Home Economics

Book Description

“My work has been motivated,” Wendell Berry has written, “by a desire to make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.” In Home Economics, a collection of fourteen essays, Berry explores this process and continues to discuss what it means to make oneself “responsibly at home.”

His title reminds us that the very root of economics is stewardship, household management. To paraphrase Confucius, a healthy planet is made up of healthy nations that are simply healthy communities sharing common ground, and communities are gatherings of households. A measure of the health of the planet is economics—the health of its households. Any process of destruction or healing must begin at home. Berry speaks of the necessary coherence of the “Great Economy,” as he argues for clarity in our lives, our conceptions, and our communications. To live is not to pass time, but to spend time.

Whether as critic or as champion, Wendell Berry offers careful insights into our personal and national situation in a prose that is ringing and clear.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant essays.......2006-06-13

The first essay, "Letter to Wes Jackson", is the reason I recommend this book so highly to anyone who appreciates thoughtful, elegant essays. In this essay Berry asks the rhetorical question: is randomness a verifiable condition, or evidence of the limits of our ability to order things? He chooses the latter option, and then spins out the ramifications of that choice in terms of religion and science and the way we live with or abuse the world - all in three revelatory pages. The rest of the book, while not (to me) the powerful revelation that the first essay was, contains some of the finest, most deeply-considered writing you will find in essay form from any writer of any period. Berry is one of the best.

My recommendation is to buy two copies: one to hoard, and one to loan.

Still great!.......2003-10-30

I have been a fan of Wendell Berry since my undergraduate days. I own many of his collected essays, as they are worth returning to again and again. At his best, Berry is one of the most thoughtful and challenging writers in America today--whether writing literary criticism, social criticism, poetry, or fiction.

This collection of essays is not Berry's very best. But Berry at his worst would still be worth reading (and I can't say that I've ever read anything by him that I could even call "moderately bad"). If you wish to go beneath the surfact events and problems in America to their root causes, Berry will take you there.

Good though not his best..........2003-09-08

I have read (and continue to re-read) several of WB's books. i enjoyed The Irish Journal tremendously and would be interested in any additional travel writing that this man may have to offer. The other essays are well-written though sometimes ringing a little off compared to the rock solid writing of some of his other essay material. Also, The reviewer who chastised WB for a lack of economic knowledge should understand that WB is not speaking in the manner of Keynes or Galbraith but in a manner closer to home...i.e. the title.

An Important Book by an Important Man.......2000-04-07

Mr. Berry, in engaging with the pressing issues and institutions of our day--from higher education to national security to gender relations to the perception of manual labor--introduces a new vocabulary for improving our country and our world. Instead of "progress" and "movement," Mr. Berry suggests "community" and "loyalty." These notions, and the overarching theme of commitment to place, inform all fourteen insightful essays. Mr. Berry is passionate and articulate, and his book will, at least, encourage debate, if not inspire real and lasting change in the way that Americans deal with their environment, their neighbors, and themselves.

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Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters
Robert M. Haralick
Manufacturer: Jason Aronson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1568213565

Book Description

This book-length meditation on the Hebrew alphabet offers profound insights into many important ideas found in Jewish thought.

The Name and Nature of Poetry: and Other Selected Prose

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THE REVIEWER TO END ALL REVIEWERS

The Name and Nature of Poetry: and Other Selected Prose
A. E. Housman
Manufacturer: New Amsterdam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman

ASIN: 0941533611

Book Description

Lovers of Housman's poetry have generally been aware, from the Introductory Lecture (1892) to The Name and Nature of Poetry (1933), that he was a master of English prose. For better or worse, these are the opening gun and the last post of modernism.

Customer Reviews:

THE REVIEWER TO END ALL REVIEWERS.......2004-11-20

Somewhere in London there is, I am told, a commemorative plaque to Housman denoting him 'poet and scholar'. The man would have been outraged - 'scholar and poet' if you please: he would have been content with 'professor of Latin' and no mention of his poetry at all. Obviously he is better known to a general posterity for 'A Shropshire Lad' than for his three great editions of Latin poets and the great mass of contributions that he made to the learned classical periodicals, or even for his comparatively well-known inaugural address when he was given his first chair at University College London. It is his poetry that sells him, and this book has accordingly taken for its title in this new edition the title of an address that he was persuaded to give in the field of literary criticism, which he protests himself (a bit too much) to be unfitted for.

I find his 'Name and Nature of Poetry' to be both insightful and brilliantly entertaining. Whatever you think about Housman's poetry, he was one of the finest and purest stylists in prose ever to have graced the English language. However you will not find much more here about poetry. There is a fragment of a talk he gave to a literary society in London University on Matthew Arnold, which is hilariously amusing; there is a letter to The Times offering a textual emendation to the commonly printed version of a poem by Keats; there is a review of a volume of the Cambridge History of English Literature; and that's it as far as poetry and literary criticism are concerned. There are some other items outside his normal area of operations, particularly an interesting historical review and some decidedly uninteresting bits of formal welcome he was asked to do for visits to Cambridge by the King. As for the rest, he sticks to his last.

Housman specified unequivocally in his will that his brother Lawrence Housman should act as his literary executor with strict instructions that any hitherto unpublished prose should be destroyed, although he might publish any further poetry that he came across. The fragment of the paper on Arnold is a clear breach of his wishes in this respect, but his second inaugural address, at Cambridge, escaped Mr Carter and has had to wait for a slightly later book before becoming another such breach. Housman's anxiety has a clear cause - anything in prose might be related to his true professional reputation as a scholar, and he would not risk compromising that. Poetry he was not worried about. What we have here, in a strictly scholarly vein, are lengthy sections from his famous prefaces to Manilius and Juvenal, sundry extracts from learned articles and reviews, his scarifying address The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism with its deliberate humiliation of the people he was addressing, and one review given in full. You do not need much Latin, indeed none, to get the full flavour and benefit of these pieces. Housman himself noted once that of the five volumes of his Manilius only the first had sold out because 'it found purchasers among the unlearned who had heard that it contained a scurrilous preface from which they hoped to extract a low enjoyment'. Carter's general purpose in this edition is to communicate the said low enjoyment, and he cuts out for the most part anything of too learned or too technical a nature. Housman was brilliantly witty, and a brilliant intellect. The exasperation that wrung some of the more wounding attacks out of him was the exasperation of a scholar who saw his trade being prostituted by duffers, idlers and phonies, but it amounts in my own opinion to a great deal more than the standard bitching that learned periodicals in any discipline tend to be full of. The study of Greek and Latin is a matter of making sense of things, and the greatest practitioners of textual criticism of Greek and Latin authors are colossal figures indeed. What Housman adds in particular is not just his unique power of expression, but a conceptual framework round the process, a veritable paradigm of how to think straight.

I certainly extract a low enjoyment out of the parts where I am intended to do just that. In terms of how to write my own language, and above all in terms of how to use my brains such as they are, I have extracted a lot more. In a highly specialised department, namely how to put together a review, I have an example second to none in the full-dress specimen contained in this book.

Studies in Literary Themes and Genres Series - Nature Writing (Studies in Literary Themes and Genres Series)

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Studies in Literary Themes and Genres Series - Nature Writing (Studies in Literary Themes and Genres Series)
Scheese
Manufacturer: Twayne Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Series Editor: Ronald Gottesman, University of Southern California

Students and teachers alike will welcome the books in this series as accessible introductions to many widely-studied themes and genres. Each book includes:

An in-depth analyses of four to six exemplary texts
An extensive annotated list of works for further reading
A bibliographic essay
A chronology of major authors, works, and historical events of importance in the development of the theme or genre
An overview of the evolution of the theme or genre

Louis Bromfield at Malabar: Writings on Farming and Country Life

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Louis Bromfield at Malabar: Writings on Farming and Country Life

Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Third Person Rural: Further Essays of a Sometime Farmer

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Funny......couldn't stop laughing!

