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  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"     Tell a Friend

 Sale Items

Children of the Kalevala     (ONLY ONE LEFT!) by Lauri Anderson


Children of the KalevalaFor your Finnish friends, or for just a great book to lift you from your Winter Doldrums.  These are stories about "Contemporary American Finns" as they "Relive the Timeless Tales of the Kalevala."  Written about the "Yoopers," the Upper Peninsula People in the Michigan area,  Anderson -- a Finnish American author of many books, and a teacher at Finlandia University in the "U.P." -- will give you and your friends plenty to laugh about in this generally bleak time of the year.

OS -01   Paperback     $12.95    Now $9.00




Not Scandinavian-American at all, but Rural Route Bookstore is about humor too.

Car Talk CDs  by the famous Tappet Brothers, Click & Clack

A few years ago I set up a booth at some festival prior to Mother's and Father's Days.  I decided that all parents could use some humor.  And, as I am writing this, I am listening to Car Talk on MPR right now.  Laughing is a good way to start a Saturday.  Maybe Janet Martin (my co-author) and I can become the "Click and Clack" of the Scandinavian Lutherans.  Maybe we already are.

This is strange, but of the 4 CDs I have left, (2 of each), one of each kind is shrink-wrapped and one isn't.  I can only guess that some picky man, reluctant to part with a few bucks on gifts for his parents, insisted on listening to part of each and therefore I had to open one copy of each. I promise these aren't ones I have opened and listened to over and over. Nope, the one hour on Saturday morning sustains me for a week, and besides -- my Onesie Sale is not a garage sale of used items.

More humor to get you through the Winter Doldrums, or so you can get your 2008 Mother's and Father's Day gifts early!

Car Talk

Car Talk: Maternal Combustion, Calls about  Moms and Cars

OS -02CD1a   $13.95    Now $9.00 for the shrink-wrapped one
OS -02CD1b   $13.95    Now $7.50 for the unwrapped one that maybe has 1 minute of listening time on it from a demonstration




Car Talk
Car Talk: Why You Should Never Listen to Your Father When It Comes to Cars

OS -02CD2a    $13.95    Now $9.00 for the shrink-wrapped one
OS -02CD2b    $13.95 Now $7.50 for the unwrapped one that maybe has 1 minute of listening time on it from a demonstration




North Dakota PostcardsNorth Dakota Postcards, 1900 –– 1930          Compiled by Larry Aasen

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was a very popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this "golden age" are now considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled throughout the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks and people at work, and assembling crowds of local people. This book contains surviving images of North Dakota's history.

Aasen's mother (from rural Hillsboro, ND), saved 488 postcards in a big leather album, and they document her life and love; tell about crops, politics and parties; and show fashions of the day, street scenes, and the general culture. As part of the Arcadia Postcard Series, this book contains black and white scans of over 200 cards in the Aasen collection. Aasen writes, "Some of the cards contain rather personal comments, which I am sure the rural delivery mailman read and enjoyed." Many of these cards -- purchased for five cents and requiring a one cent stamp until 1917 when the price for postage doubled -- were correspondence between Theodore Aasen and Clara Brenden. Author Larry Aasen calls some of these "love by postcard." Ted Aasen and Clara were married in 1914.

Some are cartoon sketches, some are paintings, and many are photographs. In this book, all appear in black and white, and are not perforated for removal to be resent. They are historical photos, in book form, accompanied by Larry Aasen's comments, and they portray an important era in both North Dakota's and America's history.

I - 46    Paperback     $18.99    Now $14.00


The Memory Quilt

The Memory Quilt: A Tale of Friends & Family Lost & Found in the Great Cloquet Fire of 1918   by Pamela J. Erickson

History and fiction are combined in this exciting account of the catastrophic Cloquet Fire.  Fourteen-year-old Lisa Hanson falls asleep in present day Cloquet and is mysteriously transported to Cloquet on the day of the fire.  Everyone there thinks she is Liisa Maki, her grandma's oldest sister who disappeared that day and was never heard of again.  By the end of her eye-opening journey into the past, Lisa solves the mystery of her missing great aunt.

CH - 7   Paperback    $9.95 Now $ 7.00




Loon Magic for Kids

Loon Magic for Kids   by Tom Klein

Recommended and approved by Ranger Rick of the National Wildlife Federation

CH - 2     $9.95 Now $5.00



Check back often during the next week as we will be putting more books on Sale as we prepare for the year-end inventory.

