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books tagged “Kentucky”
books tagged “Kentucky”
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Affrilachia: Poemsby Frank X. WalkerISBN 0967542405 (0-9675424-0-5)
Softcover, Old Cove Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Affrilachia: Poems'Book summary:Now in its eighth printing, Frank X Walker's pathbreaking book of poems Affrilachia is a classic of Appalachian and African-American literature. Walker created the word "Affrilachia" to help make visible the experience of African-Americans living in the rural and Appalachian South. The book is widely used in classrooms and is one of the foundational works of the Affrilachian Poets, a community of writers offering fresh ways to think about diversity in the Appalachian region and beyond. [via]
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The Anomaliesby Joey GoebelISBN 1931561842 (1-931561-84-2)
Softcover, Macadam Cage Pub
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The Bean Treesby Barbara KingsolverISBN 0060915544 (0-06-091554-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bean Trees'Book summary:STANDARD GOOD USED CONDITION WITH ANY FLAWS NOTED. [via]
More editions of The Bean Trees:
- The Bean Trees: ISBN 0061097314 (0-06-109731-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins - The Bean Trees: ISBN 0060175796 (0-06-017579-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - The Bean Trees: ISBN 0833525182 (0-8335-2518-2)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - The Bean Trees: ISBN 0060158638 (0-06-015863-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - The Bean Trees: ISBN 0816146721 (0-8161-4672-1)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - The Bean Trees: ISBN 0060915544 (0-06-091554-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- The Bean Trees: ISBN 0061097314 (0-06-109731-4)
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The Beatinest Boyby Jesse StuartISBN 0945084137 (0-945084-13-7)
Softcover, Jesse Stuart Foundation
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beatinest Boy'Book summary:Grandma Beverley is fond of saying that David is the "beatinest" boy who ever grew up in the valley. And David is sure that his grandmother is the smartest, most wonderful woman in the world.
They help one another and learn from one another. David teaches Grandma Beverley how to let the wind rake the leaves they need to make the cow's stall warm and dry. Grandma Beverley helps him nurse a homeless, starving puppy, "Orphan" back to health.
David is grateful to her for helping him save Orphan, and he wants to make her the happiest woman in the world. He wants to find a special Christmas present for her. When his ideas for earning money do not work out, he gets an idea for a beautiful and perfect gift he can make for his grandmother from materials that have been right at hand all the time. [via]
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Belovedby Toni MorrisonISBN 1400033411 (1-4000-3341-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beloved'Book summary:Toni Morrison gently reads her own Pulitzer Prize-winning work in the unabridged version of this riveting tale of ex-slave Sethe and the beloved ghost that haunts her. While Morrison makes occasional odd pauses in her reading, what is lost in smoothness is more than made up for in quiet intensity as the author reads words obviously deeply felt. Her intimate knowledge of the characters and their motivations lends this reading an authority that helps the listener sort out the breaks in time and dialogue in this complex story of a woman coming to terms with her enslaved past and the loss of her husband and baby daughter. (Running time: 12 hours, eight cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs [via]
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Bluegrass Winnersby Garden Club of LexingtonISBN 0961444215 (0-9614442-1-5)
Hardcover, Wimmer Book Dist
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bluegrass Winners'Book summary:The original Bluegrass Winners cookbook has a rich history of legendary farms of the Bluegrass, historical accounts and photos of area horse farms are the centerpiece of hundreds of recipes and menus reflecting the internationally renowned hospitality of the region. [via]
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Cerdos En El Cielo/Pigs in Heavenby Barbara Kingsolver, Margara AverbachISBN 0060951222 (0-06-095122-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cerdos En El Cielo/Pigs in Heaven'Book summary:The Spanish-language edition of the New York Times best-seller tells the story of six-year-old Turtle Greer and what happens after she witnesses a freak accident at Hoover Dam. [via]
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Citizens of Zion: The Social Origins of Camp Meeting Revivalismby Ellen EslingerISBN 1572330333 (1-57233-033-3)
Hardcover, Univ of Tennessee Pr
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Clay's Quiltby Silas HouseISBN 1565123077 (1-56512-307-7)
Hardcover, Workman Pub Co
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Clear Springsby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0060956291 (0-06-095629-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Coal Tattooby Silas HouseISBN 1565123689 (1-56512-368-9)
Hardcover, Workman Pub Co
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A Congress of Wondersby Ed McClanahanISBN 1887178562 (1-887178-56-2)
Softcover, Counterpoint
