“Kooser writes with lovely prose, full of wry humor and affection for the land and its people.”—New West Front Page
“What Kooser does in this remarkable book is describe in exquisite—and understated, humorous—detail the place where he lives: the rural area of southeastern Nebraska. Kooser is one of our finest poets and has, over the years, published a series of poems about the rural life in Nebraska that are superb evocations of place. Here, he does the same thing in prose, again and again, discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary, the pithy underlying truth of conventional folk wisdom.”—Lahontan Valley News / Fallon Eagle Standard
Lahontan Valley News / Fallon Eagle Standard
"Reading Ted Kooser's Local Wonders , I feel like I've wandered into another world, a place where the past endures—broken down a little, it's true—and where the present contains enough room to pay attention to the people and the countryside around you. This is simple, patient prose, the annotations of living in a wide-open place."—Verlyn Klinkenborg
"Local Wonders should be read and reread. It is a treasure, like the ripe wild plums Mr. Kooser, a retired insurance executive, picks along rural Nebraska roadsides."—Dan Barber, Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News - Dan Barber
“This small gem of a book matches perfectly the vision of our Heartlands --conveying the beauty and courage of living close and deep.”—Larry Smith, Heartlands: A Magazine of Midwest Life and Art
“A graceful memoir that saunters from his boyhood in Ames, Iowa to more recent years living as a writer…. Local readers everywhere will equally rejoice in the discovery of this wonderful and simple book.”—Sioux City Journal
Sioux City Journal - Sean Meehan
"When you read Ted Kooser's Local Wonders , you question where he's been all these years. He'd probably tell you he's been right here, amidst all of us, working the simplicity of words, the clarity of insights. What he wouldn't tell you is that he has the quiet ability to sneak beneath your skin and ripple it ever so slightly. . . . Set back in the hills of southeastern Nebraska–the Bohemian Alps–Kooser's book doesn't venture far geographically but travels great distances along the lengths of wisdom. . . . Kooser is a poet by nature, and his essays have the generous feel of a man who's rolled up his sleeves, pen in hand, for a long time, choosing words as an act of beauty, and knowing the small things of the world are of great import."—The Bloomsbury Review
"A quietly eloquent diary of a year in a small town in Nebraska. . . . This is a heartfelt plainspoken book about slowing down and appreciating the world around you. . . . Maybe it's exactly the feeling your friends, even you, are looking for."—New York Times book critic Janet Maslin on CBS News Sunday Morning
"Kooser claims he doesn't like to travel, but for someone who stays put, he does an awful lot of sightseeing. Hindsight, foresight, near sight, far sight, insight, out of sight, you name it—Local Wonders takes us both 'out far' and 'in deep.'"—Judith Kitchen, author of Only the Dance: Essays on Time and Memory
“Ted Kooser is a travel agent of words. He transports readers to a landscape of old grain trucks and weedsprayers and outhouses. Of country schools and grain elevators and fried pig’s ear crumbled over oatmeal. Of handmade quilts that cost exactly 12.43. His destination? The Bohemeian Alps, a cluster of affectionately nicknamed silty clay knolls in southeastern Nebraska. His tourists? Anyone.”—L Magazine: Lincoln’s Premier Lifestyle Magazine
"With Thoreaulike reflection and insight, the author artfully engaged this reader in a lyrical embroidery of this neighboring frontier. Weaving images in soothing language, Kooser meticulously captures the nuances of life as it evolves in a country setting in which he is both observer and participant."—Dan Semrad, Lincoln Journal Star
Lincoln Journal Star - Dan Semrad
“Kooser forges connections with the past through witty, commonsense proverbs inherited from Czech and German immigrants to southeastern Nebraska. The proverbs lend a poetic folk wisdom to the examination of his rural environs.”—Jeffrey Galbraith, Harvard Review
Harvard Review - Jeffrey Galbraith
"Local Wonders takes its luminous place in the time-honored tradition of seasonal contemplation within a cherished place. It is a companionate book—bright of eye and wit, warm with the details and reflections of the world."—Merrill Gilfillan, author of Grasshopper Falls
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2011/10/local-wonders.html
