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The author of the acclaimed Dangerous Birds followed that success with a new collection of essays on the natural world, these connected by the theme of water: exploring issues as varied as the joy that water brings, the wistful rememberings it engenders, and its sacredness. As with all of Lembke’s essays, the world of classical myth and its characters meld with her native haunts and their people, lending resonance to the seemingly simplest things: a beetle in the garden, a tangle of forgotten roses, an afternoon rainstorm. Now available in paperback for the first time, Skinny Dipping brings us waters as diverse as the mythical River Styx and the Bullpasture, a stream near Lembke’s Virginia home. In the title essay she looks down a long corridor of time to visit Pliny, the natural historian, for a "skinny dip" in A.D. 79; "Up the Creek" examines a lazy day’s canoe trip with a frightened young friend about to leave home; "And This Way the Water Comes Down at the Gorge" is a tale of a burial—with a fine supporting cast of Faulkneresque characters. Skinny Dipping will delight all lovers of Janet Lembke’s other books, and anyone who appreciates the art of the personal essay.
"Inspires, sustains, surprises, and consoles."--National Geographic Traveler (for River Time) "The good stuff . . . Not only good history, but an engaging intellectual autobiography."--Sue Hubbell, New York Times Book Review (for Dangerous Birds) Janet Lembke loves to garden. But when she moved into her urban home in Virginia, she only had one-eighth of an acre to work with: a small front yard and a small backyard. How she traded a postage-stamp lawn for an edible cornucopia is what this enchanting book is all about. Lembke joyfully guides us on her gardening journey, in chapters called: "Tomato Haven" "The Grass Extermination Project" "Tools of the Trade" "How a Garden Grows" "Herbs" "Flowers" "Vegetables" "Outwitting the Gardener" "Wooing the Green Man, Courting Dame Kind" and "Garden Dreams" From Grass to Garden is chock-full of tips and advice for gardeners with tiny plots, including what plants are compatible with others; garden paths and seating; what vegetables and plants work best in front versus backyards; and more. She offers everything a hopeful gardener needs to reap bounty for the kitchen table from what was once a small, pesky lawn.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.
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An account of life on the banks of North Carolina's Lower Neuse River, of the people who live there, and of a way of living in step with the rhythms of the natural world that has all but disappeared today -- rhythms replete with fill nets, crab pots, fickle winds, and resourceful neighbors.
Framed by the author’s personal experience with backyard hens, Chickens: Their Natural and Unnatural Histories explores the history of the chicken from its descent from the dinosaurs to the space-age present. En route, Lembke surveys chickens in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the nineteenth century, and modern times, including the role of chickens in Jewish and Muslim practices. She also investigates the birds’ contributions to science and their jaunty appearances in literature. Eggs receive a chapter of their own, as does chicken cuisine, comprising recipes from the Roman Empire to today’s favorites. Stories about chickens appear, too, often written by those who kee...
When Janet Lembke's mother was a sprightly seventy-eight years old, she had made her daughter promise to help her die when the time came. Pills with a stiff bloody Mary and a hug. But when that time came many years later, it was not so simple. Her mother had had a series of strokes that had rendered her incapable of rational thought, and Lembke couldn't, in fact, help her mother die. Watching her mother suspended in a life that wasn't really living prompted Lembke to wonder what could be done. How do we deal with life's end? How might we best approach it? Does human life hold an intrinsic sacredness? How best may those of us who have our wits about us care for old, frail people whose minds a...
A masterful new verse translation of one of the greatest nature poems ever written. Virgil's Georgics is a paean to the earth and all that grows and grazes there. It is an ancient work, yet one that speaks to our times as powerfully as it did to the poet's. This unmatched translation presents the poem in an American idiom that is elegant and sensitive to the meaning and rhythm of the original. Janet Lembke brings a faithful version of Virgil's celebratory poem to modern readers who are interested in classic literature and who relish reading about animals and gardens. The word georgics meansfarming. Virgil was born to a farming family, and his poem gives specific instructions to Italian farmers along with a passionate message to care for the land and for the crops and animals that it sustains. The Georgics is also a heartfelt cry for returning farmers and their families to land they had lost through a series of dispiriting political events. It is often considered the most technically accomplished and beautiful of all of Virgil's work.
The translators of this new edition have focused their attention on tonal texture, resulting in a subtle and highly evocative translation of the unjustifiable sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter, Poyxena, and the consequent destruction of Hecuba's character.
Through an analysis of Virgil's presence in the work of contemporary women writers from North America, Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, this book identifies a new Virgil: one who speaks in female tones of the anxieties, exclusions pleasures and threats of the contemporary world.