Local Wonders Audiobook (Free)

Ted Kooser identifies with exquisite fine detail and humor the place he calls house in the rolling hills of southeastern Nebraska, an area referred to as the Bohemian Alps. There is nothing too big or too small for his attention, including remembrances of his grandmother’s cooking food. Kooser also reminds us that the closing of local schools, thoughtless state weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the watch.

What makes existence meaningful for Kooser are the ways that his neighbors care for one another and exactly how an afternoon taking walks with an old dog, cooking a pie, or decorating the house for Christmas may summon thoughts of his Iowa child years.

This writer sees the extraordinary within the normal, the deep beneath the shallow, as well as the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays.