One Tale from the Countryside


Book Description

After losing his wife in the tragic events of September 11 and his daughter in a coma, Sam Kaplan quit his New York City private investigation firm that he founded several years earlier. But when his business partner is blackmailed, Sam is compelled to take the case, leading him to follow the trail to rural Maine. He soon discovers corruption and shocking crimes hidden in a quaint, touristy town. With time ticking down and in over his head, Sam must act swiftly to expose an apparent cover-up and save his business partner as well as other innocent victims. Find out if he solves the case in this intriguing murder mystery story. About the Author David C. Schultz, author of Chipping Through Time, is an avid follower of mystery and suspense stories. He resides in the New York City area and is working on his next books in between his full-time information technology job and a round of golf.




Horsekeeping


Book Description

Why would successful urbanites, used to clean, controlled and orderly lives, take on the task of restoring a near collapsing empty barn littered with haphazard and decayed fencing, pastures deep in standing water, and try to turn it into a thriving horse farm? Initially motivated only by a city dweller’s fantasy and obscure memories of childhood visits to the country, Roxanne Bok oversees the reconstruction of a thirty-seven stall barn and painstakingly discovers something about both large animals and running a small business. Follow an equine novice as she leads her equally naïve family in an eighteenmonth long adventure of breathing life back into a once great horse farm in rural New England. A thoughtfully detailed memoir, Roxanne Bok learns it all the hard way, from the agony of repeatedly being tossed off a beloved horse, to the thrill of winning a blue ribbon. For those who love horses, the dream of country life or simply the sight of an otherwise urban family on great rural adventure, here is a tale that plumbs the full range of human emotions but ends with a deepened love of the land and the extraordinary equine creatures that inhabit it. Proceeds from book sales will be donated to support horse rescue charities.




True Tales of the Countryside


Book Description

Deborah Alma's poems are gloriously pungent, teeming with colours, textures and smells. In'True Tales of the Countryside,' her debut collection, Alma writes vividly about sex, love and ageing in rural Shropshre and Wales, and reflects on her experiences as a mixed-race, Anglo-Indian woman.




A Tale of Two Villages


Book Description

This dramatic story of land and power from twentieth-century Eastern Europe is set in two extraordinary villages: a rebel village, where peasants fought the advent of Communism and became its first martyrs, and a model village turned forcibly into a town, Dictator Ceauşescu’s birthplace. The two villages capture among themselves nearly a century of dramatic transformation and social engineering, ending up with their charged heritage in the present European Union. "One of Romania’s foremost social critics, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi offers a valuable look at several decades of policy that marginalized that country’s rural population, from the 1918 land reform to the post-1989 property restitution. Illustrating her arguments with a close comparison of two contrasting villages, she describes the actions of a long series of “predatory elites,” from feudal landowners through the Communist Party through post-communist leaders, all of whom maintained the rural population’s dependency. A forceful concluding chapter shows that its prospects for improvement are scarcely better within the EU. Romania’s villagers have an eminent and spirited advocate in the author.”




Call the Nurse


Book Description

Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod and her husband encountered their dream while vacationing on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Enthralled by its windswept beauty, they soon were the proud owners of a near-derelict croft house—a farmer’s stone cottage—on “a small acre” of land. Mary assumed duties as the island’s district nurse. Call the Nurse is her account of the enchanted years she and her family spent there, coming to know its folk as both patients and friends. In anecdotes that are by turns funny, sad, moving, and tragic, she recalls them all, the crofters and their laird, the boatmen and tradesmen, young lovers and forbidding churchmen. Against the old-fashioned island culture and the grandeur of mountain and sea unfold indelible stories: a young woman carried through snow for airlift to the hospital; a rescue by boat; the marriage of a gentle giant and the island beauty; a ghostly encounter; the shocking discovery of a woman in chains; the flames of a heather fire at night; an unexploded bomb from World War II; and the joyful, tipsy celebration of a ceilidh. Gaelic fortitude meets a nurse’s compassion in these wonderful true stories from rural Scotland.




Beatrix Potter's Countryside


Book Description

Beatrix Potter created one of the world's most enduring characters and found inspiration in the world of nature. Her global success allowed her to protect and conserve her beloved Lake District home from. This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of Beatrix's life and the countryside she cherished.




The Big Tree of Bunlahy


Book Description

Tales of adventure and fantasy set in the Irish countryside.




Red Sky at Night


Book Description

The indispensable guide to everything we knew and loved before modern life got in the way. This gorgeous and beautifully illustrated countryside miscellany is the perfect purchase for anyone wanting to go back to their roots and rediscover a lost world... 'Beautiful book' -- ***** Reader review 'A delightful book with some lovely illustrations' -- ***** Reader review 'A heart-warming read, I love this book' -- ***** Reader review 'Magical' -- ***** Reader review 'Lovely book to just DELVE into' -- ***** Reader review 'A little gem!' -- ***** Reader review 'Sheer delight!' -- ***** Reader review **************************************************************************************************** Ever wondered how to predict the weather just by looking at the sky? Or wanted to attract butterflies to your garden? Is there a knack to building the perfect bonfire? And how exactly do you race a ferret? In this world of traffic tailbacks, supermarket shopping and 24-hour internet access, it's easy to feel disconnected from the beauty and rhythms of the natural world. If you have ever gazed in awe at stars in the night's sky, tried to catch a perfect snowflake or longed for the comfort of a roaring log fire, then this is the book for you. From spotting Britain's five kinds of owl to gardening by the phases of the moon, from curing a cold to brewing your own ale, and from navigating by the stars to making sloe gin, Red Sky at Night is packed with instructions and lists, ancient customs and old wives tales, making it an indispensable guide to countryside lore.




In Another Life


Book Description

"Johnson is clearly striding in the footsteps of authors like Geraldine Brooks and Diana Gabaldon in her juxtaposition of the modern and historical."—New York Journal of Books Three men are trapped in time. One woman could save them all. Historian Lia Carrer has finally returned to southern France, determined to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. If nothing else, her trip could grant her perspective on the region's traditional reincarnation beliefs and resurrect her dying thesis. But instead of finding solace and insight in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, Lia falls in love. Raoul's very existence challenges everything she knows about life, history, and her husband's death. As Raoul reveals the story of his past to Lia, she's caught up in the echoes of a historic murder, resulting in a haunting and suspenseful journey through the romantic landscape of the Languedoc region. A remarkable and richly-developed novel, in the tradition of time-travel romances by Susanna Kearsley and Diana Gabaldon, In Another Life masterfully blends historical fiction with a love that conquers time.




Only One Woof


Book Description

Gyp, a cheerful but always silent sheep dog, startles everyone with uncharacteristic behavior during the championship sheep dog trials.