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Countdown to Super Bowl: How the 1968-1969 New York Jets Delivered on Joe Namath's Guarantee to Win it All
by Dave AndersonCountdown to Super Bowl tells the whole story of the game of the century, written by the man who followed every movement of the Jets from the first kick-off of the season, who lived, breathed, and agonized with them for the ten nerve-tingling days before the Colts went down to defeat in the Super Bowl. Here, by Dave Anderson of the New York Times, is the play-by-play, moment-by-moment saga of how Super Joe Namath and the Jets made good Namath’s boast that they would humble the NFL and vanquish the invincible Colts. This book provides all the color, the action, and the behind-the-scenes drama of the greatest upset in football history. In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of that miraculous New York Jets Super Bowl win, fans can relive the stories and moments that led up to that victory.“My experience working with Skyhorse is always a positive collaboration. The editors are first-rate professionals, and my books receive top-shelf treatment. I truly appreciate our working relationship and hope it continues for years to come.” –David Fischer, author
Counterclockwise: My Year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Chocolate, and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-aging
by Lauren KesslerAt this moment, one in three Americans is entering midlife, and many are wondering, "How did I get to be this old?" Plenty will turn to miracle creams, injections, fillers, and surgery to reverse the hands of time, but Kessler investigates the largely unexplored side of anti-aging: what it takes to be younger, not just look younger. Guided by an open but pleasantly skeptical mind, a thirst for adventure, and a sense of humor, she investigates America's youth obsession and decides, on a very personal level, what to do about it. She is at once the careful reporter, the immersion journalist, the self-designated lab rat, and a midlife woman who is not interested in being as old as her driver's license insists she is.Counterclockwise is a lively quest to discover how to maintain stamina, vitality, fortitude, and creativity right to the very end."The human smile is an anti-gravity device. Kessler's delightful, witty book actually takes 20 yearsoff your face!"—Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Gulp
Counterculture: The Story of America from Bohemia to Hip-Hop
by Alex ZamalinA political and intellectual history of American counterculture and the historical figures who redefined mainstream understandings of freedom, culture, art, and politics—from The Beat Generation to BasquiatThis entertaining, intellectual history fulfills the growing appetite for marginalized narratives. Counterculture brilliantly interrogates the diversity of counterculture and the interwoven relationship between each individual legacy. From Anarchism to the Harlem Renaissance, Alex Zamalin unveils the humanity behind these romanticized figures and popularized movements to capture revolutionary freedom in action.American counterculture, defined as a movement whose values are outside and oppositional to mainstream norms and whose practices fundamentally reject what is socially respectable, ultimately transformed the 20th century.With key players:Emma GoldmanBillie HolidayAllen GinsbergAmiri BarakaJean-Michel BasquiatAnd key movements:AnarchismBlack BohemiaThe Harlem RenaissanceThe Beat GenerationThe Black Arts MovementHip-HopCounterculture reaches new depths, tackling a wide range of historical, social, and political topics, and expanding contemporary understandings of American cultural tradition.At a time when counterculture was on the outskirts of American society, Alex Zamalin explores the reason why.
The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
by Elizabeth B. White Joanna SliwaThe &“remarkable…inspiring&” (The Wall Street Journal) true story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg—a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat—drawing on Mehlberg&’s own unpublished memoir.World War II and the Holocaust have given rise to many stories of resistance and rescue, but The Counterfeit Countess is unique. It tells the astonishing unknown story of &“Countess Janina Suchodolska,&” a Jewish woman who rescued more than 10,000 Poles imprisoned by Poland&’s Nazi occupiers, becoming &“a heroine for the ages&” (Larry Loftis, author of The Watchmaker&’s Daughter). Mehlberg operated in Lublin, Poland, headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, the SS operation that murdered 1.7 million Jews in occupied Poland. Using the identity papers of a Polish aristocrat, she worked as a welfare official while also serving in the Polish resistance. With guile, cajolery, and steely persistence, the &“Countess&” persuaded SS officials to release thousands of Poles from the Majdanek concentration camp. She won permission to deliver food and medicine—even decorated Christmas trees—for thousands more of the camp&’s prisoners. At the same time, she personally smuggled supplies and messages to resistance fighters imprisoned in Majdanek, where 63,000 Jews were murdered in gas chambers and shooting pits. Incredibly, she eluded detection, and ultimately survived the war and emigrated to the US. Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg&’s own unpublished memoir supplemented with prodigious research, Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa, professional historians and Holocaust experts, have uncovered the full story of this remarkable woman. They interweave Mehlberg&’s sometimes harrowing personal testimony with broader historical narrative. Like The Light of Days, Schindler&’s List, and Irena&’s Children, The Counterfeit Countess is a &“riveting…stunning&” (Debbie Cenziper, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Citizen 865) account of inspiring courage in the face of unspeakable cruelty.