Third Person Rural: Further Essays of a Sometime Farmer
Noel Perrin
Manufacturer: David R Godine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1567920578

Product Description

One of four volumes of incisive essays on rural life that addresses not only the many how-to questions that bedevil country dwellers, but also the larger direction that life is taking on this planet. Perrin, a transplanted New Yorker and now a "real" Vermonter, candidly admits his early mistakes while giving concrete advice on matters such as what to do with maple syrup (other than put it on your pancakes), how to use a peavey, and how to replace your rototiller with a garden animal.

Customer Reviews:

Funny......couldn't stop laughing!.......2006-09-02

This book was great fun...and so true. I'm a small town girl who ended up in the country. This will give everyone an insight into living in the country, and learn the 'rules' of country folk.

The Lay of the Land: Metaphor As Experience and History in American Life and Letters

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The Lay of the Land: Metaphor As Experience and History in American Life and Letters
Annette Kolodny
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807841188

Book Description

An original and highly unusual psycholinguistic study of American literature and culture from 1584 to 1860, this volume focuses on the metaphor of 'land-as-woman.' It is the first systematic documentation of the recurrent responses to the American continent as a feminine entity (as Mother, as Virgin, as Temptress, as the Ravished), and it is also the first systematic inquiry into the metaphor's implications for the current ecological crisis.

Emerson's Rhetoric of Revelation: Nature, the Reader, and the Apocalypse Within

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Emerson's Rhetoric of Revelation: Nature, the Reader, and the Apocalypse Within
Alan D. Hodder
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Letters: Epistles on Islamic Thought, Belief, and Life (The Risale-i Nur Collection series)

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The Letters: Epistles on Islamic Thought, Belief, and Life (The Risale-i Nur Collection series)
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
Manufacturer: The Light, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Theology | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Islamic | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1597840769

Book Description

Written by a celebrated Islamic scholar to his students in Turkey after his political exile in 1925, these letters follow the long-established traditions of correspondence between spiritual masters and their students in remote lands. Both expressions of friendship and long-distance tutorials on points of scholarly debate, most of the letters are answers to questions about theology and hold forth on such matters as the nature of hell, the suffering of innocents, the miracles of Prophet Muhammad, and the divine purpose of the universe.

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Letters On The Study Of Nature
Alexander Herzen
Manufacturer: University Press of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1410214141

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New Edition Released!

Be careful of directions!

Great Book!

The only Garbage of its type available

Good Book ... some additional info

120 Great Hikes in and Near Palm Springs
Philip Ferranti
Manufacturer: Westcliffe Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Excursion Guides | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Peaks, Palms & Picnics: Day Journeys in the Mountains & Deserts of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley of Southern California (Pyle, Linda Mcmillin. Peaks, Palms, and Picnics.)

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ASIN: 1565794907

Book Description

This is the ISBN for the title 140 Great Hikes In and Near Palm Springs

Customer Reviews:

New Edition Released!.......2006-12-27

This book has been recently updated - adding 20 more hikes over the previous '120 Hikes' edition. Yippee!

An essential tool for any avid hiker visiting or living in the Coachella Valley.

Be careful of directions!.......2006-10-14

This book definitely motivates and excites you to hike the Coachella Valley and surroundings, however, be very careful with the directions given. I have tried 3 hikes from the book and 2 we were lost for quite some time. Your best bet is to mapquest the directions or certainly call ahead. The author really could have done better in this area as your interested in hiking not driving!!

Great Book!.......2006-07-14

I have used 120 Great Hikes/Palm Springs numerous times and have found it to be easy to follow and accurate. The Jo Pond trail is one of my favorites. Anyone who has interest in hiking around Palm Springs should get this book!

The only Garbage of its type available.......2006-03-07

True this is the only resource around that offers a snippet on many hikes in the area, but the descriptions are riddles with vague information. Example: A hike that had a page description said, "after a while you will come to a wide wash.." That while was hours and miles later. I suffered heat stroke because of this book. I am not alone. ALL the avid hikers i know are aware that the descriptions contained within the book are pretty awful. I hope someone else can create a better book. Maybe me!

Good Book ... some additional info.......2006-01-17

My wife and I have lived in the desert for many years but this book opened our eyes to a few landscapes we did not know existed nearby! For folks like us, that's like pointing out to a child that he's living in a candy store.

