So Much Sky: Essays on the Fun and Folly of Living in the Country

by Karen Weir-Jimerson

In her delicious collection of essays, So Much Sky, author Karen Weir-Jimerson offers up bite-sized gems that view modern life through a rural lens. Many of these pieces were originally published in the author's popular "Slow Lane" column for Country Home magazine, and seeing them here collected one is convinced that the column was aptly named. Time does indeed seem to slow as Weir-Jimerson lures us into a charming world of chirping crickets, rogue tornados, and country characters both animal and human. The essays are arranged by season. In spring we meet Rose, a Border collie puppy who gives the lie to the difficulty of herding cats. In summer, a neighbor's bull invades the garden sparking a new take on poet Frost's advice about the importance of fences. In autumn, crime takes center stage and a sister is corrupted, as the author leads a dawn raid on a local cemetery's overabundant hydrangea blossoms. In winter we can smell the cookies baking as winter's "roulette wheel" spins out an Iowa snow day of car-sized drifts and old movies by the fire. Garden writer and essayist Weir-Jimerson is not farm-raised. She's a working mother of suburban background with rural inclinations who, along with her husband Doug and two young sons (now grown), turns a rough Iowa farmstead into a little slice of heaven. She is also a gifted and natural storyteller. From spring through winter we share the family's adventures with lambing, lack of closets, sheep shearing, morel hunting, finding skeletons in boxes at rural auctions, the political correctness of home-grown peas, irresistible petty crime, green Jello as a food group, bird and butterfly migration, a cacophony of clocks, and unsuccessful horseback rides that land you flat on the ground, so close to the earth you actually hear the hooves clattering away, and more. Weir-Jimerson brings to each of these short delicacies an acute eye for detail, an ample helping of humor, a joyful command of language and a humanity, passion and wit sharpened by a life lived far from the madding crowd.

Genres: Nonfiction

164 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2011

Reviews

[Diane]

This is a simple, charming collection of essays about living on a farm in rural Iowa. Since I am from Iowa and I have happy memories of visiting my grandparents' farm, I was inclined to enjoy this book. The essays, which are loosely grouped into the seasonal headings of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, were previously published as columns in Country Home magazine. Some of my favorite stories followed the antics of the family's animals, including horses and sheep that like to escape and the border collie who gets to round them up again.

If these essays whet your appetite for more stories of rural living, I recommend "Little Heathens" by Mildred Armstrong Kalish and the classic "Woodswoman" by Anne Labastille.

[Suzanne]

A fun book of snippets that take place in Iowa countryside. Follows adventures throughout the four seasons of the year.

[Catherine]

As a writer who earns a great-portion of her own living writing similar human-interest essays, I couldn't help but to love this book at first sight! Many of these essays were already familiar to me from having read them as part of an ongoing series in a magazine, so to have them altogether to savour repeatedly is such a sweet treat! Its the everyday things that are most humourous and endearing to me. Highly recommended. A lovely summertime read!

[Annette]

One morning after a very snowy, blowy night, they woke to sunshine and drifts of snow that looked like cresting waves. The barn cats realized "that the waves were the highest and sunniest spots in the yard so they each curled up on a crest for an afternoon snooze--creating the bizarre illusion of a row of sleeping, surfing kitties."

I smiled and laughed my way through these delightful essays and had so many lovely reminders of living in Iowa!

[Laurel]

A nice book written by a friend's sister. Some of the stories are laugh out loud funny.

[Cindy]

I like a good bedtime story. Karen's are those.

[Sharla]

I thought I would really enjoy a book about our great state of Iowa, but in skimming this book, it looked rather boring and was mostly about animals.