Counterfeit Ladies: The Life and Death of Moll Cutpurse and the Case of Mary Carleton (Pickering Women's Classics)
by Elizabeth SpearingBiographies of two 17th-century female criminals, both celebrated in their day. These are the first editions published since the 17th century.
Counterfeit Worlds: The Cinematic Universes of Philip K. Dick
by Brian J. RobbDive into the worlds of Philip K. Dick who inspired some of the most famous sci-fi movies of all time! Philip K. Dick struggled to make a living during his lifetime, but his work has since served as a deep seam of ideas to be mined by filmmakers such as Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Steven Spielberg, John Woo and Richard Linklater, resulting in some of the most successful and influential SF movies of all time. For the still-unequalled future world of Blade Runner to the mind-bending A Scanner Darkly, via the blockbusting action/adventure of Total Recall, Paycheck and Minority Report – not to mention the debt of gratitude films like The Matrix and The Truman Show owe to his work – the legacy of Philip K. Dick has revolutionised Hollywood.
Counterfeiting Labor's Voice: William A. A. Carsey and the Shaping of American Reform Politics (Working Class in American History)
by Mark A. LauseConfidence man and canny operative, charlatan and manipulator--William A. A. Carsey emerged from the shadow of Tammany Hall to build a career undermining working-class political organizations on behalf of the Democratic Party. Mark A. Lause’s biography of Carsey takes readers inside the bare-knuckle era of Gilded Age politics. An astroturfing trailblazer and master of dirty tricks, Carsey fit perfectly into a Democratic Party that based much of its post-Civil War revival on shattering third parties and gathering up the pieces. Lause provides an in-depth look at Carsey’s tactics and successes against the backdrop of enormous changes in political life. As Carsey used a carefully crafted public persona to burrow into unsuspecting organizations, the forces he represented worked to create a political system that turned voters into disengaged civic consumers and cemented America’s ever-fractious two-party system.
Countermelodies: A Memoir in Sonata Form
by Ernestine WhitmanOffering a uniquely musical perspective on the #MeToo experience, this is the story of a talented and fiercely determined musician—a young woman with everything to gain and, ultimately, nothing left to lose—who finds a way through despite multiple betrayals by the men in her life.Jealous of her brilliant older sister, Ernestine longs for her father&’s approval as a little girl but is never good enough. When she discovers a talent for the flute, she meets a charismatic teacher who gives her the encouragement she craves and becomes her surrogate father. After winning several competitions, she dreams of being a professional musician, but her stern father ridicules the idea and forces her to attend Emory University as a math major like her sister. Ernestine doesn&’t give up on her musical dreams, however, and halfway through college she wins the second flute chair in the Atlanta Symphony. There, she sits beside her former teacher, the principal flute. At first, she loves working with him, but after one successful season he turns on her and does everything in his power to get her fired. Devastated by her idol&’s merciless harassment, she&’s driven into a spiral of suicidal depression. As she tries to recover, her vulnerability is exploited, again and again, by the very men she turns to for help. A harrowing account of one woman&’s battle with twentieth-century misogyny, Countermelodies follows Ernestine as, through the darkness, she clings to her love for the flute and her unshakable dream of making it in the cutthroat world of classical music.