But, we have tried two hikes which the book makes sound accessible to passenger cars (2wd) which were not (Painted/Ladder Canyon in the Mecca Hills and Orocopia Mtns). The winter of 2005 brought heavy rains to the area with lots of flash flooding. We suppose that the conditions of the access roads have changed a bit accounting for the erosion and deep, loose sand.

Anyway, enjoy it, but take a 4wd with good clearance.

Amazon.com

M.E. Kerr is one of the 10 big names in young-adult fiction, and she has written many highly praised books, most notably Gentlehands and Deliver Us from Evie. What Became of Her, Kerr's 12th teen novel, is a big, sprawling saga of two intricately related generations in the ironically named town of Serenity. At the center of the story is the fabulously wealthy Rosalind Slaymaster, who has left her ranch in Texas to return to the family mansion called Peligro, or Danger. There she entertains lavishly, exerting her will over the town where she was humiliated as a girl. As the teenage Rose Fitch she was taunted for her stutter, her innocence, her work at the Dare funeral home, her mentally handicapped father. As Rosalind Slaymaster, she is tough and tall in her jeans and boots. Still, she is strangely attached to a two-foot leather mannequin she calls Peale--and is harsh and cold with Julie, the teenage girl she has adopted to keep the doll company. On another level, 16-year-old E.C. Tobbit and his light-fingered friend Neal form an alliance with Julie that undercuts and is linked to the events of the previous generation. A scorecard of characters helps, but teen readers who are willing to pay attention will be rewarded with many "Aha!" experiences in this challenging but ultimately satisfying novel. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

Book Description

Peligro, the sign said. Danger – because the road that led up to the house twisted sharply around the hill. One of the Hispanic workers had made the sign as the house was being prepared for its new owner. When Rosalind Slaymaster was finally ready to live there, everyone in the small Pennsylvania town had come to call the place Peligro. It was like Mrs Slaymaster to leave it that way. She was said to be the richest woman in Bucks County. When Edgar Tobbit first met her he thought she didn't look rich, but it didn't take him very long to realiSe she wasn't like anyone else, either. Neither was her teenage niece, Julie, who arrived at school every day in a white Hummer. And neither was Peale, the two–foot leather mannequin who had his own wardrobe of tailor–made suits; his own passport, bedroom and television. Peale was said to grant wishes and make dreams come true.

"What's Peligro like?" Edgar's friend asks him. And Edgar invites him to a party there on Christmas Eve.That is how Neal Kraft and Julie first meet.

The threesome quickly become fast friends and, in a short while, change one another's lives, barely aware of the old secrets that inspire Mrs Slaymaster's revenge on the town.Through it all Peale sits among them with his green glass eyes bright and watchful, as though he knows what's coming.

What Became of Her is partly based on some real–life characters the author has never been able to forget.

Customer Reviews:

Meandering Story.......2007-06-14

E.C. is a high school student living in a small and unremarkable town. He isn't very social and spends most of his free time with his one friend, Neal. He and Neal have something in common--both of their fathers have died and they have seen the same psychologist for therapy to deal with that loss. So the boys become friends.

This summer a woman and her niece come to town. They live in the mansion up the hill that used to be called Evans Above and now is called Peligro, the Portuguese word for danger. Soon after they arrive, E.C. begins to become friends with the niece, Julie, a socially inept girl who tries too hard to make friends and brings out the protective instinct of E.C. Soon Julie is hanging out with E.C. and Neal all of the time, and she seems to have feelings of more than friendship for Neal.

But then E.C. starts to find out some things about Julie's Aunt Rosalind. He reads her old diary and scrapbook and finds out that she has very good reason to hate Neal's family. E.C. doesn't want Julie kept away from him and Neal, so when Roasline threatens to move them back to Texas, he knows he has to do something desperate.

I liked the characters of E.C. and Neal, and I liked watching the way their friendship worked. I also liked the history behind the book, and the fact that people were motivated by events that happened a generation before them.