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Congress of Wonders'Book summary:In McClanahan's second novel, the antics of Professor Philander Cosmo Rextroat, B.S., M.A. and "Pee Aitch Dee," an amusing, Kentucky-bred flimflam artist tie together three novella length, modern-day fairy tales. Set during World War II, the opening story, "Juanita and the Frog Prince," recounts a maid's deliverance from an unlucky pregnancy through a magical encounter with a dwarf awaiting trial for murder in the jail where she cleans. In the title story, Rextroat is the proprietor of a phony freak show who tries to quell a young boy's concern for his brother who is going to war. Each neo-gothic tale contains a bittersweet message laced with alchemy and love. [via]
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Creeker: A Woman's Journeyby Linda Scott DerosierISBN 081319024X (0-8131-9024-X)
Softcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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Daniel Booneby Katharine E. Wilkie, E. Harper JohnsonISBN 079101407X (0-7910-1407-X)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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The Dollmakerby Harriette ArnowISBN 0060529342 (0-06-052934-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Dollmaker'Book summary:Strong-willed, self-reliant Gertie Nevel's peaceful life in the Kentucky hills was devastated by the brutal winds of change. Uprooted form their backwoods home, she and her family were thrust into the confusion and chaos of wartime Detroit. And in a pitiless world of unendurable poverty, Gertie would battle fiercely and relentlessly to protect those things she held most precious--her children, her heritage...and her triumphant ability to create beauty in the suffocating shadow of ugliness and despair. [via]
The Enduring Hillsby Janice Holt GilesISBN 0813101859 (0-8131-0185-9)
Softcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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Famous People I Have Knownby Ed McClanahanISBN 081319069X (0-8131-9069-X)
Softcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Famous People I Have Known'Book summary:Ed McClanahans hilarious classic introduces us to writers and revolutionaries, hippies and honkies, gurus and go-go girls, barkeeps and barflies, as well as Carlos Toadvine, aka Little Enis, the All-American Left-Handed Upside-down Guitar Player, among the characters he has encountered in thirty peripatetic years of wandering the fringes of the academic and literary worlds"working the Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing circuit"from his native Kentucky to the West Coast and back again. [via]
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Feather Crownsby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0060925493 (0-06-092549-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Feather Crowns'Book summary:Set in the apocalyptic atmosphere of 1900--a time when many americans were looking for signs foretelling the end of the world--feather crowns is the story of a young woman who unintentionally creates a national sensation. A farm wife living near the small town of hopewell, kentucky, christianna wheeler gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in north america. Christie is suddenly thrown into a swirling storm of public attention. Thousands of strangers descend on her home, all wanting too see and touch the "miracle babies." one visitor crawls right in through the window! the fate of the babies and the bizarre events that follow their births propel christie and her husband far from home, on a journey that exposes them to the turbulent pageant of life at the beginning of the modern era. Richly detailed and poignant, feather crowns focuses on one woman but opens out ultimately into the chronicle of a time and a people. Written in bobbie ann mason's taut yet lyrical prose, the novel ranges from a peaceful farming community to a fire-and-brimstone revival camp, from seamy traveling shows to the hushed precincts of the nation's capital. Moving through the center of it all is christie, a charming, headstrong, loving woman who struggles heroically to come to terms with the extraordinary events of her long life. Feather crowns is an american parable of profound resonance. Spellbindingly readable, it is a novel of classic stature destined to confirm bobbie ann mason as one of america's most important writers [via]
Hannah Fowlerby Janice Holt Giles, Dianne WatkinsISBN 0813108101 (0-8131-0810-1)
Softcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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Hiking Kentucky: Scenic Trails of the Bluegrass Stateby Darcy Folzenlogen, Robert FolzenlogenISBN 096206856X (0-9620685-6-X)
Softcover, Willow Pr
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Icy Sparks: Library Editionby Gwyn Hyman RubioISBN 0142000205 (0-14-200020-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Icy Sparks: Library Edition'Book summary:The eponymous heroine of Gwyn Rubio's Icy Sparks is only 10 years old the first time it happens. The sudden itching, the pressure squeezing her skull, and the "little invisible rubber bands" attached to her eyelids are all symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. At this point, of course, Icy doesn't yet have a name for these unsettling impulses. But whenever they become too much to resist, she runs down to her grandparents' root cellar, and there she gives in, croaking, jerking, cursing, and popping her eyes. Nicknamed the "frog child" by her classmates, Icy soon becomes "a little girl who had to keep all of her compulsions inside." Only a brief confinement at the Bluegrass State Hospital persuades her that there are actually children more "different" than she.
As a first novel about growing up poor, orphaned, and prone to fits in a small Appalachian town, Icy Sparks tells a fascinating story. By the time the epilogue rolls around, Icy has prevailed over her disorder and become a therapist: "Children silent as stone sing for me. Children who cannot speak create music for me." For readers familiar with this particular brand of coming-of-age novel--affliction fiction?--Icy's triumph should come as no great surprise. That's one problem. Another is Rubio's tendency to lapse into overheated prose: this is a novel in which the characters would sooner yell, pout, whine, moan, or sass a sentence than simply say it. But the real drawback to Icy Sparks is that some of the characters--especially the bad ones--are drawn with very broad strokes indeed, and the moral principles tend to be equally elementary: embrace your difference, none of us is alone, and so on. When Icy gets saved at a tent revival, even Jesus takes on the accents of a self-help guru: "You must love yourself!" With insights like these, this is one Southern novel that's more Wally Lamb than Harper Lee. --Mary Park [via]
More editions of Icy Sparks: Library Edition:
- Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 0140280146 (0-14-028014-6)
Softcover, Penguin USA - Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 0783895100 (0-7838-9510-0)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr - Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 0606305033 (0-606-30503-3)
Hardcover, Demco Media - Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 067003049X (0-670-03049-X)
Hardcover, Penguin USA - Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 067087311X (0-670-87311-X)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA - Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 0142000205 (0-14-200020-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
- Icy Sparks: Library Edition: ISBN 0140280146 (0-14-028014-6)
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In Countryby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0060835176 (0-06-083517-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In Country'Book summary:Published to tie in with a film of the same name, this story describes the return of a war veteran from Vietnam who finds difficulty in relating to life. His relationship with the daughter of his friend, who was killed in Vietnam, is at the centre of the book. [via]
More editions of In Country:
- In Country: ISBN 080859558X (0-8085-9558-X)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - In Country: ISBN 0060809590 (0-06-080959-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins - In Country: ISBN 0060913509 (0-06-091350-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins - In Country: ISBN 0060154691 (0-06-015469-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books - In Country: ISBN 0060835176 (0-06-083517-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- In Country: ISBN 080859558X (0-8085-9558-X)
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Jayber Crowby Wendell BerryISBN 1582430292 (1-58243-029-2)
Hardcover, Counterpoint
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jayber Crow'Book summary:The questions who and what and how and why are no doubt useful and occasionally even noble in their place. But for Wendell Berry, whose spare and elegant prose has long testified to the rural American values of thrift and frugality, four interrogatives must seem a waste, when one will do. Where is the ultimate qualifier, the sine qua non, for both the author and his characters. Place shapes them and defines them; the winding Kentucky River and the gentle curves of the Kentucky hills find an echo in their lilting speech and brusque affections.
Jayber Crow is another story of the Port William membership, the community whose life--and lives--Berry has unfurled over the course of a half dozen novels. Jayber himself is an orphan, lately returned to the town. And his status as barber and bachelor places him simultaneously at its center and on its margins. A born observer, he hears much, watches carefully, and spends 50 years learning its citizens by heart.
They were rememberers, carrying in their living thoughts all the history that such places as Port William ever have. I listened to them with all my ears, and have tried to remember what they said, though from remembering what I remember I know that much is lost. Things went to the grave with them that will never be known again.