Counterpoint: A Memoir Of Bach And Mourning
by Philip KennicottA Pulitzer Prize–winning critic reflects on the meaning and emotional impact of a Bach masterwork. As his mother was dying, Philip Kennicott began to listen to the music of Bach obsessively. It was the only music that didn’t seem trivial or irrelevant, and it enabled him to both experience her death and remove himself from it. For him, Bach’s music held the elements of both joy and despair, life and its inevitable end. He spent the next five years trying to learn one of the composer’s greatest keyboard masterpieces, the Goldberg Variations. In Counterpoint, he recounts his efforts to rise to the challenge, and to fight through his grief by coming to terms with his memories of a difficult, complicated childhood. He describes the joys of mastering some of the piano pieces, the frustrations that plague his understanding of others, the technical challenges they pose, and the surpassing beauty of the melodies, harmonies, and counterpoint that distinguish them. While exploring Bach’s compositions he sketches a cultural history of playing the piano in the twentieth century. And he raises two questions that become increasingly interrelated, not unlike a contrapuntal passage in one of the variations itself: What does it mean to know a piece of music? What does it mean to know another human being?
Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn
by Larry ColtonIn this extraordinary work of journalism, Larry Colton journeys into the world of Montana's Crow Indians and follows the struggles of a talented, moody, charismatic young woman named Sharon LaForge, a gifted basketball player and a descendant of one of George Armstrong Custer's Indian scouts. But "Counting Coup" is far more than just a sports story or a portrait of youth. It is a sobering exposé of a part of our society long since cut out of the American dream. Along the banks of the Little Big Horn, Indians and whites live in age-old conflict and young Indians grow up without role models or dreams. Here Sharon carries the hopes and frustrations of her people on her shoulders as she battles her opponents on and off the court. Colton delves into Sharon's life and shows us the realities of the reservation, the shattered families, the bitter tribal politics, and a people's struggle against a belief that all their children -- even the most intelligent and talented -- are destined for heartbreak. Against this backdrop stands Sharon, a fiery, undaunted competitor with the skill to dominate a high school game and earn a college scholarship.
Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond
by Joseph Medicine Crow Herman J. ViolaThe book presents the amazing life story of Joseph Medicine Crow and illuminates the challenges faced by the Crow people as hurricanes of change raged through America.
Counting My Chickens . . .: And Other Home Thoughts
by The Duchess of DevonshireA unique window on an extraordinary life lived with tremendous zest, discrimination, and intelligenceThe Duchess of Devonshire is the youngest of the Mitford siblings, the famous brood that includes the writers Nancy and Jessica. Like them, she has lived an unusually full and remarkable life, and like them she has an inimitable expressive gift. In Counting My Chickens, she has gathered extracts from her diaries and other writings to create a multifaceted portrait of her life at Chatsworth, the home of the Dukes of Devonshire, that is pithy, hilarious, wise, and always richly rewarding.Under the Duchess's inspired supervision, Chatsworth has become one of England's most frequently visited great houses, welcoming over 400,000 visitors a year. The Duchess reveals what it takes to keep such an establishment alive and prospering, tells of transporting a goat by train from the Scottish island of Mull to London, discusses having her portrait painted by Lucian Freud, and provides rich reminisces of growing up a Mitford--along with telling anecdotes about friends from Evelyn Waugh to John F. Kennedy. From Tom Stoppard's adoring Introduction to the author's meditation on the beauty of Elvis Presley's voice, COUNTING MY CHICKENS offers continuous surprise and delight.
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13
by Helaine BeckerThe story of Katherine Johnson whose contributions were crucial to the America's space program.