Regular Sale Items

Pretty Goofy Mousepads, Then!

When I was growing up, a 'mouse pad' was the place where mice lived in the barn.  It was their living quarters, their 'pad,'  and we stayed away from it.  (The barn cats didn't.)  This phrase has now taken on a whole new meaning.

Similarly, when I was young, the toughest machine to figure out on the farm was the cornpicker. Now we are faced with 'confusers' -- oops, I mean 'computers.'  For the nerds in your life, try some of these new mousepads, then!

SMP - 8    When they asked if I wanted a 'PC' for my birthday, I thought they meant 'plain cake!'
SMP - 13  Whoooo...f da!

Each mousepad is 7.75" by 9.25", in color, has an appropriate humorous diagram.
 $8.00Now $6.00 each.  
Now $3.00 each.      ONLY ONE LEFT EACH!

             Mousepad               Mousepad


Notecards   -   Photography by Doug Ohman

Each box contains 12 cards and 12 envelopes. You can order a box with 12 of one style, or a box with 4 cards of the 3 styles.  The inside is  blank for your message.  Cards measure 4 x 5.5 inches.

Notecards     $6.95 per box of 12     Now $4.50 per box of 12

SL - 04a    Fish Lake Lutheran at Stark, MN          Fish Lake Lutheran Church


SL - 04b    Immanuel Lutheran at Hay Creek, MN        Immanuel Lutheran Church


SL - 04c    Norwood United Methodist at Norwood, MN       
Norwood United Methodist Church


Bookmarks  -  Photography by Doug Ohman       Four bookmarks for $1.00!Bookmarks

Bookmarks by Doug Ohman feature his photography of churches typically  found in rural Midwestern communities and are imprinted with Bible  verses.

A.  (dark brown image)  "Fish Lake Lutheran was organized in 1867.   Early services were held in homes of Swedish settlers of the area.  After a tragic fire destroyed the first church, the current church was  completed in 1886."  Fish Lake Lutheran is in Chisago County in Minnesota.

B.  (tan image)  "Gausdal Lutheran is located in rural Kandiyohi  County, Minnesota.  The church was organized in 1891, and the building was constructed that same year."

Specify which bookmarks and the quantity you are ordering.

SL - 05     Bookmarks  (Specify A. or B.)
 $1.00 each    Now
four bookmarks for $1.00


Nature

Hardcover Gift Books -- Beautiful Photography & Small Essays

In the words of Karen Kane and Gerry Ellis who compiled Wilderness Explored listed below, "Wilderness continues to inspire the human spirit, and even now, gives that spirit breathing room."

Buy the set (4 books) for $32.00, or individual books for $9.95 each.
Buy the set (4 books) for $24.00, or individual books for $6.95 each.

Nature's TranquilityNature's  Tranquility :  Reflections & Insights

Compiled and Edited by Tom Klein

Evocative descriptions about the wilderness and insights into the power of nature. These perceptions and remembrances by various naturalists are complemented by stunning photography.

  SI - 35       $9.95   NOW $6.95

 

Wisdom Warrior Wisdom Warrior:  Native American Animal Legends  by Dennis L. Olson

 

An artistic review of the wisdom of animals and the lessons humanity can learn from them  has been supplemented with great photography. Olson focuses this book on the wolf, bear, eagle, deer and buffalo.

SI - 36    $9.95     NOW $6.95

Voice of the Waters Voice of the Waters:   A Day in the Life of a Loon    by Tom Klein

This "small coffee table" book is filled with beautiful color photography by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick, and short, well-written narratives by Klein which describe the daily goings-on of the loon.

SI - 37     $9.95     NOW $6.95


Wilderness Explored Wilderness Explored: Letters and Journals

Essays by Karen Kane;  Photography by Gerry Ellis

Panoramic photography of New World landscapes by award-winning Gerry Ellis. Kane selected excerpts from journals and letters written by Columbus, Lewis and Clark, Captain Cook, Audubon and other early explorers and naturalists to describe these scenes.  Together they have created a testament to what was and is inspiring about North American landscape.
SI - 38     $9.95   
NOW  $6.95

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.'