Scott Russell Sanders

America Moved

History & Biography

“Tarkington grew up near grandparents whose memories stretched back to the founding of the Republic, and his own life extended into the nuclear age. In these vivid, wry, and often moving memoirs, he draws on that full range of experience to reveal, through the lens of his own life, the modern story of the heartland. It is a story of the transition from an agrarian society moving at the speed of nature to a technological society moving at the speed of electricity. Along the way he draws an engaging portrait of the artist as a young man--an artist who grew up to write novels and plays enjoyed around the world.”

Beyond Tomorrow

“Elders often reminisce about the past, the good old times or bad old times, but they rarely imagine the future in a vivid and hopeful way, as Christopher Nye has done in this visionary book. Now in his ninth decade, he refuses to give up on our species. Instead, he celebrates our capacity as individuals to become morally responsible, creative, and caring, and he documents our ability as members of groups to collaborate peacefully and fruitfully on scales ranging from families, trade unions, and co-ops up to cities. The key to releasing this potential is education that nurtures the whole person, body, brain, and soul, beginning in early childhood and continuing all through life. The author whom we meet in these pages illustrates the generosity and wisdom such an education can yield.”

Jesus Girls

Women

“A marvelous writer herself, Hannah Notess has gathered here a circle of riveting storytellers. Speaking from their own experience, these women reframe the ancient religious questions in contemporary language--questions about suffering, sin, and salvation, about the source and purpose and conduct of life. Above all they ask what Christianity meant to them when they were growing up, and what it means to them now. Their answers are as varied and rich as their voices.”

Localism in the Mass Age

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Why reorient our lives toward local communities, economies, farmlands and forests? Because that’s where you can be a citizen rather than a consumer, where you can see a need and help to meet it, where kinfolk might gather not just to visit but to live, where flesh-and-blood neighbors can offer one another aid and companionship, where public officials must answer for their actions, where you can grow food when the trucks stop rolling, where sun and wind offer free energy, and where you can protect and restore a piece of Earth. If anything in that list appeals to you, then you’ll be stirred by this book—a bold reimagining of our lives and our places.”

Mother, Creature, Kin

“This is a beautiful book--the prose, the stories, the sentiments and values. It belongs in the company of works by Ursula K. Le Guin, Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams, and Robin Kimmerer, all of whom are inspiring presences in these pages. While Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder writes vividly about bearing and nurturing a child, she also invites us to understand mothering in a larger sense, as caring for all creatures--for birds and whales, trees and grasses, the entire web of life.”

The Culinary Plagiarist

Arts & Literature

“Jason Peters’ writing on food, drink, and other earthy pleasures is like the most candid essayist—Montaigne, say—on truth serum. He may be the raunchiest gourmand ever to publish kitchen (and bedroom) musings, and also the funniest. Beneath the libidinous arias on martinis and mushrooms, however, there is a reverent man at work, as devoted to topsoil as to pasta, as versed in the Bible as in bourbon. The book is a wise romp. Read it with your favorite dish or darling.”

The Hands-On Life

“In this era of political assaults on the sciences, humanities, and arts, it is bracing to read Amy Weldon’s feisty, full-throated defense of the human capacity for learning. As a teacher, she celebrates the awakening of imagination and conscience in students. . . . Readers who are seeking a right path through thickets of technology, money-worship, and consumerism will find here a wise and appealing guide.”