Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg
Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg
by Michael Perry (Author of Population: 485)
Michael Perry is just one of those authors, one of those gifted few, who after you read a couple of pages you feel like you are curled by the fire listening to a master storyteller that you could listen to all night long. His narration is honest, thoughtful- interlaced with humor and always well written anecdotes that make you think about how the world is and how it ought to be.
Coop is an excellent book, split between memories in which Perry tells of how life was during his rural childhood and the other half is a modern day city peeps meet rural narration, or what he is living currently. The reason the childhood memories are triggered is that Perry is a country boy gone citified and then he and his family move back out to the country all the memories of life as a farm boy emerge. I loved both narratives, I enjoyed them each for their own reasons. I admired his parents, who had more children staying with them than the old woman in the shoe! They had natural children, adopted others and took in many (MANY) foster children a high portion of which were handicapped in some way and required a lot of care. So they captured me by their simple and very generous nature. The current day storyline of Perry and his wife in so many ways they reminded me of The Husband and I that I just couldn't not completely love it. He is tender and honest in his rendering of his life living with a woman who longs to embrace life as it comes-naturally (even if he doesn't). His humor reminded me of how The Husband writes about me and it endeared me completely to them as a couple.
As much as this book is a rich narrative about chickens, pigs, cows, and country chores it is much more an honest approach to purpose and life. Perry takes the reader easily word by word gliding on hard work, pure talent, and a voice that rises off the print to help you pull up a chair and get comfy. Coop has become that one book I mention everywhere I go and am not embarrassed to be a shameless promoter of. Michael Perry is a literary ROCKSTAR!! (although I hear he ain't too bad at keeping a tune either!) Coop is a blessing to read no matter who you are, or where you are in life- it will shed new light on your earthy travels for sure. Entirely 100% recommended- it even gets my stellar five chicken book award. Ya just gotta read it, I tell ya!
Michael Perry will be on Blog Talk Radio with Book Club Girl on Monday, June 7th at 7pm EST
Michael Perry's website: Sneezing Cow
ISBN: 9780061240447
Subtitle: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg
Author: Perry, Michael
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Subject: Memoirs, Non-Fiction
Publication Date: May 2010
Pages: 384
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Who by Fire
Who by Fire
by Diana Spechler
368 pages
Fiction
Harper Perennial
When Ash and Bits where young children their sister Alena was kidnapped. Since then the kidnapping has torn their family apart and brought them to different methods of dealing with the grief, guilt and pain of loosing their sister, and daughter. Bits runs to men whenever she is sad, Ash scurries to religion, living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel in hopes that it will fill his gap and their mother's outlet is blame. She blames herself, and guilts her other children because they do not perform the way that she would like them to, they just can't fill that void that her youngest daughter, her favourite daughter left. For years, even decades the pain has formed wedges between them all, pushing and pulling them further and further apart. Will a sudden protectiveness arise within them when they feel someone on the outside is threatening their family?
Who by Fire is a tightly knit net of interactions and paths that cross and intersect and dodge each other. The book had its clenching grip on me the whole way through, I could relate to pieces of each of the characters. I do recommend it, I enjoyed it and it took me through the emotions a long with it. I felt the writing was precise and while not stunningly beautiful, it was practical and felt just right for the book. I was never distracted by cliche or bored by descriptions, so yes the writing was very good.
This is certainly a book for most people, but it would especially strike a chord for those who have suffered loss and learned, or have yet to learn how to cope with the loss endured. As dark as this book could have been, it wasn't, somehow through the whole reading I felt an underlying stream of hope and perseverance. Who by Fire is not flavoured by sad and depressed draining feelings, but of a changing life and the acts that futures are made of. Read it and you'll be glad that you did.
Here is a brief interview with the author:
