It's no accident I read The Accidental Farmers
922644
Tim and Liz have written an excellent description of the trials and tribulations they have experienced in moving from urban life to country life.  I could not put this book down!  I really appreciate them being so honest and so very personnel.  I am truly inspired.

Russ Bates
B & B Family Farm
Cave Spring, GA
1055755
An Unexpecated Widow was well written.  You can just see the crops growning a long with the connections with each of the persons involved.
1787
It was a Saturday afternoon, and I had to read Animal Farm by Thursday. I opened it up and couldn't put it down. I read it in a modest 2 hours.

We had just finished Great Expectations in class, and that book was painfully hard to read. Animal Farm was a refreshing change. It isn't written Dickens' style, it's just a simple book, and it's the Theme that's important.

Highly recommended for a pleasure book, even.
3920532
I read two books from this author; A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans.  I recommend them both.  Thoroughly enjoyable.  I liked the characters, the writing was entertaining, some parts truly funny and other parts hard and sad as real life is.  I even learned a few things about migrant workers; a nice surprise or by-product of reading Two Caravans, I wasn't expecting that.  Don't make my mistake though, I didn't realize that Strawberry Fields and Two Caravans are the same book but with different titles.  Oh well now I have 2 copies.  I liked these two books enough to read them again.  The characters have stayed with me, so go for it and enjoy.
932095
My favorite gardening author did not disappoint.
374
This book is like Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm gets her comeuppance, but in a good way...couldn't get it through the library fast enough, so I had to buy the kindle version. Sort of a storybook ending, but the growth and changes she underwent were not dependent upon this.  She achieves a positive outcome for her and her boys despite (because of?) the lack of a partner.  Even if you aren't about to "lose the farm" I think many can identify with the author's struggles.
3236114
I met Terra Brockman at one of her very first readings and book signings of Henry's Farm.  The cover sure was pretty, and I wondered if the book might be coffee table fodder for the customers who frequent Henry's market stand.

And then I read the book.  And it changed my life.  Terra's writing is so sensitive and personal.  Each chapter represents a month, or moon, in a Season at Henry's Farm.  She takes all of the pertinent issues related to organic farming today and intertwines them with her own family and the life that they lead. I have been to their farm, and her family and her story is truly authentic.

While I loved every part of the book, I think the most startling is the story of the perfectly beautiful grocery store peach that sat on her kitchen counter. For weeks.  And would not rot because it had been treated with so many fungicides.  Perhaps we should not eat things that refuse to decay.

If you are not a gardener, you may get a bit bogged down by all of the lists of books and varieties of plants that are suggested by Henry's Farm.  In that case, I encourage you to read every reference and plant every plant! And then you will be a part of the good news that Terra is trying to spread!

I am so grateful to own one of the first copies of this book.  I took the time to rate it on Amazon because I am buying it for many of my friends.
2347841
No Accidents is no accident. Sonya Wells's title is no accident. In this first novel, she weaves her faith, her love and knowledge of the Great Smoky Mountains, and her love of people into a charming story of love and redemption, which is never an accident. The career paths of Dayla and Kent are important elements in the story, and I particularly enjoyed Wells's insight into the world of the deaf.
This is a short book, an easy read in one sitting--good for a rainy afternoon.
310729
I don't read the Mrs. Murphy mysteries because animals talk, and I don't really read them for the whodunnits because, in truth, they are fairly simplistic.  I read them because of the world Rita Mae Brown evokes in and around rural Albemarle County, Virginia and how she looks at what is changing and what will always be with us in the South and, for that matter, humanity.  I think she done good this time.

SOUR PUSS introduces some left turns that were foreshadowed in the last two books in the series, and I am happy to report that the turns were taken on a stable axis. Our heroine, Mary (Harry) Minor Hairsteen has agreed to remarry her ex-husband and she has left the postmaster job behind.  There are no regrets with the job, and in terms of the marriage, I think all the cute-happy cooing of the newlyweds beats Harry's previous, much drawn out fence-sitting. She helps husband Fair with raising foals on her family farm and has diversified her agricultural ventures, having planted grapes and revived an old peach orchard.  She and pal Susan are also raising nursery stock.  Her new interests put her right at the center of the exploding development of local wineries and post 9-11 fears of agriterrorism, not to mention global warming.  The mystery asks, what do we have to fear most, the global or the local threat, nature or human?  It also talks about trust.

