Tom is 82-year-old Tom Hartwig, an old-timer best known locally for building and firing homemade cannons. Toiling in a shop that Perry describes as an "antique store stocked by Rube Goldberg, curated by Hunter Thompson, and rearranged by a small earthquake," Tom works from scratch to make everything from shovel handles to parts for quarter-million-dollar farm equipment. He has an endless reservoir of stories dating back to the days of his prize Model...

"You can read Michael Perry's Coop as an outrageously funny comedy about a semi-hapless neophyte navigating the pitfalls (and pratfalls) of the farming life. Please do, in fact. But scratch a little deeper, past Perry's lusciously entertaining and epigrammatic prose, his ultra-charming combo of Midwestern earnestness and serrated wit, and you'll find a reflective, sincere, and surprisingly touching-at times, even heart-cracking-story about

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"Another in a series (including From the Top, Roughneck Grace, Million Billion, and Peaceful Persistence) of collected brief essays by New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry. "Although these pieces were written during times of unrest and pandemic, they drew on human connection," says Perry. "Week after week, slowly at first, and then regularly, I received messages, emails, comments, and sometimes even a handwritten note from...

"A collection of previously published magazine pieces and essays by Michael Perry. Sources include Backpacker, Outside, Runner's World, Men's Health, No Depression, Oxford American, Best American Science Writing, Wisconsin Trails, Encyclopedia of the Midwest, Minnesota Monthly, liner notes from Blind Boys of Alabama album I'll Find A Way, Wisconsin Humanities Council newsletter."--Provided by publisher.

The author chronicles a year during which he struggled to grow his own food, live peaceably with volatile neighbors, and fix his pickup truck, at a time when he also fell in love and befriended a paraplegic and quadriplegic biker team.

The bestselling Wisconsin author, humorist and musician shares stories of growing up in rural Wisconsin, revealing how his family, friends and life experiences shaped the work he has pursued.

In this fresh collection of "Roughneck Grace" columns, New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry reinforces his reputation as a writer navigating between the transcendent, the quotidian, and the goofy. Whether putting himself on roller skates for his daughter's birthday, fixing the chicken fence, or celebrating St. Jude ("the patron saint of fools"), Perry writes with a big heart from a small place.