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Reading Room:  Farm Fiction & Memoir  |
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lurban
True Blue Farmgirl
61 Posts
Vermont
61 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 06 2005 : 5:28:00 PM
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Some of my favorite reads are farm novels. I'm a HUGE fan of Wendell Berry's, especially A PLACE ON EARTH and JAYBER CROW. Have twice read the 1933 bestseller THE EARTH TURNS by Gladys Hasty Carroll, (sounds like this is right up your alley, Aunt Jenny).
As for memoir, Ronald Jager's EIGHTY ACRES: ELEGY FOR A FAMILY FARM is a must read for Midwesterners, as is THE COUNTRY KITCHEN a critical and popular hit of 1936 by Della Lutes. Also enjoyed William Paul Winchester's A VERY SMALL FARM (even if he is a little too self-congratulatory) and any thing by FIRST PERSON RURAL author Noel Perrin. Those of you with a paperback copy of JeanMarie Laskas' FIFTY ACRES AND A POODLE will actually see a quote from me on the inside cover. I adored this tale of a big-city writer who trades concrete for compost.
As for how-to and politics, you can't beat the wonderfully opinionated Gene Lodgeson, and Wendell Berry is pretty swift as well -- even if I can't buy his argument for gov't subsidies of tobacco farming.
Anyone else have titles to contribute to the genre? Since I left my bookstore job in Pasadena I've been hungry for recommendations. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Jul 06 2005 : 9:39:36 PM
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Okay...sounds like another one for my "must read this summer" list!! I put THE EARTH TURNS right on it! Thanks lurban!!
I really like Gene Lodgeson too. And have read some Noel Perrin too...good stuff!
It must have been so fun to work at a book store!! I know I would never be able to collect a paycheck though..would end up owing THEM money...same with a yarn shop, fabric store or gardne center..oh well.
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
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corswnw
Farmgirl at Heart
4 Posts
Claudia
Kansas City
Missouri
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 09:45:49 AM
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I am almost 3/4 of the way through Hannah Coulter and loving it. (Wendell Berry). I enjoy the story and also the commentary he sneaks in about the demise of the family farm. Very important stuff! Thanks for your suggestions to all. I have the list written down and will try The Earth Turns next. I can't get my hands on enough "country' reading. I'm holding my breath and sometimes very unhappy that I can't get to the country soon enough (I'll finish grad school May 2006--God help me.) |
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lurban
True Blue Farmgirl
61 Posts
Vermont
61 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 12:34:55 PM
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Claudia
I finished Hannah Coulter a week ago and really enjoyed it as well. It doesn't pack the same emotional punch for me that the novels I mentioned above do, but I'm always game for a story from the Membership. The Earth Turns may be tough to find, and it is a little schmaltzy, but I sure did enjoy it. |
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therusticcottage
True Blue Farmgirl
4439 Posts
Kay
Vancouver
WA
USA
4439 Posts |
Posted - Jul 14 2005 : 9:59:21 PM
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I love to hear what everyone is reading. I get stuck in a rut with the same authors so this helps me branch out to read new things. I got on the library website and ordered most of the books you all have recommended. That should keep me out of trouble for a while. Either that or I won't get any work done!
Kay - Living in Beautiful Washington State
North Clark County Farmgirls and
Sisterhood of the Traveling Art |
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connio
True Blue Farmgirl
535 Posts
connie
springtown
texas
USA
535 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 09:19:33 AM
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Hey Farm Girls
I just finished presenting a storytime on the Town Square in our little town. Every Friday morning at 9:30a.m. we gather in the pavillion that is known as the Tabernacle (nobody remembers why it is called this.) and read stories. Today we read "Is Your Mama a Llama" by Steven Kellogg. Those of you who have children might know this book. I always have the kids help me act out the story, and we have lots of fun. Everyone takes a bow, gets applause etc. Wish that the Farm Girls lived closer so that you could attend and join in the fun.
I guess that my reading suggestion for the day focuses on preschoolers.
However, I wanted to thank "lurban" for providing this "country reading list". Even though I am a librarian, I am not familiar with any of these titles. Of course, since I have mainly been employed in large urban libraries, I am not surprised that I do not know about them.