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13
by Helaine BeckerThe bold story of Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who worked for NASA during the space race and was depicted in the film Hidden Figures.You've likely heard of the historic Apollo 13 moon landing. But do you know about the mathematical genius who made sure that Apollo 13 returned safely home? As a child, Katherine Johnson loved to count. She counted the steps on the road, the number of dishes and spoons she washed in the kitchen sink, everything! Boundless, curious, and excited by calculations, young Katherine longed to know as much as she could about math, about the universe. From Katherine's early beginnings as a gifted student to her heroic accomplishments as a prominent mathematician at NASA, Counting on Katherine is the story of a groundbreaking American woman who not only calculated the course of moon landings but, in turn, saved lives and made enormous contributions to history.Christy Ottaviano Books
Counting One's Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
by William ShawcrossWilliam Shawcross's official biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, published in September 2009, was a huge critical and commercial success.One of the great revelations of the book was Queen Elizabeth's insightful, witty private correspondence. Indeed, The Sunday Times described her letters as "wonderful . . . brimful of liveliness and irreverence, steeliness and sweetness."Now, in Counting One's Blessings, Shawcross has put together a selection of her letters, drawing on the vast wealth of material in the Royal Archives and at Glamis Castle. Queen Elizabeth was a prolific correspondent, from her early childhood before World War I to the very end of her long life at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and her letters offer readers a vivid insight into the real person behind the public face.
Counting the Cost
by Jill DuggarFor the first time, discover the unedited truth about the Duggars, the traditional Christian family that captivated the nation on TLC&’s hit show 19 Kids and Counting. Jill Duggar and her husband Derick are finally ready to share their story, revealing the secrets, manipulation, and intimidation behind the show in this &“no-holds barred&” (People) instant New York Times bestseller. Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn&’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family&’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle&’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn&’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married. But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore. For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members—but now they&’re raising a family of their own, and they&’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a &“complicated, remarkably relatable story of faith and family loyalty&” (Salon) and a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.
Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away: A Love Letter to My Family
by Mark Tabb Ben Utecht"In this book, Ben doesn't allow injury, setbacks, and disappointments to define him. His faith and love for his family provide perspective in the midst of challenging circumstances." --Tony Dungy, Hall of Fame Coach and author of Quiet Strength "I strongly encourage every parent, every child, and every person who plays or plans to play football and other high impact contact sports to read this book and become enlightened and empowered by Ben's powerful story." --Dr. Bennet Omalu, featured in the movie Concussion After five major concussions, NFL tight-end Ben Utecht of the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals is losing his memories. This is his powerful and emotional love letter to his wife and daughters--whom he someday may not recognize--and an inspiring message for all to live every moment fully.Ben Utecht has accumulated a vast treasure of memories: tossing a football in the yard with his father, meeting his wife, with whom he'd build a loving partnership and bring four beautiful daughters into the world, writing and performing music, catching touchdown passes from quarterback Peyton Manning, and playing a Super Bowl Championship watched by ninety-three million people. But the game he has built his living on, the game he fell in love with as a child, is taking its toll in a devastating way. After at least five major concussions--and an untold number of micro-concussions--Ben suffered multiple mild traumatic brain injuries that have erased important memories. Knowing that his wife and daughters could someday be beyond his reach and desperate for them to understand how much he loves them, he recorded his memories for them to hold on to after his essential self is gone. Counting the Days While My Mind Slips Away chronicles his remarkable journey from his early days throwing a football back and forth with his father to speaking about the long-term effects of concussions before Congress, and how his faith keeps him strong and grounded as he looks toward an uncertain future. Ben recounts the experiences that have shaped his life and imparts the lessons he's learned along the way. Emotionally powerful, inspiring, and uplifting, Ben's story will captivate and encourage you to make the most of every day and treasure all of your memories.
A Country Between: Making a Home Where Both Sides of Jerusalem Collide
by Stephanie Saldaña"Behind every dark moment, there is another hidden world. The trick is to hold out long enough to make it there."When American writer Stephanie Saldaña finds herself in an empty house at the beginning of Nablus Road, the dividing line between East and West Jerusalem, she is a new wife trying to navigate a fragile terrain, both within her marriage and throughout the country in which she has chosen to live.Pregnant with her first child, Stephanie struggles to protect her family, their faith, and herself from the cracks of Middle Eastern conflict that threaten to shatter the world around her. But as her due date approaches, she must reconcile herself with her choice to bring a child into a dangerous world. Determined to piece together life from the brokenness, she sets out to uncover small instances of beauty to balance the delicate coexistence between love, motherhood, and a country so often at war.In an urban valley in Jerusalem, A Country Between captures the fragile ecosystem of the Middle East and the difficult first years of motherhood in the midst of a conflict-torn city. What unfolds is a celebration of faith, language, family, and love that fills the space between what was shattered, leaving us whole once more.
