Rural Route Bookstore

Scandinavian-American and Rural Humor Books
 
Books about Farm Life, Small Town Life, the Midwest, and Scandinavian-Americans

       Featuring the Heartwarming Humor of "Those Lutheran Ladies"     

 

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Farm Life

Hidewood: Memories of a Dakota Neighborhood
Hidewood:  Memories of a Dakota Neighborhood
   
by Robert Amerson

The "Dakota" referred to is South Dakota and the county is Deuel, which borders Minnesota.  The time covered is from 1934 to 1942, and the daily activities range from fencing and water-witching as a lone person to celebrations and politics at the community level.

It appears that the author has achieved his goal of portraying the past by focusing not only on the tasks and topics of the day, but on "how it felt, sounded and looked".

SD - 01  Paperback $17.95

Mapping the FarmMapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family       by John Hildebrand

In what has been called an "absorbing and hauntingly beautiful book," the author passionately writes about four generations of a Minnesota farm family, and maps the story of a 240-acre farm in southeastern Minnesota and of the O'Neill family that lives there. This is a double history — of a family, and of agriculture — from 1880 when farming was king until the end of the 20th century when subdivisions and four-lane highways split up the land and social progress divides families.

If the decline of rural communities, institutions, and farms are of special interest to you, we suggest that you also purchase the video, Delafield.

FA - 02 Paperback $14.95


Barns of MinnesotaBarns of Minnesota      Photography by Doug Ohman and
                                               Story by Will Weaver

NOMINATED FOR A 2006 MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD!

This book pays tribute to these vanishing rural icons that symbolize a way of life on the land that was as strong and proud, as fragile and humble, as the barns among us. The rise of agribusiness and corporate farming has made barns nearly obsolete, and the old barns that once anchored family farms across Minnesota are slowly vanishing due to technology and a century of Minnesota's winters.

This book combines fact with fiction: the 85 stunning color photographs by Minnesotan Doug Ohman of these once numerous barns are accompanied by a small, moving novel — written by Minnesota's own Will Weaver — about the life and death of one barn through the eyes of the family who built it. According to Weaver, barns "...are landmarks, they are icons, they are metaphors, they are symbols. There's so much meaning packed into those old barns... They're now as obsolete as the steamship, as the coal firedBarns of Minnesota locomotive."


A perfect gift for anyone over 20, these 125 pages (plus an Afterword by Weaver and Ohlman) stick with you long after you finish devouring the pictures and reading this uplifting, yet sad, story.

This is still my favorite story, and that of many of my friends and family.

FA - 03   Jacketed Hardcover    $19.95


Voices for the LandVoices for the Land   Photography by Brian Peterson
                                  Essays and Thoughts by 52 Minnesotans

A few years ago, the Voices for the Land project, organized by the nonprofit group 1000 Friends of Minnesota, encouraged Minnesotans to write about the land they love, and to fight for its preservation. The Minneapolis Star Tribune published a selection of these essays, paired with Brian Peterson's photos, in an award-winning series. Voices for the Land brings these essays and photos together now in paperbook form. Brian Peterson has been honored eight times as the Minnesota Press Photographer of the Year.

This marriage of words, images, and landscape provides a powerful reminder of our deep and abiding connection to the land. Fifty-two Minnesotans write about the special, sometimes secret, places that give their lives meaning. For some it is their home or cabin or lake; for others, it's a family farm or neighborhood park, a backyard garden or north woods trail--all places where one finds a personal and spiritual connection to the land. The writers share the experience of these favorite places through their senses, from the aching tingle of a cold winter night and the sound of ice "singing" to the buzz of mosquitoes and the acrid smell of burning peat.

  FA - 04 Paperback $19.95



Ole's Oil Rag
Ole's Oil Rag


We listened to you men! You saw "Helga Hanson's Hotflash Hanky"  and said you wanted something too.  Well, here you are.  "Ole's Oil Rag -- For When Your Dipstick Comes Up Short"!

CA 9 - 04     Cloth Hanky     $6.95


The Lay of the Land: A View from the Prairie  by Brent Olson

The Lay of the Land: A View from the Prairie Olson combines a keen sense of humor with prairie wisdom in a series of essays about the land,  lutefisk, duck hunting, Girl Scout cookies, skunks, diversity and Prozac!  Olson has farmed in Western Minnesota for a quarter of a century on a farm his Norwegian great-grandparents homesteaded 120 years ago, and sometimes it is hard to tell if things are better than they were in the 1880s, or just different. If more people read this kind of writing, there'd soon be no need for Prozac -- or lutefisk!

 
FA-01    Paperback   $11.95

 

Reapers of the DustReapers of the Dust: A Prairie Chronicle    by Lois Phillips Hudson

Long recognized as a major chronicler of the Depression years in America’s agricultural heartland, Hudson strengthens her recollections of life in North Dakota in the ‘30s with sound academic research. The story that emerges is a human one where simple and joyous days can still be spent amid continuing battles with hostile environmental elements.

ND - 02     Paperback     $8.95



Just How Much Scrap Lumber does a Man need to Save?  by Suzann Nelson & Janet MartinJust How Much Scrap Lumber ...

This book, perfect for the men in your life, traces the history of scrap lumber to the cavemen and Noah right up to Martha Stewart, President Bush, Stephen King, Ralph Lauren and Sally Jesse Raphael. If you really want to make a statement, top it off with a Scrap Lumber King cap or the t-shirt.

CA 2 - 15     Paperback     $10.95

 


This "Those Lutheran Ladies" shim  (bookmark) will be included free with your order of the Scrap Lumber book.


Order by using the 'Place an Order' form or you may order by phone (800 494-9124).  For payment and shipping charges, see 'Place an Order.'