I too, have a huge thirst for all books that are country.
Thanks again.
Connie
cozycottage |
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connio
True Blue Farmgirl
535 Posts
connie
springtown
texas
USA
535 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 09:29:10 AM
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Hey Farm Girls!
It's me again on the topic of children's reading. As most of you know, the new Harry Potter book will be released at midnight tonight. I am going to be a chaperone at the children's party that the Fort Worth Library is having tonight--starts at 11:30pm and ends at 1 am. The books will be handed out at midnight on the dot! After the party, another librarian and I are in charge of delivering some of the books to branch libraries so that the children will have them the minute the branches open in the morning. I guess that we will be the 2am Harry Potter Bookmobile!
I do not read the books; never have really liked the fantasy genre, but it is nice to see kids flocking into the libraries!
Connie
cozycottage |
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MeadowLark
True Blue Farmgirl
2206 Posts
USA
2206 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 10:47:55 AM
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Connie, You have my dream job! Lurban, Thanks for the wonderful titles, I love those kind of books, Willa Cather is one of my favorites along this line... I am ordering them at my library!
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/sb/sb101.html |
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bramble
True Blue Farmgirl
2044 Posts
2044 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 11:34:07 AM
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Connie-- You sound like a fun librarian! We helped a librarian friend do Harry Potter night at her branch back with the last book. As Mrs. Weasley I had the kids yanking gnomes from my garden and when they were done I chased them around the library with my tape measure telling them I had to check their sizes for "lovely red sweaters' and they would all laugh and giggle and say please Mrs. Weasley...not the sweaters. We had Madame Hootch practicing Quidditch (brooms and ballons and refreshments at the Leaky Cauldron of Butter beer ( cream soda) and chocolate frogs. Some dear soul actually found a frog candy mold and made tons! The best part of the evening was Hagrid, Professor McGonigal and Professor Dumbledore divided the kids into the different "houses" and they played trivia games and the house that scored the most won wizard cards w/ a goody attached.Hope you have as much fun as we did!
with a happy heart |
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lurban
True Blue Farmgirl
61 Posts
Vermont
61 Posts |
Posted - Jul 15 2005 : 1:38:02 PM
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You don't have to give this former bookseller much encouragement before you find a new list of favorite reads appearing.
The Age of Homespun by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
This is a wonderful history of everyday objects by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1795-182. Each of the chapters in The Age of Homespun is dedicated to a different homemade object: a painted cupboard, a linen tablecloth, a woven counterpane, an unfinished stocking. Ulrich offers the cultural context for the object, some history of its maker and method of its production. She's really wonderful at putting you in the room as a group of women gather to spin flax or an Algonkian weaves a basket. Well researched, but not too academic. Also check out Ulrich's Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750.
Louise Dickinson Rich's We Took to the Woods (1942) is a charming autobiography of Rich's move to the most remote Maine woods. Self-sufficiency, yes, but also an interdependence with others who have chosen such a life -- including lumberjacks and hermit-handymen.
This one is very academic, but I liked it nonetheless: David Shi's The Simple Life is a history of American social movements espousing a philosophy of plain living. Shi moves from Puritans and Quakers through the Transendentalists to the Depression to more contemporary anxiety about excess. Unfortunately, this book was written in 1985 and does not include a discussion of current simplicity movements. A very interesting read, but not one to pick up just before bed -- unless you're one of those insomniacs who posted elsewhere. This book just might do the trick.
If you are going for a lighter read, try any of Carrie Young's prairie memoirs: Nothing to Do But Stay, The Wedding Dress, and Prairie Cooks (more a recipe collection, but accented by stories). Young's childhood reminiscences of her family farm in North Dakota are delightful and a must for farmgirls of Norwegian descent and lovers of lutefisk (if there are, indeed, such people).
Elinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader is another prairie staple. Stewart landed in the Wyoming where the land was tough, but somehow she kept her tender side.
Is that enough for now?
Don't encourage me. I'll bust into bibliography mode. |
Edited by - lurban on Jul 15 2005 2:16:01 PM |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Jul 17 2005 : 10:43:21 AM
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I had to print this page, so I can go the the library and check out these books!!!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Jul 17 2005 : 10:44:40 AM
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SO many books so little time!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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Celticheart
True Blue Farmgirl
811 Posts
Marcia
WA
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Aug 20 2005 : 9:42:20 PM
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I just finished a great book by Rosanne Daryl Thomas---Beeing: Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honeybees. She's a writer who moves to Maine and decides to become a beekeeper.
Marcia
"I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidence of the determination to live." Vita Sackville-West
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westfork woman
True Blue Farmgirl
554 Posts
Kennie Lyn
Emmett
Idaho
USA
554 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2005 : 08:05:16 AM
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I love Laura Ingall Wilder. I once heard another writer called a "juvenile writer". The writer took exception to the description, and said he wrote books for a juvenile audience. This is what Laura books seem to me. When you read them to your children, between the lines you find a meaning for everyones life. She didn't just write the "Little House" books, for years she wrote for farm publications, and her articles are great. She is optimistic, and so hospitable. A true farmgirl.
Greetings from the morning side of the hill. |
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Kim
True Blue Farmgirl
146 Posts
Kim
Pflugerville
Texas
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2005 : 08:31:07 AM
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I got to see a reproduction of her cabin, in Indepedence Kansas last weekend. It and the surrounding 2000 acres are owned by Bill Kurtis and his family. It was neat. I love her books.
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
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westfork woman
True Blue Farmgirl
554 Posts
Kennie Lyn
Emmett
Idaho
USA
554 Posts |
Posted - Sep 22 2005 : 09:51:55 AM
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Kim, I would love to see any of the places Laura lived. Her house and farm in the Ozarks looks so interesting. I have books about her life there. She was a remarkable woman. She reminds me of my grandmother, their outlook on life was the same. Grandma chose her life and made the best of it and never looked back. When her sisters-in-law were living in big houses, she was in a 2 room dogtrot cabin in the wilderness, raising kids and chasing cows. She wore Levi's and rode astride decades before it became acceptable to do so. Like Laura she worked hard to put up enough food for her family, and sewed their clothing, and kept everything going. I just wish she had had Laura writing skills.
Greetings from the morning side of the hill. |
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lamarguerite farm
True Blue Farmgirl
649 Posts
missy
Battle Ground
Wa
USA
649 Posts |
Posted - Oct 02 2005 : 9:23:20 PM
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I popped into our library on Friday just to browse around and a book in the new arrivals caught my eye. I debated on getting it and I am so glad I did. It is called "Beeing" by Rosanne Daryl Thomas. On the cover it says, " Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honeybees." I was intrigued and it made a great read for a rainy stormy weekend. It's basically about a single mother being led in one way or another to become a beekeeper and uses land on someone elses farm to do so. I think that all of us who have ventured into new tasks on or off the farm can relate to the feelings, emotions and mishaps that she encounters. I laughed, cried and chuckled to myself and was intrigued enough that I finished it in two days. Anyway, I would definately recommend it if you are wanting a fun lighthearted book!!
Blessings,
Missy
If you have a dream, even if you don't feel qualified to accomplish it, just try your hardest.-Maggie Jensen |
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KJD
True Blue Farmgirl
402 Posts
402 Posts |
Posted - Oct 03 2005 : 08:04:02 AM
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| Thanks for this recommendation - it sounds great! One of my future aspirations is beekeeping! |
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mountainmama
Farmgirl in Training
15 Posts
Lissa
Georgia
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - Oct 04 2005 : 12:55:33 PM
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KJD! Ever since I've become a "farmgirl", I'lve learned so many new things about you! Isn't that funny! We talk all the time, and this just adds yet another dimension to you! Love it.
Lissa |
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KJD
True Blue Farmgirl
402 Posts
402 Posts |
Posted - Oct 04 2005 : 1:10:13 PM
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| Lissa - I like to maintain an "air of mystery"!! |
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Reading Room: Farm Fiction & Memoir |
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Farm Fiction & Memoir