Country Doctor
by Michael SparrowHave you ever had to decide what to do with a very large dead body on a Mexican beach, or an unidentified corpse by a Devonian cowshed when the herd is due in for milking? How should you deal with a drug runner rescued from the Caribbean Sea when he pulls a gun on you? And how would you react if one of your patients was abducted by aliens?If you are a GP it seems these are routine matters. From coping with the suicide of a colleague to the unusual whereabouts of a jar of Coleman's mustard, this is the story of one rural doctor's often misguided attempts to make sense of the career in which he has unwittingly found himself.Dr Sparrow's adventures would be utterly unbelievable were they not 100% true stories. His bedside manner may sometimes leave a little to be desired but, if you're in dire straits, this doctor will certainly have you in stitches.
A Country Doctor's Notebook
by Mikhail Bulgakov Michael GlennyPart autobiography, part fiction, this early work by the author of The Master and Margarita shows a master at the dawn of his craft, and a nation divided by centuries of unequal progress.In 1916 a 25-year-old, newly qualified doctor named Mikhail Bulgakov was posted to the remote Russian countryside. He brought to his position a diploma and a complete lack of field experience. And the challenges he faced didn't end there: he was assigned to cover a vast and sprawling territory that was as yet unvisited by modern conveniences such as the motor car, the telephone, and electric lights.The stories in A Country Doctor's Notebook are based on this two-year window in the life of the great modernist. Bulgakov candidly speaks of his own feelings of inadequacy, and warmly and wittily conjures episodes such as peasants applying medicine to their outer clothing rather than their skin, and finding himself charged with delivering a baby--having only read about the procedure in text books.Not yet marked by the dark fantasy of his later writing, this early work features a realistic and wonderfully engaging narrative voice--the voice, indeed, of twentieth century Russia's greatest writer. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Country Editor's Boy: A Memoir
by Hal BorlandA memoir of youthful years spent in Colorado as the American West was transformed, by the author of High, Wide, and Lonesome and The Dog Who Came to Stay. Country Editor&’s Boy picks up where Hal Borland&’s classic memoir High, Wide and Lonesome left off: with Borland, on the cusp of adulthood in the early twentieth century, making his way in an eastern Colorado town that still retained all the flavors of the Old West. Borland&’s father, the editor of a local weekly newspaper, was working to help his publication transition along with the town around him. At the same time, young Hal was experiencing dramatic social and economic change in his own way. In a matter of a decade, Borland&’s Colorado town shifted from a frontier outpost to part of a rapidly urbanizing new America. This memoir shows a boy entering adulthood as the world around him comes of age. Evocative and wholly engrossing, Country Editor&’s Boy is a vividly drawn portrait of western life, by one of the greatest naturalist writers of his age.
Country Girl: A Memoir
by Edna O'BrienThe courageous and poetic narrative of a great fiction writer's life, seen from the vantage point of eight decades.In 1960, Edna O'Brien published The Country Girls, her first novel, which so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien, married with two sons, was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face to face with a life of high drama and contemplation. It is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that imprint upon and enliven one lifetime.Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as an acclaimed writer hosted by Jackie Onassis and Hillary Clinton. Brilliant and sensuous, Country Girl is a book we are fortunate that Edna O'Brien decided to write.
