Ordinaary Magic - Hardcover

Porter, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0976942232 ISBN 13: 9780976942238

Publisher: BAR NOTHING BOOKS, 2010

Synopsis

The first thing that happens is that Cal Willard gets shot in the foot. It s 1977, the day after Thanksgiving, which means that deer season is almost over. Cal s brother George goes to the hospital to see him, even though he hasn t had much to do with Cal for years, really since he got a law degree and moved to town. George has two daughters, now both grown up. Nora is secretly pregnant and trying to figure out what to do about it. Her sister Lena is married with two small children and problems with her husband. Then there is Cal s son, Conrad, whose life is very different from that of his cousins. He decides to buy a log skidder so he can go into business for himself selling firewood to people who are burning wood because of the oil crisis. These are ordinary events, but there s magic in the way they play out over the winter and into the spring. A good read for people who liked Porter s previous novel, The Simple Life, or for people who like stories of ordinary life, truly rendered, with horses and dogs, children and winter weather Vermont life in the country and in town.

About this title

Review

"Ordinary Magic, is an inspiring story of family, community, land, and tradition in a beautiful but endangered section of rural Vermont. Porter understands her corner of northern New England inside out. Ordinary Magic is an extraordinary work of fiction. It's a novel about real people facing real dilemmas with courage and hard-earned hope." -- Howard Frank Mosher "author of A Stranger In The Kingdom"

"In Ordinary Magic, Ruth Porter convincingly captures (as she did in her wonderful novel, The Simple Life, also set in Severance) the human drama of life in rural Vermont. Through two branches of one farming family, she explores in a gripping way the universal theme of confronting choices and understanding their consequences." -- Ann McKinstry Micou "author of Fiction Set in Vermont 3"

"With her straightforward, no-nonsense prose, Ruth Porter has staked a claim on our American literary soil, evoking rural Vermont with the skill of the region's finest craftsmen. Every word rings true." -- James Wilcox "author of Modern Baptists"

"Ordinary Magic is simply wonderful. From start to finish, it's a

real page turner with the unusual characteristic that the gripping

events in its fascinating pages are from everyday life and the

characters belong to ordinary, multi-generational families. It

showed me that we ordinary people are vastly more interesting than

we thought we were."

E -- Elizabeth Marshall Thoma "author of The Old Way and The Hidden Life Of Dogs"

"Ordinary Magic opens with two unmagical events. Cal has been shot in the foot, and Nora is returning home to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Ruth Porter moves ahead, working mostly with these two characters and their situations, but spreading out like ripples from dropped stones in water to include families and friends." -- Roger Sale "author of Seattle Past to Present and Fairy Tales and After"

"In Ordinary Magic Ruth Porter's love of country living is apparent in the lovingly detailed descriptions of daily life. And it's about hope. With the drumbeat of bad news all around us, it was a pleasure to read about REAL family values and the "magic" of everyday life if only we'll take time to notice." -- Diane Brown "former books editor, AARP, The Magazine"

Edition details

• Publisher: BAR NOTHING BOOKS
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976942232
• ISBN 13: 9780976942238
• Binding: Hardcover