|
Showing 1 - 5 of
5 matches in All Departments
As friends began "going back to the land" at the same time that a
health issue emerged, Kathleen Alcala set out to reexamine her
relationship with food at the most local level. Remembering her
parents, Mexican immigrants who grew up during the Depression, and
the memory of planting, growing, and harvesting fresh food with
them as a child, she decided to explore the history of the Pacific
Northwest island she calls home. In The Deepest Roots, Alcala
walks, wades, picks, pokes, digs, cooks, and cans, getting to know
her neighbors on a much deeper level. Wanting to better understand
how we once fed ourselves, and acknowledging that there may be a
future in which we could need to do so again, she meets those who
experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II,
and learns the unique histories of the blended Filipino and Native
American community, the fishing practices of the descendants of
Croatian immigrants, and the Suquamish elder who shares with her
the food legacy of the island itself. Combining memoir, historical
records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots
shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food
stewards and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and
common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And
along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present
but offers a path to a better understanding of the future. Watch
the book trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFG8MpTo_ZU&feature=youtu.be
Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest
came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage.
The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises
at every turn of the page. Something is amiss at the Hotel
Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in
rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the
plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in
her landlady mother's absence. The quirky tenants-a hilarious mix
of misfits and rabble-rousers from days gone by-rely on Alexis all
the more when they discover a plot to sell the Hotel. Can Alexis
save their home? Find her real father? Deal with her surrogate
dad's dicey past? Find true love? Perhaps only their feisty pet
crow, Habib, truly knows. Provoking interesting questions about the
creative process, this novel is by turns funny, scary, witty,
suspenseful, beautiful, thrilling, and unexpected. A
Seattle7Writers project for literacy, this novel was written by
Kathleen Alcala, Matthew Amster-Burton, Kit Bakke, Erica
Bauermeister, Sean Beaudoin, Dave Boling, Deb Caletti, Carol
Cassella, William Dietrich, Robert Dugoni, Kevin Emerson, Karen
Finneyfrock, Clyde Ford, Jamie Ford, Elizabeth George, Mary
Guterson, Maria Dahvana Headley, Teri Hein, Stephanie Kallos, Erik
Larson, David Lasky, Stacey Levine, Frances McCue, Jarret
Middleton, Peter Mountford, Kevin O'Brien, Julia Quinn, Nancy
Rawles, Suzanne Selfors, Jennie Shortridge, Ed Skoog, Garth Stein,
Greg Stump, Indu Sundaresan, Craig Welch and Susan Wiggs. Foreword
by Nancy Pearl. Introduction by Garth Stein."
My parents always told me I was Mexican. I was Mexican because they
were Mexican. This was sometimes modified to "Mexican American,"
since I was born in California, and thus automatically a U.S.
citizen. But, my parents said, this, too, was once part of Mexico.
My father would say this with a sweeping gesture, taking in the
smog, the beautiful mountains, the cars and houses and fast-food
franchises. When he made that gesture, all was cleared away in my
mind's eye to leave the hazy impression of a better place. We were
here when the white people came, the Spaniards, then the Americans.
And we will be here when they go away, he would say, and it will be
part of Mexico again. Thus begins a lyrical and entirely absorbing
collection of personal essays by esteemed Chicana writer and gifted
storyteller Kathleen Alcal . Loosely linked by an exploration of
the many meanings of "family," these essays move in a broad arc
from the stories and experiences of those close to her to those
whom she wonders about, like Andrea Yates, a mother who drowned her
children. In the process of digging and sifting, she is frequently
surprised by what she unearths. Her family, she discovers, were
Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition who took on the
trappings of Catholicism in order to survive. Although the essays
are in many ways personal, they are also universal. When she
examines her family history, she is encouraging us to inspect our
own families, too. When she investigates a family secret, she is
supporting our own search for meaning. And when she writes that
being separated from our indigenous culture is "a form of
illiteracy," we know exactly what she means. After reading these
essays, we find thatwe have discovered not only why Kathleen Alcal
is a writer but also why we appreciate her so much. She helps us to
find ourselves.
My parents always told me I was Mexican. I was Mexican because they
were Mexican. This was sometimes modified to "Mexican American,"
since I was born in California, and thus automatically a U.S.
citizen. But, my parents said, this, too, was once part of Mexico.
My father would say this with a sweeping gesture, taking in the
smog, the beautiful mountains, the cars and houses and fast-food
franchises. When he made that gesture, all was cleared away in my
mind's eye to leave the hazy impression of a better place. We were
here when the white people came, the Spaniards, then the Americans.
And we will be here when they go away, he would say, and it will be
part of Mexico again. Thus begins a lyrical and entirely absorbing
collection of personal essays by esteemed Chicana writer and gifted
storyteller Kathleen Alcal . Loosely linked by an exploration of
the many meanings of "family," these essays move in a broad arc
from the stories and experiences of those close to her to those
whom she wonders about, like Andrea Yates, a mother who drowned her
children. In the process of digging and sifting, she is frequently
surprised by what she unearths. Her family, she discovers, were
Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition who took on the
trappings of Catholicism in order to survive. Although the essays
are in many ways personal, they are also universal. When she
examines her family history, she is encouraging us to inspect our
own families, too. When she investigates a family secret, she is
supporting our own search for meaning. And when she writes that
being separated from our indigenous culture is "a form of
illiteracy," we know exactly what she means. After reading these
essays, we find thatwe have discovered not only why Kathleen Alcal
is a writer but also why we appreciate her so much. She helps us to
find ourselves.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|