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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This is a type of info/memoir by and about Jenna Woginrich. Made from Scratch covers beekeeping, chicken raising, antique hunting, bread making and many other rituals of the not-so-urban dwellers. Her book is set up well and there are sections of it that are extremely helpful and smart.

Many times however, I was turned off by the attempt to cover up poor writing by and addition of overly flowered and emotional prose. It was just way too loaded for me. She got emotional and excited because some friends from college were to join her at her house and so she went out of her way to make it a complete hassle-free weekend for them. She goes on to speak of how blessed she is that as she sees her friend falling asleep on the couch she knows that the food that is going through his body is from her very own farm. Cheesy! I have chickens in my backyard and I have never sat and thought that, yes I am delighted the boys get fresh eggs, and delighted that we aren't paying into the insanely hideous picture of all those caged birds laying eggs onto a conveyor belt  for their whole lives while never to set foot on grass. Yes I am! But it seems to me Jenna goes a little overboard with her pleasure of the food that is in her friends digestive system. It isn't just that passage either- there are more.

Besides the emotional aspect of this book (which seems to be written by someone either PMSing or enduring Menopause) I did enjoy the farming insight and tips. Although I am not quite ready to dive into bee-keeping (the neighbors probably wouldn't like it either) I liked reading what she learned from both her mistakes and successes. I learn from other people's mistakes when it comes to farming, gardening and such- it is way to expensive not to! Overall this was an average short and light read. It could have been so much better without the melodrama, but there were enough tidbits in it to keep me somewhat content.

If you could own one kind of farm animal (without  worrying about land space, or your neighbors) what would it be? The latest one that I want...Angora rabbits! I really want me a pair.

ISBN: 9781603420860

Subtitle: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life

Author: Woginrich, Jenna

Publisher: Storey Publishing

Subject: Do-It-Yourself - General

Personal Memoirs

Country life

Urban homesteading.

Farmers & Ranchers

Self-reliant living

Publication Date: December 2008

Pages: 184

I am an affiliate of  TOMS SHOES and Powell’s Books and I do receive a percentage of the sales of any item you buy using my links. Thank you!

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The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders
by Emmanuel Guibert, Frederic Lemercier and Didier Lefevre
267 Pages
Memoir Graphic Novel/Photography
Published by First Second
My Rating of The Photographer: 90/100

Didier Lefevre, a photographer from France joins in with the physicians working through Doctors Without Borders.  He left his home, Paris, after packing up his apartment and settling everything before heading out on this expedition. Once in Afghanistan   his mission has begun, he follows the MSF (or Doctors Without Borders) taking pictures of their journeys through the rural villages setting up clinics and working on patients. When he sets out, it is obvious that he has no idea what toll this expedition will take on him emotionally and physically. He is very naive at times, he gets bored easy, and when he hears the MSF are going to take a different route back in order to treat some other villages, he can't handle the extra wait in getting back to the city, and essentially back home. When Didier decides to leave the comforts and safety of the MSF group and head back on schedule, it is not until they are gone that he begins to understand what is so important about having a good understanding of the native language and established relationships- he has neither. Death is more likely the outcome of this choice than survival.

This is an outstanding graphic novel, filled with photos taken while Didier Lefevre paired with the art excellence of Emmanuel Guibert. The Photographer continues to recieve notice around the world, for an inside view of a desperate war-related experience. What most amazed me was how naive Didier was when he got on the plane leaving Paris, and the growth that is shown by the end of the book. He is a fighter, and when in the beginning he thinks he is setting out for an adventure, in the end that same adventure is what is making him fight for his life.

I have never read a book like this one, since I love photography and I love art it was sure to be a hit. What I enjoyed even more was the honesty, the way Lefevre displays his stupidity, and how he chooses to place himself in circumstances that are really bad. It is through just this honesty that he is more real, more alive and just more human.   I could relate to his feelings of desperation, loneliness and sadness, it was easy to follow him on this journey and somehow know that it would have been possible for me to make those same choices. He is driven to get the best shots possible, even if it does mean a risk. If you like graphic novels, this is a great one, the photos making it even more interesting- it is photo journalism at its best along with a desperation for life, and to life to tell the tale. I highly recommend this book, it is still making me think.

