"These vivid New Hampshire farm sketches from Hall's well-spent youth--all written when he was full-grown--are as much attuned to the supple and enticing utilities of language as they are grounded in a vanished time which may, at a glimpse, seem simple, but were complex and rich and not simple at all."--Richard Ford This is a collection of story-essays diverse in subject but united by the limitless affection the author holds for the land and the people of New England. Donald Hall tells about life on a small farm where, as a boy, he spent summers with his grandparents. Gradually the boy grows to be a young man, sees his grandparents aging, the farm become marginal, and finally, the cows sold and the barn abandoned. But these are more than nostalgic memories, for in the measured and tender prose of each episode are signs of the end of things: a childhood, perhaps a culture. In an Epilogue written for this edition, Donald Hall describes his return to the farm twenty-five years later, to live the rest of his life in the house that held a box of string too short to be saved.

Prim, persnickety ElizabethAnn must restore a delicate balance of technology and magic to the mysterious land of Bumblegreen, all despite greedy watchmakers, toxic babies, and one particularly obnoxious Lothario. This imaginative fantasy novel, with its beautiful pen-and-ink cover and illustrations, is a perfect gift for any artist or bibliophile.

Former United States poet laureate Donald Hall reflects on his life, discussing his childhood in Connecticut, the works that influenced him, his education, his success and failures as a writer and father, his friendships, and other related topics.

Told with humor and affection, String Too Short to Tie tells the story of the powerful ties of land and family. The author, called Dalinda in this memoir, rumbles down the dusty Texas road where she grew up, struggling with ambivalence toward proud family and friends who stayed while she left. Life has changed since the bustling time of the ’50s and ’70s when Buddy Holly was a sensation down the road in Lubbock and her rural town of Tumbleweed bustled with energy, plentiful water, and her beloved farm families prospered. What will she and her classmates have in common as they work to plan their 50th class reunion? How will they feel about the Midwestern teacher she became versus the Texas farm girl they knew? How will she ever work with her headstrong sister to figure out how to honor their family farm? Laugh and cry as Dalinda works to resolve conflicting values over land, entitlement and lifestyle, unearthing small nuggets of delight and redemption that come when each of us tumble back home and remember a time when we were all “raised with guilt and red Jell-O.”

The revered American Poet Laureate reflects on the meaning of work, solitude, and love with “extraordinary nobility and wisdom” (The New York Times) When Donald Hall moved to his grandparents’ New Hampshire farm in 1975, his work as a writer and a life devoted to the literary arts must have seemed remote from the harsh physical labor of his ancestors. However, he reveals a similar kind of artistry in the lives of his grandparents, Kate and Wesley. From them, he learned that the devotion to craft—be it canning vegetables, writing poems, or carting manure—creates its own special discipline and an ‘absorbedness’ that no wage can compensate. In this “sustained meditation on work as the key to personal happiness” (Los Angeles Times), we see how the writer has modeled his own life on his family’s lives of work, solitude, and love. When Hall comes face to face with his own mortality halfway through writing this book, we understand both his obsession with work and its ultimate consolation.

In these tender essays, Hall shares his memories and thoughts on growing up in New Hampshire on his grandparent's dairy farm, of the seasons, and of his connection to the land, his family, and his coming home.

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR Why does an international footballer with the world at his feet decide to take his own life? On 10 November 2009 the German national goalkeeper, Robert Enke, stepped in front of a passing train. He was thirty-two years old and a devoted husband and father. Enke had played for a string of Europe's top clubs, including Barcelona and Jose Mourinho's Benfica and was destined to become his country's first choice in goal for years to come. But beneath the veneer of success, Enke battled with crippling depression. Award-winning writer Ronald Reng pieces together the puzzle of his friend's life, shedding valuable light on the crushing pressures endured by professional sportsmen and on life at the top clubs. At its heart, Enke's tragedy is a universal story of a man struggling against his demons. ‘It should be on every British football fan's reading list’ Metro