BREAKING BREAD
(Beacon Press)
Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul. A collection of essays by top literary talents and food writers, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class.
Here, you’ll find Lily King on chocolate chip cookies, Richard Russo on beans, Jennifer Finney Boylan on homemade pizza, Susan Minot on the non-food food of her youth, and Richard Ford on why food doesn’t much interest him. Nancy Harmon Jenkins talks scallops, and Sandy Oliver the pleasures of being a locavore. Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend, and the pleasure of buying a prized chocolate egg for a child.
Profits from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a nonprofit combating food insecurity by delivering healthy food from local farmers to those in need.
(Beacon Press)
Nearly 70 renowned New England writers gather round the table to talk food and how it sustains us—mind, body, and soul. A collection of essays by top literary talents and food writers, Breaking Bread celebrates local foods, family, and community, while exploring how what’s on our plates engages with what’s off: grief, pleasure, love, ethics, race, and class.
Here, you’ll find Lily King on chocolate chip cookies, Richard Russo on beans, Jennifer Finney Boylan on homemade pizza, Susan Minot on the non-food food of her youth, and Richard Ford on why food doesn’t much interest him. Nancy Harmon Jenkins talks scallops, and Sandy Oliver the pleasures of being a locavore. Other essays address a beloved childhood food from Iran, the horror of starving in a prison camp, the urge to bake pot brownies for an ill friend, and the pleasure of buying a prized chocolate egg for a child.
Profits from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a nonprofit combating food insecurity by delivering healthy food from local farmers to those in need.
GIN
(Bloomsbury)
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Gin tastes like Christmas to some and rotten pine chips to others, but nearly everyone familiar with the spirit holds immediate gin nostalgia. The etymology of the word dates to the year 1200 and is synonymous for “beginning.” In more recent times, the gin trade consolidated the commercial and political power of nations and prompted a social campaign against women. Gin has been used successfully as a defense for murder; been held accountable for outbreaks of melancholia in 18th-century England; and has been advertised as an abortifacient. From its earliest distillation days to the current craft model, gin plays a powerful cultural role-one that is arguably older, broader, and more complex than any other spirit.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.
(Bloomsbury)
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Gin tastes like Christmas to some and rotten pine chips to others, but nearly everyone familiar with the spirit holds immediate gin nostalgia. The etymology of the word dates to the year 1200 and is synonymous for “beginning.” In more recent times, the gin trade consolidated the commercial and political power of nations and prompted a social campaign against women. Gin has been used successfully as a defense for murder; been held accountable for outbreaks of melancholia in 18th-century England; and has been advertised as an abortifacient. From its earliest distillation days to the current craft model, gin plays a powerful cultural role-one that is arguably older, broader, and more complex than any other spirit.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic.
DIRT ROADS AND DINER PIE
(Central Recovery Press)
Told from a wife's perspective, Dirt Roads and Diner Pie is the story of one couple's struggle to heal the long-reaching effects of childhood sexual abuse. Musician and former lead singer of the United States Air Force Band, Travis James Humphrey spent 30 months in a culture of child sex abuse while studying at New Jersey's (now defunct) American Boychoir School. After leaving the school, Travis buried his memories deep. Years into the couple's marriage, these memories began to surface and threaten their relationship. In an effort to resolve the issues, Shonna and Trav hit the road and try to navigate their way through the treacherous terrain of mental illness and shame. Despite the heavy subject matter, Humphrey's approach is wry, witty, balanced, and tender. She details their journey within a three-week road trip through the southeastern United States taken shortly after Travis made his experience public.
While the effects of child sex abuse inform nearly every aspect of their shared life, it does not define them as a couple. That is the message Humphrey offers: Sexual trauma may dominate, but it need not define a relationship.
(Central Recovery Press)
Told from a wife's perspective, Dirt Roads and Diner Pie is the story of one couple's struggle to heal the long-reaching effects of childhood sexual abuse. Musician and former lead singer of the United States Air Force Band, Travis James Humphrey spent 30 months in a culture of child sex abuse while studying at New Jersey's (now defunct) American Boychoir School. After leaving the school, Travis buried his memories deep. Years into the couple's marriage, these memories began to surface and threaten their relationship. In an effort to resolve the issues, Shonna and Trav hit the road and try to navigate their way through the treacherous terrain of mental illness and shame. Despite the heavy subject matter, Humphrey's approach is wry, witty, balanced, and tender. She details their journey within a three-week road trip through the southeastern United States taken shortly after Travis made his experience public.
While the effects of child sex abuse inform nearly every aspect of their shared life, it does not define them as a couple. That is the message Humphrey offers: Sexual trauma may dominate, but it need not define a relationship.
SHOW ME GOOD LAND
(Down East Books)
"The rich sadness of Humphrey’s characters, her haunting portrayal of a bewildered, isolated community reminded me powerfully of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.” -Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
A semi-finalist for the VCU Cabell award for a first novel, Show Me Good Land is the story of a small, rural community and its moral barometer. Set in the fictional northern Maine town of Fort Angus, Show Me Good Land describes four characters in a non-linear plot construction, each connected to a single drug-related crime. Odie Hollander, a small town thug, solves his mother's murder while jailed on a domestic violence charge. Miles Compton, gay, returns to Fort Angus to care for his aging father after confronting his own personal scandal. Emmett Pratt manages the town gas station and cannot articulate a life goal beyond his vocation. Rhetta Ballou drives north after nearly two decades away and tries to find a place and role within her stoic family. Is violence ever an acceptable solution? Underage relationships? Drug use? Show Me Good Land is a thinking reader's book, and Shonna does her best to humanize questionable decisions made in a meth-addled, depressed community.
(Down East Books)
"The rich sadness of Humphrey’s characters, her haunting portrayal of a bewildered, isolated community reminded me powerfully of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.” -Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
A semi-finalist for the VCU Cabell award for a first novel, Show Me Good Land is the story of a small, rural community and its moral barometer. Set in the fictional northern Maine town of Fort Angus, Show Me Good Land describes four characters in a non-linear plot construction, each connected to a single drug-related crime. Odie Hollander, a small town thug, solves his mother's murder while jailed on a domestic violence charge. Miles Compton, gay, returns to Fort Angus to care for his aging father after confronting his own personal scandal. Emmett Pratt manages the town gas station and cannot articulate a life goal beyond his vocation. Rhetta Ballou drives north after nearly two decades away and tries to find a place and role within her stoic family. Is violence ever an acceptable solution? Underage relationships? Drug use? Show Me Good Land is a thinking reader's book, and Shonna does her best to humanize questionable decisions made in a meth-addled, depressed community.
To purchase Gin (in Fall 2020), Dirt Roads and Diner Pie or Show Me Good Land, please visit an independent bookseller near you. (Try: Print: a bookstore, Sherman's, Kelly's Books to Go, or Hello Hello Books. Alternatively, the titles are also available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and most major retailers that sell books.
