On a Clear Night: Essays from the Heartland

by Marnie O. Mamminga

Overview

In this dazzling collection, best-selling author Marnie O. Mamminga details the common experiences that unite those of us who live, love, and work in the heart of the country. With insight and humor, Mamminga chronicles a wide range of small but significant everyday moments: the anxiety of taking a teenager out for driving lessons, the nostalgic pleasure of watching the Cubs at Wrigley Field, the heartache of moving an aging parent into a nursing home, and the quiet bliss of sitting on a cabin’s porch, listening for loons and wolves under the Northwoods’ starry sky.
Combining elements of the personal and the universal, these essays chart the passage of time from childhood to adulthood, sickness to health, working life to retirement, parenthood to grandparenthood, and everything in between. These sharply observed vignettes highlight the importance of taking time to appreciate the ordinary occurrences that profoundly shape our lives and the places we call home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870208256
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	04/28/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	243
File size:	835 KB

About the Author

Marnie Mamminga has been a professional essayist and features writer for more than twenty years. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Reader’s Digest, and numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books. She is a frequent presenter at writers’ workshops, including the UW’s Wisconsin Writers’ Institute. Her first book with the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Return to Wake Robin: One Cabin in the Heyday of Northwoods Resorts, received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, was chosen by Parade Magazine as one of the best reads of summer 2012, and was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio’s "Chapter A Day" series.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Oh, Youth! Marching Away Climbing into the Ring Going to the Dance Driving Lessons Waiting Up Road Shows Remembered Back to School Blues The Sound of Peace Listen To What I Hear Comes an Echo on the Breeze Changing Course Forever Friends Still Afloat at Fifty Synchronized Heartbeats No Place to Run Shuffle and Deal Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight Old Friends Comfort and Joy Windy Day Wreckage Blest Be The Ties That Bind Dance Lessons Mission Impossible Language of Love Making of a Mother-in-Law Christmas Windows Partings Well Made Moving Muriel Barn Wood Harvest In Waiting Becoming a Grandmother Learning Curves Rip Van Winkle Returns to School Technology Aversion Washed-Up Dishwasher Cubby Bear Bliss Sailing Away Leap of Faith Child-Rearing Changes Owner’s Manual Downward Dogs Cross-Country Skiing Bum Knee Grateful Hearts Christmas Rose Giving Thanks Swinging along the Open Road Dancing with Vera You’ve Got Mail Heaven in a Wildflower In Search of a Silver Lining Looking for Rainbows Under The Milky Way Midnight Crossing Recycled Dump Days Birdsong Child of Nature Willie the Wolf and Other Wildlife Loon Ranger Night Skies Beckon Listening for Wolves Swimming across Big Water Acknowledgments About the Author

Editorial Reviews

The author of Chicken Soup for the Soul lets her Midwest roots show in On a Clear Night. The essay collection includes reflections on a night in a North Woods cabin and kayaking on Wisconsin lakes, but it’s no travelogue. Marnie O. Mamminga finds illumination in sharing “our similar everyday moments.” Her quotidian wisdom is expressed in perfect pitch with words well-chosen and a decided lack of drama. Some of her most moving essays concern aging—the realization that the flowers of youth have wilted and are pressed between wax paper. “But does that mean we have to look like duds?” she asks while searching for a dress to wear to her daughter’s wedding. (David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express May 23, 2017)
 

From the Publisher