Of course, this isn't CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, it isn't intended to be and how could it be when animals talk and disrupt social events and the humans can't seem to make it through a party without a slapstick brawl.  All the same, I think there is more to this series than there is in most "cozy" mysteries.
2689018
The book was comic relief for this city dweller. While I am not squeamish, some of the text was a bit earthy for me. If you grew up on a farm or visited one occasionally, some of the antics and anecdotes might seem commonplace for you. The majority of the book was humorous but once or twice a turn of events was sad as one might expect in any culture. Life is fragile and fraught with perils, a point well-demonstrated in the course of at least two stories. The stories could well be entirely accurate and the writing is very good.
304010
I'm not ready to become a farmer, but I did buy some acres and move to the country.  Lowell Christensen shares the troubles, wisdom, and humor of farming with us city folk who haven't figured out that a fence won't keep a bull away from the cows.  He covers every part of farming from animals to driving on country roads to shoveling manure.  The prose are light and humorous.  There are a thousand ways to make mistakes on a farm, and at least half of them are humorously detailed in this short book.  His recipe for home made soap produces eight pounds of soap, 18 doughnuts, and 3oz of pork skins.  If you raise chickens there are thoughtful questions such as, "How many baskets should you put your eggs in?"

I'm not going to raise goats or cows, and I would need more detailed information than this general beginning book if I wanted to.  But it's a fun and humorous little book on farming.  It is also full of inside information from a man who grew up on a family farm.  Its fun to read even if you aren't ever going to live on a farm.
3371059
Farm families see rain differently than urban dwellers.  While for some it is an inconvenience, but for farmers it is a life-giving blessing.  Never Curse The Rain is a maxim author Jerry Apps learned from his father that he applied to his own reflections on water.

This book consists of 30 memories, generally running 4-7 pages in length, of particular incidents in the authors young life involving water.  Readers are taken back to the day when the gasoline water pump came, freeing the farm from dependence on the winds to draw water, the weekly baths and clothes washings, the swimming hole, Apps first mischievous introduction to a water cooler, fishing with his father, canoe trips, the funny dressing and talking city folks who would visit on vacation, and the power of a thunderstorm, just for starters.

The stories are delightful.  Written with Apps descriptive talent, they transfer the reader to a life style that has been washed away by the tides of progress.  This work puts flesh on the skeleton of history.  I have read of Depression Era droughts and rural electrification but this tome illustrates their importance to the Apps and other families across America.  Whether you are looking for social history or just an enjoyable read, Never Curse The Rain is an excellent choice.

I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
2257094
Its fun to read. His descriptions are good and evocative. I think he also really writes well about that area with farmland and corn silk and  that certain unique bunch of people (all from academia).
1657472
To read
The Idiot

Learning by Accident is the story of a family's triumph when life takes a turn that could easily have pulled them apart. Instead, they grow stronger together by facing a traumatic brain injury with grace and courage. Rosemary Rawlins has written a memoir of her husband's bike accident, a moment in time, that has a profound impact on the lives of Hugh, Rosemary, and their two daughters. The book is beautifully written, deftly describing the long recovery and eventual healing of a family through boundless love and even a bit of humor. A great read.
2823276
this is a story of a 16 yr old who runs away from something horrible. the book centers on her adapting to the new place she lives=a sheep farm with a couple-the man takes to her, the wife is jealous and he secludes her in an old cottage on the land. this is her story of how she survives moving around without the wife knowing and mind you no hanky panky. THe farmer is just a nice guy who felt bad for her bad luck and took her in. the son takes to her as well.  this spans a good 20 yrs. VERY well written. Drew me in from the start. I live in USA and hardly ever read foreign published books but now I am hooked. I love farm stories and simple life stories. I long for that myself. You won't be disappointed in this. your teenager could read this for a bookreport-no hanky panky inside but is factual about life and a good deal of info about how to raise sheep. Very well written. read it in 2 days.

Oh and the title has something to do with the farming..you will find out.
859621
Did you every wonder where your fresh strawberries come from?  Or the pears, peaches, grapes, pineapples on your table?
Stephen Greenleaf explores the agricultural caste system through the voice of his private  investigator first person narrator, John Marshall Tanner.
Tanner is a  great narrator: an intelligent, world weary private eye. Tanner goes off to  the strawberry fields of the Salinas area to investigate a murder, then  two, and actually three.  But this isn't a story of violent murder; it is a  story of agricultural communities, of dating in the l990's, of small town  politics, of family rivalries.  Tanner's weapon is simple:  he asks  questions.  The answers eventually fill in the pieces of a mystery.
This is a great read.
2970016
This book was given to me by my brother, and I had no high expectations because my brother knows the author (I live 1500 miles from my brother, and know none of his friends.)  I found the writing to be fresh, his experiences matched many of my experiences, although I am of his parents generation, and he reintroduced me to many of my experiences on the farm 50 years ago.  There was one huge downside.  I am writing a memoir of my life on my parent's farm, and upon reviewing my own literary efforts, decided that I had created a snapshot of each situation, while he had created a professional portrait, and my descriptions of grasses, smell of haymows, and the feelings I had at the end of a hard day's work looked like doodles on a memo pad after reading this book.