National Park; and the unofficial caretaker of Lilly Spring on the Santa Fe River.