FROM SARAH:

Wendell Berry’s storytelling is tender, wise, and steeped in the rhythms of rural America. He offers a meditation on the quiet heroism of an ordinary life faithfully lived. Jayber Crow invites readers to lean in and rediscover what it means to be part of a community that offers belonging and relentless love. I’d recommend it for readers 15+.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

“This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell.” It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town's barber.

Wendell Berry’s clear-sighted depiction of humanity’s gifts―love and loss, joy and despair―is seen though his intimate knowledge of the Port William Membership.

FROM SARAH:

As the perfect introduction to Wendell Berry’s books, Hannah Coulter is like taking a deep breath; it’s a long pause, a moment of quiet in the midst of a world that can be filled with so much noise. We are thrilled to include it in our Mama Book Club library, knowing it will bring so much encouragement and peace to everyone who reads it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry’s seventh novel and his first to employ the voice of a woman character in its telling. Hannah, the now-elderly narrator, recounts the love she has for the land and for her community. She remembers each of her two husbands, and all places and community connections threatened by twentieth-century technologies. At risk is the whole culture of family farming, hope redeemed when her wayward and once lost grandson, Virgil, returns to his rural home place to work the farm.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In this collection of eleven essays, Berry confronts head-on the necessity of clear thinking and direct action. Never one to ignore the present challenge, he understands that only clearly stated questions support the understanding their answers require. For more than fifty years we've had no better spokesman and no more eloquent advocate for the planet, for our families, and for the future of our children and ourselves.

FROM SARAH:

I love visiting Port William and also really love a story that is short. This collection offers both! You can read these short stories one at a time, whenever you wish to slow down and step back into the land and heart that is Wendell Berry’s writing.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 
Their contrasts are humorous, of course, and recall the tall tales of rural Americana. In the novella Watch with Me, we are given a story of such depth, breadth, and importance it earns being listed as one of the most important short stories written in the American language during the twentieth century.

FROM SARAH:

Before there was Hannah, there was Nathan, the gentle yet sturdy presence who served as our invitation to the “membership” in Port William. Nathan Coulter is a portrait of rural life rendered with deep affection — a story about belonging, memory, and the quiet forces that form a life. Recommended for readers 15+.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Welcome to Port William. In his debut novel and the first in his beloved series, Wendell Berry introduces readers to a place where community becomes "membership," bound by affection, duty, and an inseparable devotion to the land