Country Grit: A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love
by Scottie JonesScottie Jones lived a typical suburban, professional life in Phoenix until her husband, Greg, got into a near-fatal car accident. While recovering, he became convinced that they needed a change and a simpler way of life, one more connected with nature and with each other. So, driven by a desire to cut ties with a material and convenient suburban life that had left them feeling empty, they bought a peaceful-looking farmhouse on sixty acres in Oregon and said good-bye to everything they knew. But though the grass may look greener, the road to pastoral bliss is fraught with financial woes, relentless rural roadblocks, and colossal failures. When the burden becomes almost too much to bear, Scottie hits on the idea of turning a house they initially built for their daughter into a Farm Stay, where people could visit and learn about Leaping Lamb Farm. The Farm Stay becomes the niche that rescues them from foreclosure—having found both a sense of purpose and a sense of place, the couple now finds the means to sustain it. In a world increasingly filled with questions of where our food comes from and dissatisfactions about our modern lives, Country Grit is a story that will resonate with countless people itching to get back to the land. Told with humor and hard-earned wisdom, it is also an account of what small-scale farmers across the country experience everyday and a warning that the farming life is not for everyone.
Country Matters
by Michael KordaWith his inimitable sense of humor and storytelling talent, New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda brings us this charming, hilarious, self-deprecating memoir of a city couple's new life in the country.At once entertaining, canny, and moving, Country Matters does for Dutchess County, New York, what Under the Tuscan Sun did for Tuscany. This witty memoir, replete with Korda's own line drawings, reads like a novel, as it chronicles the author's transformation from city slicker to full-time country gentleman, complete with tractors, horses, and a leaking roof.When he decides to take up residence in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in Dutchess County, ninety miles north of New York City, Korda discovers what country life is really like:Owning pigs, more than owning horses, even more than owning the actual house, firmly anchored the Kordas as residents in the eyes of their Pleasant Valley neighbors. You may own your land, but without concertina barbed wire, or the 82nd Airborne on patrol, it's impossible to keep people off it! It's possible to line up major household repairs over a tuna melt sandwich. And everyone in the area is fully aware that Michael "don't know shit about septics." The locals are not particularly quick to accept these outsiders, and the couple's earliest interactions with their new neighbors provide constant entertainment, particularly when the Kordas discover that hunting season is a year-round event -- right on their own land! From their closest neighbors, mostly dairy farmers, to their unforgettable caretaker Harold Roe -- whose motto regarding the local flora is "Whack it all back! " -- the residents of Pleasant Valley eventually come to realize that the Kordas are more than mere weekenders. Sure to have readers in stitches, this is a book that has universal appeal for all who have ever dreamed of owning that perfect little place to escape to up in the country, or, more boldly, have done it.
Country Matters
by Michael Korda Success Research CorWith his inimitable sense of humor and storytelling talent, New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda brings us this charming, hilarious, self-deprecating memoir of a city couple's new life in the country.At once entertaining, canny, and moving, Country Matters does for Dutchess County, New York, what Under the Tuscan Sun did for Tuscany. This witty memoir, replete with Korda's own line drawings, reads like a novel, as it chronicles the author's transformation from city slicker to full-time country gentleman, complete with tractors, horses, and a leaking roof.When he decides to take up residence in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in Dutchess County, ninety miles north of New York City, Korda discovers what country life is really like:Owning pigs, more than owning horses, even more than owning the actual house, firmly anchored the Kordas as residents in the eyes of their Pleasant Valley neighbors. You may own your land, but without concertina barbed wire, or the 82nd Airborne on patrol, it's impossible to keep people off it! It's possible to line up major household repairs over a tuna melt sandwich. And everyone in the area is fully aware that Michael "don't know shit about septics."The locals are not particularly quick to accept these outsiders, and the couple's earliest interactions with their new neighbors provide constant entertainment, particularly when the Kordas discover that hunting season is a year-round event -- right on their own land! From their closest neighbors, mostly dairy farmers, to their unforgettable caretaker Harold Roe -- whose motto regarding the local flora is "Whack it all back! " -- the residents of Pleasant Valley eventually come to realize that the Kordas are more than mere weekenders.Sure to have readers in stitches, this is a book that has universal appeal for all who have ever dreamed of owning that perfect little place to escape to up in the country, or, more boldly, have done it.