2012 Puddly Awards
 
 
Follow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on TumblrSubscribe to RSS

Recently Viewed clear list

Original Essays | February 8, 2012

Kent Hartman: IMG A Raider by Any Other Name

1 comment By Kent Hartman

Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there is an oddly popular trivia game floating around that a group of clever (and likely bored) college... Continue »
  1. $18.19 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret

    Kent Hartman 9780312619749
spacer
Free Shipping!

Ships free on qualified orders.
$15.99
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
19 Local Warehouse Biography- General

More copies of this ISBN

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn

by Catherine Friend

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn Cover

ISBN13: 9781569242988
ISBN10: 1569242984
All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Farms have fences. People have boundaries. Mine began crumbling the day I knelt behind a male sheep, reached between his legs, and squeezed his testicles. This took place one blustery November day when I joined other shepherd-wannabees for a class on the basics of raising sheep. I was there with my partner Melissa, the woman I'd lived with for twelve years, because we were going to start a farm.

When self-confessed "urban bookworm" Catherine Friend's partner of twelve years decides she wants to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a farm, Catherine agrees. What ensues is a crash course in both living off and with the land that ultimately allows Catherine to help fulfill Melissa's dreams while not losing sight of her own.

Hit by a Farm is a hilarious recounting of Catherine and Melissa's trials of "getting back to the land." It is also a coming-of (middle)-age story of a woman trying to cross the divide between who she is and who she wants to be, and the story of a couple who say "goodbye city life" — and learn more than they ever bargained for about love, land, and yes, sheep sex.

Review:

"Catherine Friend knows how to get our attention. Her charming memoir begins with her tentative reach between the legs of a male sheep, the better to squeeze his 16-inch circumference testicles. She's cold, there's a suspiciously soft substance on the bottom of her sneakers and she has never really hankered to know what a healthy ram testicle feels like." New York Times

Review:

"Hit by a Farm is larded with pain, laughter and enjoyable rural trivia....[H]heartening, sweet, earthy, funny — a joy to read from start to finish." Minneapolis Star Tribune

Review:

"[An] honest look at collaboration and compromise, the pain and the joy of partnership, and the hands-on of farming." Booklist
back to top

About the Author

Catherine Friend lives on a farm with her partner in Minnesota. A children's book author, Friend is also at work on an adult novel.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Jane Churchon, May 24, 2008 (view all comments by Jane Churchon)
The worst part of this book is that it ends. I'm not a farmer, nor will I ever be interested in becoming one, but this book is about far more than farming.

Friend manages to convey the lessons of relationship--with her partner, with their animals, with their property, and most importantly, with herself--in a way that is at once humorous and insightful. Nothing gets tied up with a neat little bow, but the book also manages to neglect the angst-filled memoir genre. She combines the humor of David Sedaris and Bill Bryson with the poignancy of Mitch Ablom, while skipping sentimentality and predictability along the way.

Hit By A Farm manages to weave her thematic concern--boundaries and how they can be formed in the context of partnership and self fulfillment--throughout the book without clobbering the reader with her message. Best of all, this book is shake the bed and wake up your partner funny. It's hard to make a reader cry--but it's a gift to make a reader laugh.

I'm recommending this book to everyone I know, and now, through the magic of the world wide interweb, I can recommend it to people I don't know. After you've finished reading it, don't forget to tell Oprah. She'll thank you for it.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(5 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9781569242988
Author:
Friend, Catherine
Publisher:
Marlowe & Company
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Farm life
Subject:
Minnesota
Subject:
Farmers & Ranchers
Subject:
Topic - Relationships
Subject:
Personal Memoirs
Subject:
HUM012000
Subject:
HUMOR / Topic/Relationships
Subject:
Biography-Farmers and Ranchers
Subject:
Biography - General
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
20060331
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
254
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.5 in 8 oz
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $10.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging, and the Crosscut Saw

    Ana Maria Spagna 9780870710094
  2. $11.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life

    Keith Stewart 9781569243305
  3. $8.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    A Very Small Farm

    William Winchester 9780806137780
  4. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression

    Mildred Arms Kalish 9780553384246
  5. $12.99 Google eBooks add to wish list

    The Memory Keeper's Daughter

    Kim Edwards 9781101010945
  6. $12.99 Google eBooks add to wish list

    The Secret Life of Bees

    Sue Monk Kidd 9781101010969
back to top

Related Aisles

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn New Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$15.99 In Stock
Product details 254 pages Marlowe & Company - English 9781569242988 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Catherine Friend knows how to get our attention. Her charming memoir begins with her tentative reach between the legs of a male sheep, the better to squeeze his 16-inch circumference testicles. She's cold, there's a suspiciously soft substance on the bottom of her sneakers and she has never really hankered to know what a healthy ram testicle feels like."
"Review" by , "Hit by a Farm is larded with pain, laughter and enjoyable rural trivia....[H]heartening, sweet, earthy, funny — a joy to read from start to finish."
"Review" by , "[An] honest look at collaboration and compromise, the pain and the joy of partnership, and the hands-on of farming."
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...


Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.