Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (American Lives) [Paperback]

Ted Kooser (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Lives | Publication Date: March 1, 2004

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. Memories of his grandmother’s cooking are juxtaposed with reflections about the old-fashioned outhouse on his property. When casting his eye on social progress, Kooser reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless county weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view.

In the end, what makes life meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and how an afternoon walking with an old dog, or baking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas can summon memories of his Iowa childhood. This writer is a seer in the truest sense of the word, discovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep beneath the shallow, the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays.

(20100308)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Season by season, Kooser reflects upon life in, around, and beyond his home nestled in the rolling hills of eastern Nebraska, an area he slyly calls the "Bohemian alps," then honors the German and Czech immigrants who originally settled the area by liberally scattering their inspirational homilies throughout his essays. His are sweet little observations, nothing monumental or earth-shattering, just the everyday kind of occurrences we've all been privy to: the satisfaction that comes from cleaning the garage, the possibilities that can occur when answering a wrong number. An artist and poet, Kooser takes delight in the ordinary treasures found in one's own backyard: "If you can awaken inside the familiar and discover it new," he says, "you need never leave home." Kooser is full of other such gentle, homespun wisdom: what it takes to be a good neighbor, what it means to be a dutiful son. Through his eyes, we learn to see, then appreciate, the beauty and grace in everyday miracles, the comfort and sanctity in local wonders. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

http://crickhollow.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/poetry-home-repair-manual-small-press-month-book-recommendation-5/

(Philip Martin Crickhollow Books blog 20101121)

http://crickhollow.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/poetry-home-repair-manual-small-press-month-book-recommendation-5/

(Matthew Spencer Nebraska Life 20101004)

http://crickhollow.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/poetry-home-repair-manual-small-press-month-book-recommendation-5/

(Omaha World-Herald )

http://lindsleyrinard.blogspot.com/2010/10/ted-kooser-poet-extraordinaire-this.html

(Lindsley Rinard Literature and Life )

"When you read Ted Kooser''s Local Wonders, you question where he''s been all these years. He''d probably tell you he''s been right here, amidst all of us, working the simplicity of words, the clarity of insights. What he wouldn''t tell you is that he has the quiet ability to sneak beneath your skin and ripple it ever so slightly. . . . Set back in the hills of southeastern Nebraska–the Bohemian Alps–Kooser''s book doesn''t venture far geographically but travels great distances along the lengths of wisdom. . . . Kooser is a poet by nature, and his essays have the generous feel of a man who''s rolled up his sleeves, pen in hand, for a long time, choosing words as an act of beauty, and knowing the small things of the world are of great import."—The Bloomsbury Review

(The Bloomsbury Review )

"A quietly eloquent diary of a year in a small town in Nebraska. . . . This is a heartfelt plainspoken book about slowing down and appreciating the world around you. . . . Maybe it''s exactly the feeling your friends, even you, are looking for."—New York Times book critic Janet Maslin on CBS News Sunday Morning

(Janet Maslin )

"Eloquent meditations on country pleasures, the rhythms of the seasons and the lingering presence of Czech folk culture in rural Nebraska."—Dan Cryer, Newsday

(Dan Cryer Newsday )

"Clear, generous, and imaginative, Local Wonders increases the sum of the world''s best goods."—Patrice Koelsch, Speakeasy

(Patrice Koelsch Speakeasy )

"Through his eyes we learn to see, then appreciate, the beauty and grace in everyday miracles, the comfort and sanctity in local wonders."—Booklist

(Booklist )

“Kooser forges connections with the past through witty, commonsense proverbs inherited from Czech and German immigrants to southeastern Nebraska. The proverbs lend a poetic folk wisdom to the examination of his rural environs.”—Jeffrey Galbraith, Harvard Review

(Jeffrey Galbraith Harvard Review )

"Local Wonders should be read and reread. It is a treasure, like the ripe wild plums Mr. Kooser, a retired insurance executive, picks along rural Nebraska roadsides."—Dan Barber, Dallas Morning News

(Dan Barber Dallas Morning News )

"In this elegaic volume of four chapters, National Poet Laureate Kooser shares with the reader a lifetime of observations about home, familiy, and land distlled into a series of sometimes sparkling, other times electrifying, and always engaging scenes that read like a poet''s diary."—Mark Easter, Colorado Review

(Mark Easter Colorado Review )

"Reading Ted Kooser''s Local Wonders, I feel like I''ve wandered into another world, a place where the past endures—broken down a little, it''s true—and where the present contains enough room to pay attention to the people and the countryside around you. This is simple, patient prose, the annotations of living in a wide-open place."—Verlyn Klinkenborg

(Verlyn Klinkenborg )

"Ted Kooser''s Local Wonders is the quietest magnificent book I''ve ever read."—Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall

(Jim Harrison )

"Local Wonders takes its luminous place in the time-honored tradition of seasonal contemplation within a cherished place. It is a companionate book—bright of eye and wit, warm with the details and reflections of the world."—Merrill Gilfillan, author of Grasshopper Falls

(Merrill Gilfillan )

"Kooser claims he doesn''t like to travel, but for someone who stays put, he does an awful lot of sightseeing. Hindsight, foresight, near sight, far sight, insight, out of sight, you name it—Local Wonders takes us both ''out far'' and ''in deep.''"—Judith Kitchen, author of Only the Dance: Essays on Time and Memory

(Judith Kitchen )

"With Thoreaulike reflection and insight, the author artfully engaged this reader in a lyrical embroidery of this neighboring frontier. Weaving images in soothing language, Kooser meticulously captures the nuances of life as it evolves in a country setting in which he is both observer and participant."—Dan Semrad, Lincoln Journal Star