However, this book sort of meandered, with no buildup to a huge climax. The ending was a letdown, and it didn't make much sense to me.

the drama.......2006-05-06

in what became of her there was always something going on in the past and the present secrets are exposed and now E.C knows why there is hate . mrs.s is a craxy woman in mind her persanility is thin. as in if something does not work she leaves that . whatever it is.

Not the best.......2003-05-18

I hate books that, once I'm finished, leave me with that unsettled feeling and saying to myself, "THAT'S how it ended?" If you're the same way, don't waste your time with this one. I also hate books that are made to sound so much better than they actually are with the summary on the inside of the jacket. I picked up "What Became of Her" at the library and thought it would turn out to be really good--well, we all make mistakes. It's pretty sad when the summary on the inside of the book jacket is more entertaining than the actual book itself. Although the plot wasn't bad, all of the characters were horribly undeveloped; I felt like I never really got to know any of them, not even the narrator. While I could see this as being an ambitious, first-novel attempt, I couldn't believe that this was Kerr's 12th book and that she is considered to be a top author for young adults. Maybe her other books are better, but there is definitely room for improvement with "What Became of Her." When I'm 3/4 of the way through the book and find myself wondering, "Um, when is this going to get good?", I consider my time wasted in reading it. Some people might enjoy it for its semi-unusual plot, but I was unsatisfied.

WOW !!!!!.......2002-02-22

This is a very very strange book. But strange doesn't always mean bad, and it this case, it definitely doesn't. This book is amazing, even if the plot is a little out of the ordinary. Rosalind Slaymaster is quite fascinating, and so is her mannequin Peale. If you want to try something new and different to read, you cannot pick a better book.

Kristen's Believe it or Not.......2001-11-27

The title of this book is What Became of Her, by M.E. Kerr. It is a young adult book. It is three misfits becoming friends. One steals a doll to keep his friend in town. she leaves because he confesses and gets in trouble.
This book was not as good as Stotan, which is about friendship too. Both books are funny, but Stotan was more amusing and had more action in it. The characters in both books were distinctive
The book was good. It was also a little sad about how hard the people's lives were. It was in way that people might not notice that they were hurt. Also, some of the characters were a little crazy, but it is somewhat explained by their pasts. The friendship between Neil, Julie, and E.C. was very touching, they were finding solace in being with each other. this is why it was so hard to see Julie leave, and why E.C. did something so stupid and desperate. It was too bad she did leave. They're friendship didnt last long but it changed their lives, especially for julie. She had been a mess when it started, she was trying too hard, "I'd come to believe that if we never met, her life would be quite different. And so it would be...just not as i'd feared." page 243.
I thought the ending was good, but sometimes the writing was confusing. Also i thought the book had humorous moment but not a lot. i thought some of the characters were kind of strange, and some weren't developed enough. I thought it was an almost potimistic book at times, but then it could be viewd pessimistic, like the poem they talked about. it depended on how you interpreted the book.

What Became of Her.(Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article): An article from: The Horn Book Magazine

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What Became of Her.(Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article): An article from: The Horn Book Magazine
L.a.
Manufacturer: Horn Book, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Horn Book Magazine, published by Horn Book, Inc. on May 1, 2000. The length of the article is 733 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: What Became of Her.(Review)(Young Adult Review)(Brief Article)
Author: L.a.
Publication: The Horn Book Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2000
Publisher: Horn Book, Inc.
Volume: 76 Issue: 3 Page: 316

Article Type: Book Review, Young Adult Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

A debutante in New York society: Her illusions and what became of them

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A debutante in New York society: Her illusions and what became of them
Abby Buchanan Longstreet
Manufacturer: D. Appleton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008863QO

Madame Charbonneau: The Indian Woman Who Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-6; How She Received Her Indian Name and What Became of Her

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Madame Charbonneau: The Indian Woman Who Accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-6; How She Received Her Indian Name and What Became of Her
John E Rees
Manufacturer: Lemhi County Historical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JCB12K

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What Became of Her
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF9QYC

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What Became of Her
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEQ20Y

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What Became of Her
M. E. Kerr
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEMIMA

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