“Somewhere between Garrison Keillor’s idyllic-sweet Lake Wobegon and the narrow-mindedness of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street lies the reality of small-town life. This is where Michael Perry lives.” —St. Paul Pioneer Press “Perry can take comfort in the power of his writing, his ability to pull readers from all corners onto his Wisconsin spread, and make them feel right at home.” —Seattle Times Tuesdays with Morrie meets Bill Bryson in Visiting Tom, another witty, poignant, and stylish paean to living in New Auburn, Wisconsin, from Michael Perry. The author of Population: 485, Coop, and Truck: A Love Story, Perry takes us along on his uplifting visits with his octogenarian neighbor one valley over—and celebrates the wisdom, heart, and sass of a vanishing generation that embodies the indomitable spirit of small-town America.
The Home You Left Behind by Dorothy B. Murray Fifty years ago, Jim MacLeary left his small village to find a new life in the UK. After the death of his parents, Jim needed a fresh start away from the quiet village life and bad memories. His children have grown and his beloved wife passed; Jim’s thoughts reflected on the homeland he left behind. A sudden decision has him returning again to his quiet village in Cavers Island. During his journey he remembers both the beauty of growing up in his small village, the games he played with his siblings and friends, the village fairs and Christmas traditions. He also remembers the tragedies that forever changed him: the death of his young brother and the too early passing of his parents. But village life has changed drastically since Jim left. His sleepy village no longer beams with life. As Jim traces his family roots, he learns why others have stayed and left – and then returned again. Jim begins to see the beauty and the fragility of the life he had left behind. But can he ever really return home? Or does home only exist in his memories? The Home You Left Behind is a gentle meditation on home and belonging.
One is the sequel to True, a star-crossed romance, set in California, in Britain, and on the Continent -- mainly France -- in 1985-86, whose theme is self-discovery.
"Generations of immigrants bring their rich cultures to America. Rosalie Porter is one of those millions, but she is also one in a million. Read American Immigrant to understand why we value those who come here to improve their lives and ours." -Senator Stan Rosenberg, President Pro Tempore, Massachusetts State Senate "American Immigrant will delight those who know only the public Dr. Porter. This working class Italian immigrant deferred college to help support her family, ultimately earned a doctorate, and fought against a program hurting immigrant children. Rosalie's a 'Profile in Courage' and an amusing, insightful writer." -Christine Rossell, Professor of Political Science, Boston University "Porter is a national treasure-a bilingual teacher who had the guts to take on the politically correct educational establishment." -John J. Miller, National Review, Author of The Unmaking of Americans "Rosalie Porter is a fascinating character. Her life story reflects the most basic American ethic-the individual's freedom to work, serve and achieve." -Lincoln Tamayo, Massachusetts English for the Children Campaign 2002
Jim MacLeary has been trying to cope with the loss of his childhood home; the place of his beginning. More than fifty years after he’d said goodbye and left the place of his birth, Jim went back home for the first time. Going back home is a personal pilgrimage made by those who’ve had a childhood home they left behind, by their own free will, or due to adverse circumstances. The continuous thoughts of “Back Home,” has prompted many to repeatedly return to the home of their childhood. Upon arriving, they face the sad reality of not being able to make a reattachment to the home they’d once cherished as their first place of belonging. The place to which they rightfully belong, and which holds lasting sentiments, is no longer welcoming. The joys and pleasures their childhood home had once brought, linger in their minds as unfading memories. Upon arriving back home after his long absence, Jim realized that life in his home village has changed drastically. He had a yearning to see, touch and feel the things that had once contributed to the exuberance of his childhood. He wanted to say hello, and be welcomed by his family, friends and the many acquaintances he’d left behind. Many scenes from Jim’s childhood, and the livelihood he’d once enjoyed, remain indelibly in his mind. While there remains a constant yearning to make a reattachment to the place of his childhood, Jim holds only lasting memories that continually play hide-and-seek with his imagination. Like others who have repeatedly returned home, and have left, Jim realized that he can never return to his childhood home with a feeling of belonging. Jim has been clutching the key to the door of his childhood home. But he sadly realized that he can never use that key to go back home to the place that was once conducive to his childhood existence. From his foreign place of attachment, he’ll continue to reminisce on the joyous pleasures he once had at the place to which he can’t go back with a feeling of belonging. Jim sadly realized that his childhood home exists only as a memory. The Brass Key is a gentle meditation on home and belonging.
“Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination of life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter.” — Seattle Times Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin (population: 485) where the local vigilante is a farmer’s wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Michael Perry loves this place. He grew up here, and now—after a decade away—he has returned. Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Perry figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, Population: 485 is a comic and sometimes heartbreaking true tale leavened with quieter meditations on an overlooked America.
"Ripley is an unmistakable descendant of Gatsby, that 'penniless young man without a past' who will stop at nothing." —Frank Rich Now part of American film and literary lore, Tom Ripley, "a bisexual psychopath and art forger who murders without remorse when his comforts are threatened" (New York Times Book Review), was Patricia Highsmith's favorite creation. In these volumes, we find Ripley ensconced on a French estate with a wealthy wife, a world-class art collection, and a past to hide. In Ripley Under Ground (1970), an art forgery goes awry and Ripley is threatened with exposure; in The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980), Highsmith explores Ripley's bizarrely paternal relationship with a troubled young runaway, whose abduction draws them into Berlin's seamy underworld; and in Ripley Under Water (1991), Ripley is confronted by a snooping American couple obsessed with the disappearance of an art collector who visited Ripley years before. More than any other American literary character, Ripley provides "a lens to peer into the sinister machinations of human behavior" (John Freeman, Pittsburgh Gazette).
The compelling story of how one man took a 150-year-old family recipe and disrupted the entire liquor industry one sip, one bottle, one handshake at a time Tom Bulleit stood on a stage before a thousand people inside a tent the size of a big-top. It was both his thirtieth wedding anniversary and his birthday. But there was another thing to celebrate: the dedication of the new Bulleit Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky. His great-great-grandfather, Augustus, created his first batch of Bulleit Bourbon around 1830. A century and a half later, Tom fulfilled his lifelong dream, revived the old family bourbon recipe, and started Bulleit Distilling Company. Eventually, Tom was named a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, and elected to the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. Thinking back on all his achievements, Tom was overcome by a wave of emotion. He looked into the sea of faces and said, “I don't believe our lives are told in years. . . or months. . . or weeks. I believe we live our lives in moments." Tom’s book Bulleit Proof is just that—a life told in moments. Moments of joy, triumph, hardship, persistence, and success. His is a story of survival: in war, in business, in life. Tom faced death twice: in a foxhole and in a cancer ward. In Bulleit Proof, Tom reveals all, pulls no punches, and lets you into his heart. In this book, you will: Share Tom’s personal story, including his loves, losses, and struggles Learn the history of one of America’s most beloved and awarded brands Draw inspiration from the persistence and dedication Tom has shown throughout his life Explore how Bulleit Bourbon changed the liquor industry forever Bulleit Proof is a fast-paced page-turner—not only for fans of Bulleit Bourbon and admirers of Tom, but for anyone who loves an emotional, hilarious, inspirational, and deeply honest story.
This challenging book brings to light a mythic dimension of seventeen important eighteenth and early nineteenth-century narratives that revolve around the persecution of one or more important female characters, and offers original reading of novels by Richardson, Fielding, Burney, Radcliffe, Godwin, Austen, Scott, and others. The myth in question, which Raymond Hilliard calls "the myth of persecution and reparation," serves as a major vehicle for the early novel's preoccupation with the "mother," a mythic figure distinct from the historical mother or from the mother as she is represented in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century maternal ideology. Hilliard argues that the myth of persecution and reparation derives from the ropos of female sacrifice in the romance tradition, and shows that this topos is central to several kinds of novels-realist, Gothic, Jacobin, feminist, and historical. Hilliard contends that the narrative of persecution and reparation anticipates the twentieth-century maternal myth associated with the work of Melanie Klein and other "relational model" psychoanalytic theorists, and he thus also examines the psychosexual significance of the "mother." Hilliard explores the relation of psychosexual themes to social representations, and delineates a new theory of plot-both tragic and comic plots- in the early novel. --Book Jacket.