Jayber tells the town's stories tenderly. Gently elegiac, the novel charts the tension between an urge to isolation and an impulse to connectivity, writ both small and large. As the 20th century moves inexorably forward, swallowing in great mechanized gulps rural towns governed by agricultural rhythms, Port William turns in upon itself. And as Jayber admits quietly, "Once a fabric is torn, it is apt to keep tearing. It was coming apart. The old integrity had been broken." Integrity, both whole and shattered, is key to the stories of Burley Coulter, Cecelia Overhold, Troy Chatham, and above all, Athey Keith and his daughter Mattie, to whom Jayber pledges his undying and unrequited love.Berry's prose, so carefully tuned that you never know it is there, carries us into the very heart of the land itself; his exquisitely constructed sentences suggesting the cyclic rhythms of his agrarian world. Jayber Crow resonates with variations played on themes of change, looping transitions from war into peace, winter into spring, browning flood destruction into greening fields, absence into presence, lost into found. --Kelly Flynn [via]
Jayber Crow : The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, As Written by Himselfby Wendell BerryISBN 1582431604 (1-58243-160-4)
Softcover, Basic Books
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Kentucky Ancestry: A Guide to Genealogical and Historical Researchby Roseann Reinemuth HoganISBN 0916489493 (0-916489-49-3)
Softcover, Myfamily.Com
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The Kentucky Encyclopediaby Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, James C Klotter, John E. KleberISBN 0813117720 (0-8131-1772-0)
Hardcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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![[???]: Kentucky Genealogical Research](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0913857025.01._SL160_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg "[???]: Kentucky Genealogical Research")
Kentucky Genealogical ResearchISBN 0913857025 (0-913857-02-5)
Softcover, Genealogical Sources Unltd
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The Longest Caveby Roger W. Brucker, Richard A. WatsonISBN 0809313227 (0-8093-1322-7)
Softcover, Southern Illinois Univ Pr
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Lost Mountainby Eric ReeseISBN 1594489084 (1-59448-908-4)
Hardcover, Riverhead Books
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Love Lifeby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0060916680 (0-06-091668-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Manhuntingby Jennifer CrusieISBN 1551666189 (1-55166-618-9)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
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The Memory Keeper's Daughterby Kim EdwardsISBN 159413197X (1-59413-197-X)
Softcover, Large Print Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter'Book summary:Award-winning writer Kim Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted family drama that explores every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by David Henry's fateful decision that long-ago winter night. A rich and deeply moving page-turner, The Memory Keeper's Daughter captures the way life takes unexpected turns and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets burst into the open. It is an astonishing tale of redemptive love. [via]
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The Memory of Old Jackby Wendell BerryISBN 1582430438 (1-58243-043-8)
Softcover, Counterpoint
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Memory of Old Jack'Book summary:[via]In a rural Kentucky river town, "Old Jack" Beechum, a retired farmer, sees his life again through the shades of one burnished day in September 1952.
Bringing the earthiness of America's past to mind,The Memory of Old Jack conveys the truth and integrity of the land and the people who live it. Through the eyes of one man can be seen the values of Americans strived to recapture as we arrived at the next century.
More editions of The Memory of Old Jack:
- The Memory of Old Jack: ISBN 0156586703 (0-15-658670-3)
Softcover, Harcourt - The Memory of Old Jack: ISBN 0151588651 (0-15-158865-1)
Hardcover, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich - The Memory of Old Jack: ISBN 0816162107 (0-8161-6210-7)
Hardcover, G. K. Hall - The Memory of Old Jack: ISBN 1582430438 (1-58243-043-8)
Softcover, Counterpoint
- The Memory of Old Jack: ISBN 0156586703 (0-15-658670-3)
Midnight Magicby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0880016574 (0-88001-657-4)
Softcover, Ecco Pr
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Miss Willieby Janice Holt GilesISBN 0813108314 (0-8131-0831-4)
Softcover, Univ Pr of Kentucky
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The Natural Manby Ed McClanahanISBN 0917788567 (0-917788-56-7)
Softcover, Gnomon Distribution
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Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Areaby Harry M. CaudillISBN 1931672008 (1-931672-00-8)
Softcover, Jesse Stuart Foundation
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A Parchment of Leavesby Silas HouseISBN 1565123670 (1-56512-367-0)
Hardcover, Workman Pub Co
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Pigs in Heavenby Barbara KingsolverISBN 0060922532 (0-06-092253-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pigs in Heaven'Book summary:Six-year-old Turtle Greer witnesses a freak accident at the Hoover Dam, leading to a man's dramatic rescue. But Turtle's moment of celebrity draws her into a crisis of historical proportions that will envelop not only her and her mother, Taylor, but everyone else who touched their lives in a complex web connecting their future with their past. With this wise, compelling novel, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, and Animal Dreams vividly renders a world of heartbreak and redeeming love as she defines and defies the boundaries of family, and illuminates the many separate truths aboutthe ties that bind us and tear us apart.
[via]More editions of Pigs in Heaven:
- Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 006109868X (0-06-109868-X)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0613194209 (0-613-19420-9)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0816158789 (0-8161-5878-9)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0060168013 (0-06-016801-3)
Hardcover, Harpercollins - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0788160575 (0-7881-6057-5)
Hardcover, Diane Pub Co - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0816158770 (0-8161-5877-0)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr - Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 0060922532 (0-06-092253-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Pigs in Heaven: ISBN 006109868X (0-06-109868-X)
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A Place on Earthby Wendell BerryISBN 1582431248 (1-58243-124-8)
Softcover, Counterpoint
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Place on Earth'Book summary:Part ribald farce, part lyrical contemplation, Wendell Berry's novel is the story of a place-Port William, Kentucky-the farm lands and forests that surround it, and the river that runs nearby. The rhythms of this novel are the rhythms of the land. A Place on Earth resonates with variations played on themes of change; looping transitions from war into peace, winter into spring, browning flood destruction into greening fields, absence into presence, lost into found. This brings the revised 1983 edition back into print, the next book in our program to put all of Wendell Berry's fiction into print in revised and corrected uniform editions. [via]
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Poisonwood Bibleby Barbara KingsolverISBN 1417687703 (1-4176-8770-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Poisonwood Bible'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years.
The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.
Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realized, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half, when Nathan Price is still at the center of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement, and lyrical prose that have made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Prodigal Summerby Barbara KingsolverISBN 0060199660 (0-06-019966-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Prodigal Summer'Book summary:There is no one in contemporary literature quite like Barbara Kingsolver. Her dialogue sparkles with sassy wit and earthy poetry; her descriptions are rooted in daily life but are also on familiar terms with the eternal. With Prodigal Summer, she returns from the Congo to a "wrinkle on the map that lies between farms and wildness." And there, in an isolated pocket of southern Appalachia, she recounts not one but three intricate stories.
Exuberant, lush, riotous--the summer of the novel is "the season of extravagant procreation" in which bullfrogs carelessly lay their jellied masses of eggs in the grass, "apparently confident that their tadpoles would be able to swim through the lawn like little sperms," and in which a woman may learn to "tell time with her skin." It is also the summer in which a family of coyotes moves into the mountains above Zebulon Valley:
The ghost of a creature long extinct was coming in on silent footprints, returning to the place it had once held in the complex anatomy of this forest like a beating heart returned to its body. This is what she believed she would see, if she watched, at this magical juncture: a restoration.
The "she" is Deanna Wolfe, a wildlife biologist observing the coyotes from her isolated aerie--isolated, that is, until the arrival of a young hunter who makes her even more aware of the truth that humans are only an infinitesimal portion in the ecological balance. This truth forms the axis around which the other two narratives revolve: the story of a city girl, entomologist, and new widow and her efforts to find a place for herself; and the story of Garnett Walker and Nannie Rawley, who seem bent on thrashing out the countless intimate lessons of biology as only an irascible traditional farmer and a devotee of organic agriculture can. As Nannie lectures Garnett, "Everything alive is connected to every other by fine, invisible threads. Things you don't see can help you plenty, and things you try to control will often rear back and bite you, and that's the moral of the story."Structurally, that gossamer web is the story: images, phrases, and events link the narratives, and these echoes are rarely obvious, always serendipitous. Kingsolver is one of those authors for whom the terrifying elegance of nature is both aesthetic wonder and source of a fierce and abiding moral vision. She may have inherited Thoreau's mantle, but she piles up riches of her own making, blending her extravagant narrative gift with benevolent concise humor. She treads the line between the sentimental and the glorious like nobody else in American literature. --Kelly Flynn [via]
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The Same River Twice: A Memoirby Chris OffuttISBN 0743229495 (0-7432-2949-5)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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Three Short Novelsby Wendell BerryISBN 1582432376 (1-58243-237-6)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Three Short Novels'Book summary:Furthering his series on the denizens of Port William, Three Short Novels brings together some of Wendell Berry's best-loved shorter novels--Nathan Coulter, Remembering , and A World Lost . When Nathan Coulter first appeared in 1960, no one could have known that this exquisite coming-of-age tale was introducing us to one of our most distinctive fictional communities: Port William, Kentucky. Remembering (1988), centers on Andy Catlett, who has lost his right hand to a corn-picking machine. A World Lost (1996) is set in the summer of 1944, when Andy, nine years old, is stunned by the news of his Uncle Andrew's murder. Wendell Berry is the sort of writer who changes people's lives, and in his Three Short Novels his talent is abundantly clear. [via]
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The Weedkiller's Daughterby Harriette Louisa ArnowISBN 0394451333 (0-394-45133-3)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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LA Biblia Envenenada / The Poisonwood Bibleby Barbara Kingsolver, Damian AlouISBN 8484530256 (84-8453-025-6)
Softcover, Ediciones Del Bronce
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› Find signed collectible books: 'LA Biblia Envenenada / The Poisonwood Bible'Book summary:La autora des suroeste de Estados Unidos nos trae una novela de pasión, y de tragedia con un paisaje bello e inesperado. Una selección de Oprah para su club de lectores. Un bestseller de toda clase. [via]
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The Dollmakerby Harriette Louisa Simpson ArnowISBN 0380009471 (0-380-00947-1)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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