For Peter Smith, the assignment from Minnesota Public Radio was simple: try to do something about Minnesota. So he began exploring the simple, everyday Minnesota things he came across and sharing them with listeners each Tuesday morning. The result is a hilarious, often wry, and always remarkable portrait of everyday life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that will resonate with Minnesotans from the state's biggest cities to its smallest towns.
A Porch Sofa Almanac is the first collection of Smith's essays for MPR-stories that keep close to the ground and reflect on the common experiences of being a Minnesotan. Small-town football, stacks of Hudson Bay blankets in an antique store, ice fishing, and even those soggy gloves that emerge from melting snowbanks each spring. Following the calendar year, Smith's reflections are the perfect season-by-season companion for that chair by the fireplace, a bench by the campfire, a seat on the bus or train-or, of course, a porch sofa.
A Porch Sofa Almanac ultimately casts Minnesota in a wholly unique light. As Smith writes, "The entire state comes across as some wonderful, slightly quirky treasure unearthed at a church basement rummage sale." Much loved-perhaps a little rough around the edges-and absolutely ready to be shared.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"In his wonderful new book Peter Smith has assembled a year's worth of short pieces that prove the true power of story lies not in the ability to reveal but to conjure. Visceral and poignant, these beautiful tales each catch and release a moment. Suddenly memories begin to flood like the Mississippi River in springtime. As he does on Minnesota Public Radio, whether it's a crisp autumn day under a Hudson's Bay blanket, a Little League game, or perhaps the best opening line ever in 'Meditation on a Lawnmower,' Peter reminds us that a year-a lifetime-is made of episodes, times with those we love, community, and family. In Peter's world we are verbs not nouns, always changing, living, experiencing, and yet like the seasons, bound to come around again. These little gems, or at times more like Pop Rocks, burst forth; we belong." -Kevin Kling "I've had the pleasure of knowing Peter for a long, long time. A great guy-and it turns out-a great writer. His radio commentaries on life in Minnesota are real jewels." -Gary Eichten
"Smith's prose can have the flavor of Bill Bryson or of that old Minnesota standby Garrison Keillor. Other parts of Almanac are infused with an autumnal quality that's movingly elegiac. Smith's little volume is, overall, heartfelt and appealing." -Star Tribune
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Maße
Höhe: 213 mm
Breite: 137 mm
Dicke: 18 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-8166-7232-5 (9780816672325)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Peter Smith (d. 2016) lived in Hopkins, Minnesota. He wrote magazine articles, fiction, poetry, an occasional op-ed piece, and was a weekly contributor to Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer.
Contents
Preface
Porch Sofas
Off to College: A Parental Spreadsheet
School Starts This Morning
We Want to Go Back, Too
In Praise of Small-Town Football
Conflicted
Autumn Golf
An Open Letter to the City of Hopkins
Hudson's Bay Blankets
Splitting Wood
The Menu Changes
Good Autumn Reads
Darn Packers Fans
Election Night Radio
No-Bleeping-Vember
Thanksgiving Road Game
A Thanksgiving Lesson
An Amusing Pastime
North Country Fashion Statement
Winter Wimps
Together Again for the Holidays
Sulking in a Winter Wonderland
A Christmas Shopping Memory
Now It Can Be Christmas
Alas, Poor Taurus
Dog Days in the Ice Fishing Shack
The Inscrutable Finn
Crows
Real World Valentine's Day
A Timeless Saga
Split-level Shack-whacky
Contemplating Gutter Gloves
Thinking Ill of the Literate
Jogging Again
Talk about Your Golf Drives
Cooking with Grandma
Are You with Us? Or Are You One of Them?
Planting Corn
A Little Frugality, Por Favor
Lilac Season
Meditation on a Green Minivan
They're Back
What's the Rush?
A Tiny Discrepancy
Is Ambivalence the Perfect Father's Day Gift?
Tacky, Tacky, Tacky
People Watching at Lake Calhoun
Little League. Big Problem.
Thanks, Mom
Meditation on a Lawnmower
A Minnesota Must
On Finding a Bungee Cord
In Praise of Municipal Golf
Who Turned on the Air Conditioning?
Homegrown Tomatoes
Still Going Out for the Team
Start the State Fair without Me
A Fifties Flashback
Acorns and Toyotas
4 Sale
