A beautifully told comprehensive history of the Houghton family of Virginia during World War Two.

A place called Crockett's Corner began as a seventeenth century colonial settlement that grew into a stable and sustainable nineteenth century American agrarian landscape. During thetwentieth century, in a rapid but staged process, the landscape was changed into an edge city. These changes were the direct result, especially after 1938, of prevailing public policies which acted to constrain some land uses while supporting others.Landscape change has had unintended consequences, including local social network destruction,historic building demolition, and unmitigated air and non-point source water pollution. Raising awareness of the deep history of this place may help empower advocates for historic preservation, open space, environmental protection and more sustainable land use practices in the future.

Written with the raw honesty and poignant insight that were the hallmarks of her acclaimed bestseller A Widow’s Story, an affecting and observant memoir of growing up from one of our finest and most beloved literary masters. The Lost Landscape is Joyce Carol Oates’ vivid chronicle of her hardscrabble childhood in rural western New York State. From memories of her relatives, to those of a charming bond with a special red hen on her family farm; from her first friendships to her earliest experiences with death, The Lost Landscape is a powerful evocation of the romance of childhood, and its indelible influence on the woman and the writer she would become. In this exceptionally candid, moving, and richly reflective account, Oates explores the world through the eyes of her younger self, an imaginative girl eager to tell stories about the world and the people she meets. While reading Alice in Wonderland changed a young Joyce forever and inspired her to view life as a series of endless adventures, growing up on a farm taught her harsh lessons about sacrifice, hard work, and loss. With searing detail and an acutely perceptive eye, Oates renders her memories and emotions with exquisite precision, transporting us to a forgotten place and time—the lost landscape of her youth, reminding us of the forgotten landscapes of our own earliest lives.

Its hard to imagine Californias landscape before European explorers arrived and recorded what they saw. Laura Cunninghams research goes well beyond that and her art brings that landscape to life once again

An elegant homage to the many deserted buildings along the Hudson River--and a plea for their preservation.