(Dan Semrad Lincoln Journal Star )

“What Kooser does in this remarkable book is describe in exquisite—and understated, humorous—detail the place where he lives: the rural area of southeastern Nebraska. Kooser is one of our finest poets and has, over the years, published a series of poems about the rural life in Nebraska that are superb evocations of place. Here, he does the same thing in prose, again and again, discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary, the pithy underlying truth of conventional folk wisdom.”—Lahontan Valley News / Fallon Eagle Standard

(Lahontan Valley News / Fallon Eagle Standard )

"Call them stories then. Call them letters from a friend. Call them what you wish, but read them."—Nebraska Life

(Nebraska Life )

“This small gem of a book matches perfectly the vision of our Heartlands--conveying the beauty and courage of living close and deep.”—Larry Smith, Heartlands: A Magazine of Midwest Life and Art

(Larry Smith Heartlands )

“Reading . . . Local Wonders is a bit like running into Lao Tsu and Confucius in line at the hardware store. A Taoist love of country life permeates the book. . . . It is not nature alone, Kooser’s beautiful book reminds us, but the play of the imagination on nature--the mind that can speculate on the connection between stars and moths—that produces glory and brings insight into life’s inescapable truths.”—Fourth Genre

(Fourth Genre )

“Ted Kooser is a travel agent of words. He transports readers to a landscape of old grain trucks and weedsprayers and outhouses. Of country schools and grain elevators and fried pig’s ear crumbled over oatmeal. Of handmade quilts that cost exactly 12.43. His destination? The Bohemeian Alps, a cluster of affectionately nicknamed silty clay knolls in southeastern Nebraska. His tourists? Anyone.”—L Magazine: Lincoln’s Premier Lifestyle Magazine

(L Magazine )

“A graceful memoir that saunters from his boyhood in Ames, Iowa to more recent years living as a writer…. Local readers everywhere will equally rejoice in the discovery of this wonderful and simple book.”—Sioux City Journal

(Sean Meehan Sioux City Journal )

“Kooser writes with lovely prose, full of wry humor and affection for the land and its people.”—New West Front Page

(New West Front Page )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; First Edition edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080327811X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803278110
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ted Kooser was the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006 and won a Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems DELIGHTS AND SHADOWS. He is the author of twelve full-length volumes of poetry and several books of nonfiction, and his work has appeared in many periodicals. This is his first children's book. He lives in Garland, Nebraska.Barry Root has illustrated many books for children, including THE CAT WHO LIKED POTATO SOUP by Terry Farish and THE BIRTHDAY TREE by Paul Fleischman. He lives in Quarryville, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Over and over again.", September 26, 2004

By 

L. D Sears (El Paso, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (American Lives) (Hardcover)

I am not the sort of person who revisits books. I tend to move on to things that are new since there is so much out there calling to be read. But with Koozer's "Local Wonders" I have had to make an exception. I have read certain sections of it 3 times already and find them as compelling each time. This collection of four seasonal essays contains so many examples of wonderful writing that I am amazed that this book has not received more attention than it has. I was raised in New England, but I " know" many of the people and situations that Koozer is so eloquently writing about. This is a book to be read and your leisure because it is very much like spending time with an old and wise friend. I cannot recommend it enough.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nebraska's E. B. White . . ., June 21, 2005

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (American Lives) (Paperback)

Poet (and now Poet Laureate) Ted Kooser wrote this collection of prose pieces while in his early sixties, all of them appreciations of his daily life and memories of family going back to his boyhood in Ames, Iowa. Living today in a farmhouse near little Gardner, Nebraska, not far from Lincoln, he first describes the rolling terrain of the land and its Czech and Bohemian settlers, whose descendants continue to provide a cultural identity to the region. The essays are sprinkled with Czech and Bohemian proverbs, reflecting the wry common-sense wisdom of the Old World that informs his point of view.

Not all of them essays, some are short prose poems, spun out usually in one or two long sentences that reach a breathless climax that is, well, breathtaking. Reading his work, you are struck by his sincerity and the intensity of his awareness. While a man of strong opinions, they are rarely expressed directly and only seldom ironically, as when he describes the willful spraying of herbicides in road ditches by two county workers who have no sense of the risks to their health and the environment.

Identified on the book jacket as a retired insurance executive, Kooser embodies a kind of risk aversion that celebrates what is steady, dependable, and unthreatening in his world. There are rarely shadows, and when they do appear it is with a surprise that is shocking, as when a woman tells of an elderly aunt whose family was murdered by a farm hand when she was a teenager. Even his bout with cancer is told with a kind of emotional reserve and matter-of-factness that belies the anxiety he experienced over a six-month period of recovery.

Kooser is clearly abreast of the modern world, but everywhere in his writing, there's a lightness of touch - a gentleness - that harks back to a quieter time in our social history. His touching memories of his father are a tender evocation of post-war America that would easily stand beside illustrations by Normal Rockwell. E. B. White's wonderful essays on rural living in "One Man's Meat" also come to mind. Like White's, his vision is informed by humor, but rarely at the expense of other people (unless you take exception to his characterization of Republicans as "smug"). Even pheasant and coyote hunters with their arsenals and SUVs are seen as earnest and only incidentally comical.

Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for bringing this fine book to print. Each page is a pleasure.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars nonfiction at its best, September 25, 2002

By 

Mark Zieg (Dayton, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (American Lives) (Hardcover)

When so much of best-selling nonfiction today is so sensationalistic, Ted Kooser's memoir is refreshingly down-to-earth. It is moving, nostalgic, and as beautifully written as his poetry. Although it is entirely set in Nebraska and Iowa, it is a book I would recommend for readers from anywhere in the country.