What is the cost of adventure?

If a story is not fought for with your very life, is it much of a story to tell?

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Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
315 Pages
Childhood Memoir Zimbabwe
Random House
Published 2001

In a land not her own, but not really being connected to anywhere else is how little Alexandra Fuller grew up. Living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), enduring the war and racial turmoil, Alexandra (aka Bobo) grew up almost raising her parents as she raised herself. Her mother was mentally unstable after loosing several of her children in childbirth or shortly after, and very maniacal in her pleasures and hatreds. Her father worked most of the time, and when not working he joined up with the white side of the government in the Rhodesian Civil War. They allowed (I could even go so far as to say encouraged) their daughters at a very young age to drink alcohol and smoke. The only rule was that they didn't get caught smoking at boarding school or they would be kicked out.

This is a book of what it would be like to grow up in a country where you don't fit, where you parents express racism outwardly, where you have to live in a gated home and go away to boarding school from very early on. Also a place where schools are segregated into A Schools, B Schools and so on depending on your race and skin tone. What shocked me the most was the racism of her parents, but more than that was how Bobo somehow managed to not embrace it herself. There are several key moments in the book where you realise that she is going to end up just fine, that almost in spite of her parents ideology and beliefs, she will be different than them.

I loved reading Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (actually listened to it). Alexandra Fuller skillfully tells her story, and when she does, even the horrors of it all seem to have a tinge of hope. I don't like downer and gloomy books, and this is not one of those, but she isn't cheery for no purpose, I would say just optimistic. I loved Bobo as a young girl, and the older she got the more I felt like I knew her. She is an excellent writer, storyteller and lived an extreme life, I am so glad that she told her story, I am a better person for having met her, if only through her book.I don't even love memoirs and I loved this read! So if you are a non-fiction buff or love memoirs you would probably enjoy it all the more!

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight gets my special best books prize, the "Stellar Five Chicken Award" because chickens are so much better than stars, it really is just that good!

Author Website: Alexandra Fuller

If you enjoyed Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight you should check out The Glass Castle

How have you changed your story? Would you say when you are in the midst of tough situations you are optimistic or pessimistic?

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Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother's Journey to Adoption in China
by Beth Nonte Russell
240 pages
Memoir

Beth Nonte Russell shares her story in this personal memoir of her voyage to China with her friend Alex. Alex has been trying to adopt a baby from China for a year and a half, when she gets the approval she chooses her friend Beth to go with her. Beth feels she is an unlikely choice, as they are just casual friends and she hasn't been very close in the last several months, but never a woman to turn down an adventure she agrees.

Alex goes throughout a series of doubt and withdrawals while they are in china, she says she just, "doesn't love this baby". The author takes the reader through her own roller coaster of emotions which are choreographed all too well with the manipulation of her friend Alex. She wants the baby, then she doesn't, wants it, then doesn't- the whole time Beth is falling more and more in love with this delightful baby girl. What could be her fate if not brought back to America? She is already months behind in physical and mental development, and soon will probably just fail to thrive.

I wished I would fall in love with this book, and I didn't. I thought it was interesting, but it was too much about the relationship between the two American women and not enough about the baby's or the orphanages or china. The little glimpses of those things that are there are beautiful and a joy to read about. All of the internal wars between the women- that is something that I could have done without. I think that if you were really interested in international adoption it might be different. This one just wasn't for me, I would have preferred the author to tell of a different adoption that wasn't so much about her relationship with Alex, more about their family, and how the girl ended up being integrated into their family.

Also (not to rip on it) but throughout the book there are dreams, dreams that are supposed to be her past connection with this particular child. It was too strange (and disjointed) and didn't really work for me.

What did you think? Did you read it and love it? How do you do when you have to write negative reviews? I can't make all my reviews glowing, and I do not make apologies, this one just wasn't for me.

Other Blogger Reviews:
The Book Nest
The Written Word
Ramya's Bookshelf
Book Chatter and Other Stuff

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