Win a free copy of Watermelon Summer!
Here's what early readers have to say about Watermelon Summer:
"The character is young, self empowering and driven; but friendly and not superhuman." --- Alan Reid
"Fun page turner." --- S.
And now for the news --- Watermelon Summer is available as a paperback!
What does this mean to you? First, you have an opportunity to win
a free copy. (Keep reading for details near the end of this
post.) And I've enrolled the book in Amazon's expanded
distribution channels, so you should be able to request that your
library pick up a copy that you can read for free and share with your
neighbors.
Meanwhile, if you hate reading on the computer and don't have an
ereader, now's also a great time to pick up your very own paperback copy
since Amazon currently has it on sale for 10% off. I've enrolled the title in Amazon's matchbook program as well, so if you buy the paperback, you'll be given the
opportunity to download a free ebook copy immediately --- perfect if you
want to read Watermelon Summer
and still give it as a gift. (I've also lowered the price of the
ebook to 99 cents this week to give folks with ereaders a bonus too.)
So, how about that free opportunity I tantalized you with in the first
paragraph? The giveaway is easy to enter --- just leave a comment
on this post by Friday, December 27, at midnight with the title of your
favorite homesteading-related work of fiction, past or present.
I'll use a random number generator to choose one commenter to win a
free, signed copy of the paperback. Thanks for reading!
(By the way, you may be asking why there are no photos of the paperback
in this post. My proof copy came in the mail last week and I liked
it so much...I immediately gave it away without thinking of taking
photos! I'll try to remember to photograph the next books that
come into my hands before they find new homes.)
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
I hadn't even thought of LHotP, but yeah. Because of that series (which I read at least five times through - the entire series), I got started in my interest in historical cooking, cooking from scratch, cooking what I grow, and growing at least some of what I cook.
My first thought when reading this post, though, was Farm City. I was already up to my ears in my own front yard garden and canning and cheesemaking and whatever else when the 'Farmsteading Memoirs' started coming out. Novella Carpenter's book was one of the first really well-written books I'd found on the subject. I've read several since, some of them equally as good, but that was pretty much the first.
Not counting Little House on the Prairie, of course!
The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman
I don't know if these count as homesteading, but a great deal of my favorite YA books involved running away into the woods to live alone. The best example is "My Side of the Mountain". The sequel "The Other Side of the Mountain" our hero from the first book is joined by his sister, and they continue living in tree houses, using a falcon to hunt, and gathering all sorts of vegetables and berries. I also loved Island of the Blue Dolphin and Julie of the Wolves. Sadly, no one is gardening or keeping chickens in either of those. LOL!
Come to think of it, I haven't actually read any homesteading fiction, all non-fiction. There was one book called "Out of the Dust," and while it took place ON a homestead, it was really about a young girl and her father mourning the death of the mother/wife during the dustbowl. It was a haunting book, but not much actual farming taking place. But after each load of dishes, the girl would carry the dish water out to the apple trees, because they were her mothers and she wanted to keep them alive.
I recommend you read Opal the journal of an understanding heart by opal whitely. It is about Opal, the 6 year old narrator and the animal friends she makes on the homestead of her adopted parents. She Wrote The Book but it wasn't published until she was 20 in Atlantic Monthly. You don't have to pick me because of nepotism, but I kinda would like a copy. I will lend you my copy of Opal if you want.
Love, Maggie Ellen Robin Hess
To many books to list but the above books are a good start. Love reading any of your books I can get my hands on both from library or downloads.
Being able to read parts of the story this week with the photos helped set the scenes in the book I got on "free Friday". Thanks for that.
While homeschooling my daughter we read several of the books above. The Laura Ingles Wilder series(es) were some of our favorite. It gave us an opportunity to try different things that we read about in the books. I read about Laura when I was young, but my daughter found the rest of the series. We also read Out of the Dust, we were skpectical about this book but after reading it, we both found that we enjoyed it.
I have been reading the Butter in the well series by Hubalek on my Kindle and I really like them.