"In this elegaic volume of four chapters, National Poet Laureate Kooser shares with the reader a lifetime of observations about home, familiy, and land distlled into a series of sometimes sparkling, other times electrifying, and always engaging scenes that read like a poet's diary."—Mark Easter, Colorado Review
Colorado Review - Mark Easter
"Call them stories then. Call them letters from a friend. Call them what you wish, but read them."—Nebraska Life
“Reading . . . Local Wonders is a bit like running into Lao Tsu and Confucius in line at the hardware store. A Taoist love of country life permeates the book. . . . It is not nature alone, Kooser’s beautiful book reminds us, but the play of the imagination on nature--the mind that can speculate on the connection between stars and moths—that produces glory and brings insight into life’s inescapable truths.”—Fourth Genre
"Ted Kooser's Local Wonders is the quietest magnificent book I've ever read."—Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall
"Through his eyes we learn to see, then appreciate, the beauty and grace in everyday miracles, the comfort and sanctity in local wonders."—Booklist
http://lindsleyrinard.blogspot.com/2010/10/ted-kooser-poet-extraordinaire-this.html
Literature and Life - Lindsley Rinard
http://crickhollow.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/poetry-home-repair-manual-small-press-month-book-recommendation-5/
Crickhollow Books blog - Philip Martin
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2011/10/local-wonders.html
http://nebraskapress.typepad.com/university_of_nebraska_pr/2011/10/local-wonders.html
Nebraska Life - Matthew Spencer
“A graceful memoir that saunters from his boyhood in Ames, Iowa to more recent years living as a writer…. Local readers everywhere will equally rejoice in the discovery of this wonderful and simple book.”—Sioux City Journal
Sean Meehan
“This small gem of a book matches perfectly the vision of our Heartlands --conveying the beauty and courage of living close and deep.”—Larry Smith, Heartlands: A Magazine of Midwest Life and Art
Larry Smith
"With Thoreaulike reflection and insight, the author artfully engaged this reader in a lyrical embroidery of this neighboring frontier. Weaving images in soothing language, Kooser meticulously captures the nuances of life as it evolves in a country setting in which he is both observer and participant."—Dan Semrad, Lincoln Journal Star
Dan Semrad
"In this elegaic volume of four chapters, National Poet Laureate Kooser shares with the reader a lifetime of observations about home, familiy, and land distlled into a series of sometimes sparkling, other times electrifying, and always engaging scenes that read like a poet's diary."—Mark Easter, Colorado Review
Mark Easter
"Local Wonders should be read and reread. It is a treasure, like the ripe wild plums Mr. Kooser, a retired insurance executive, picks along rural Nebraska roadsides."—Dan Barber, Dallas Morning News
Dan Barber
“Kooser forges connections with the past through witty, commonsense proverbs inherited from Czech and German immigrants to southeastern Nebraska. The proverbs lend a poetic folk wisdom to the examination of his rural environs.”—Jeffrey Galbraith, Harvard Review
Jeffrey Galbraith
lindsleyrinard.blogspot.com/2010/10/ted-kooser-poet-extraordinaire-this.html
Lindsley Rinard
"Clear, generous, and imaginative, Local Wonders increases the sum of the world's best goods."—Patrice Koelsch, Speakeasy
Speakeasy - Patrice Koelsch
"Eloquent meditations on country pleasures, the rhythms of the seasons and the lingering presence of Czech folk culture in rural Nebraska."—Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Clear, generous, and imaginative, Local Wonders increases the sum of the world's best goods."—Patrice Koelsch, Speakeasy
Patrice Koelsch
"Eloquent meditations on country pleasures, the rhythms of the seasons and the lingering presence of Czech folk culture in rural Nebraska."—Dan Cryer, Newsday
Dan Cryer
Artist and farmer Ted Kooser, who took up residence in the Bohemian Alps of Nebraska in the 1980s, shares his observations and thoughts about the region and his life. His gravelly voice sets the scene well as he gives listeners a tour of the area, conveying the wisdom that comes with life's experience. His memoir, framed around the four seasons, jumps from childhood reminiscences to history to personal anecdotes, with a major life event capping it all off. If you want to share the experience of painting outdoors in the spring, making applesauce, or visiting a Mennonite thrift store, Kooser paints those experiences, and more, with his words. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine