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Ted Kooser describes with exquisite detail and humor the place he calls home in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska, an area known as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too big or too small for his attention, including memories of his grandmother's cooking. And Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view.What makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors show more care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his Iowa childhood.
This writer sees the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays.
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Member Reviews
Random musings in prose from one of our best poets. He's the guy I'd like to be stranded with at a truckstop in a snowstorm. Interesting to read his prose, which is in parts lyrical, in parts elegant, and in parts reassuringly ordinary. Kooser words make me think of Andrew Wyeth's paintings, and sometimes even Edward Hopper's. There's that certain slant of light to nearly every page. He's got a fierce love of the land, in particular his own Nebraska soil, and of his neighbors who work that land.
The first book of poetry that I had read since encountering Carl Sandburg in my teens that actually spoke to MY soul. (As evidenced by my turning from the last page directly back to the first page to start over again.) I understood what he was saying, what he was seeing. His words changed my vision as a photographer.
Enjoyable, evoking many rural memories and sensibilities in a delightful way. Not particularly memorable.
Written by a poet. Essays on life in Nebraska. I enjoyed the way he saw the world and it helped me to look at the world like that for awhile; had a lot of sayings from the immigrant Czechs who settled there, and they were down to earth and true. Uplifting; heart-warming
Simply one of the most beautifully written books I have read.
Written by an honored poet and former insurance company executive, this biography beautifully details the author's life in the low hills of southeastern Nebraska. Kooser is a master of writing big about small things - - "seeing small." Winner of the Nebraska Book Award for Nonfiction in 2003, Kooser was named the nation's poet laureate in October 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58410-2004Aug11.html (lj)
Poetry and prose from the Poet Laureate for Nebraska AND the United States!
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Author Information
46+ Works 3,762 Members
Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate (2004-2006), is a professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps
- Original publication date
- 2002
- Important places
- USA; Nebraska, USA
- Epigraph
- When God wishes to rejoice
the heart of a poor man,
He makes him lose his donkey
and find it again. - Dedication
- For Jeff
- First words
- Preface: Contrary to what out-of-state tourists might tell you, Nebraska isn't flat but slightly tilted, like a long church-basement table with the legs on one end not perfectly snapped in place, not quite enough of a slant ... (show all)for the tuna-and-potato-chip casseroles to slide off into the Missouri River.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But there are still so many cars ahead, the next and the next and the next, clatter to clatter to clatter, and we close a door against the wind and find a new year, a club car brightly lit, fresh flowers in vases on the tables, green meadows beyond the windows, and lots of people who, together - stranger, acquaintance, and friend - turn toward you and, smiling broadly, lift their glasses.
- Blurbers
- Harrison, Jim; Gilfillan, Merrill; Kitchen, Judith
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 293
- Popularity
- 109,578
- Reviews
- 9
- Rating
- (4.34)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
