One-Year Dynasty

Relive the games, moves, and players of the hard-hitting team that won the 1986 World Series.

Vin Scully called the tenth-inning groundball in Game Six of the 1986 World Series—Mets versus Red Sox—that sealed a comeback, fueled a curse, and turned a batting champion into a scapegoat. But getting there was a long, hard slog with plenty of heartache. After being knocked out of contention the previous two seasons, the Mets blasted through the National League that year. They won blowouts, nailbiters, fights, and a 14-inning game that ended with one pitcher on the mound, another in right field, and an All-Star catcher playing third base.

One-Year Dynasty

Inside the Rise and Fall of the 1986 Mets, Baseball's Impossible One-and-Done Champions

by Matthew Silverman

Lyons Press, 2016

Playbooks
The Roster
Baseball Magazines

A New Guide To... Connecticut Made.

A unique guidebook and local resource full of hundreds of things to find and buy, crafts to discover, factories to explore, and history to uncover – all made in Connecticut.

Hundreds of the state’s top cottage industries––all places that you can shop and/or tour––are showcased. Organized by product type, categories include ceramics/pottery, clothing/accessories, furnishings/furniture, glassware, home décor, jewelry, specialty foods, toys/games, and so much more. Together, these homegrown establishments help make up the identity of the Nutmeg State and are part of the larger fabric of what is distinctively New England.

Connecticut Made

Homegrown Products by Local Craftsmen, Artisans, and Purveyors

by Cynthia Parzych

Globe Pequot Press, 2016

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Handmade
Connecticut Farmers Markets Directory

The Nature Pages: Dirt

The three dozen essays in this anthology explore and explain and celebrate the virtues of Earth's outer surface or, to put it simply, dirt. Edited by novelist Barbara Richardson, the collection includes a wide range of writings by artists, scientists, poets and farmers reflecting on diverse topics emerging from a common soil.

Contributors who could be labeled as "nature writers" include Julene Bair, Wes Jackson, Edward Kanze, Lisa Knopp, John T. Price, Janisse Ray, Jeanne Rogers, Donald G. Schueler, and Liz Stephens.

In her preface, Richardson refers to Walt Whitman's directive "Look for me under your boot-soles" and extols the divinity of dirt. "Grab a shovel. Hike a ravine. Breathe a dust storm. Reek like old goat and sleep like Venus after a dirty long day. Relish dirt's unbiased receptivity. Worship, if you will, the endless fecundity of soil. Or better yet, fall in love. Dirt makes a resilient, astounding lover."

Dirt

A Love Story

by Barbara Richardson

ForeEdge, 2015

continued in The Nature Pages

The Nature Pages
Reviews Archive
Outrider Reading Group
Farm and Garden Books

Reading the History: Burley

Once iconic American symbols, tobacco farms are gradually disappearing. It is difficult for many people to lament the loss of a crop that has come to symbolize addiction, disease, and corporate deception; yet, in Kentucky, the plant has played an important role in economic development and prosperity. Burley tobacco (a light, air-cured variety used in cigarette production) has long been the Commonwealth's largest cash crop and an important aspect of regional identity, along with bourbon, bluegrass music, and Thoroughbred horses.

In Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century, Ann K. Ferrell investigates the rapidly transforming process of raising and selling tobacco by chronicling her conversations with the farmers who know the crop best. She demonstrates that although the 2004 "buyout" ending the federal tobacco program is commonly perceived to be the most significant change that growers have had to negotiate, it is, in reality, only one new factor among many.

Burley

Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century

by Ann Ferrell 

University Press of Kentucky, 2016

Out of the Past
History and American West Titles
Outrider Reading Group