Counterpoint: 634 books

A collection of essays on agrarian living from the poet and author hailed as “America’s greatest philosopher on sustainable life” (The Chicago Tribune). In A Continuous Harmony, renowned poet, farmer, and environmental activist Wendell Berry makes an impassioned case for returning to...

A soulful, searching collection of essays that tackle the complexities of contemporary America from “the prophet of rural America” (New York Times).   From the war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina to the political sniping engendered by Supreme Court nominations—contemporary American society is...

An acclaimed novelist, poet, environmentalist, and farmer argues for a deeper connection to the land and community for the sake of America’s future. Since its publication in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. Wendell Berry argues that good...

**"The courage of a book, it has been said, is that it looks away from nothing. Here is a brave book." ―The Charlotte Observer "Berry says that these recent essays mostly say again what he has said before. His faithful readers may think he hasn't, however, said any of it better...

In her author’s note, Marion Winik writes that in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, “people build altars to their loved ones . . . they go to the cemetery and stay all night, praying, singing, drinking, wailing. They tell the sad stories and the noble ones; they eat cookies shaped like skeletons....

Gary Snyder joined his old friend, novelist Jim Harrison, to discuss their loves and lives and what has become of them throughout the years. Set amidst the natural beauty of the Santa Lucia Mountains, their conversations-harnessing their ideas of all that is wild, sacred and intimate in this world-move...

Unfortunately, on occasions too frequent and destructive to enumerate, the teachings of Christ have been either ignored or distorted by the very people calling themselves Christian. Whether directed towards social intolerance or attitudes of warlike aggression, these right-wing citizens have claimed...

An urgent, visionary, and heartfelt collection of essays focused on recovering deeper, time-honored values against the ravages of modern society.   In six elegant, linked literary essays, Berry considers the degeneration of language that is manifest throughout our culture, from poetry to politics,...

One of the most perceptive critics of modern society petitions for an urgent return to knowing things intimately, reverently, and with affection. Deeply rooted to the land he has lived on for decades, award-winning author, poet, farmer, and environmentalist Wendell Berry argues against the...

A literary event-twenty short stories by the late Maeve Brennan, one of The new Yorker's most admired writers. Five are set in the author's native Dublin, a city, like Joyce's, of paralyzed souls and unexpressed love. the others are set in and around her adopted Manhattan, which she once called "the...

The current revival of the work of Maeve Brennan, who died in obscurity in 1993, has won her a reputation as a twentieth-century classic-one of the best Irish writers of stories since Joyce.Now, unexpectedly, Brennan's oeuvre is immeasurably deepened and broadened by a miraculous literary discovery-a...

David Kline has been called a “twentieth-century Henry David Thoreau” by his friends and contemporaries; an apt comparison given the quiet exuberance with which he records the quotidian goings-on on his organic family farm. Under David’s attentive gaze and in his clear, insightful prose the...

Table Talk is a portable dinner party and a book to read alone while laughing out loud. Table Talk is a salon attended by your smartest friends and by all of the wittiest people they know. Table Talk is a collection of brief but critically acclaimed, half serious/half tongue-in-cheek pieces that borrow...

A stunning portrait of rural Italy in the 1950s and “a touching meditation on life and death and the power of love to bind, transcend, and let go” (Publishers Weekly). At one time betrothed to a fallen soldier, Bonaria Urrai of Sardinia has a long-held covenant with the dead. Midwife to...