false 622061 342943 Lise Erdrich female Wahpeton, ND 11/2007 12/2009 110260 Wang Ping 245864 Heid E. Erdrich 33 222 214 true 5715169 read 2 true 1206614 currently-reading 6 true 1206613 to-read 0 true 2575493 five-stars Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial that Forged a Nation (Paperback) by Paul VanDevelder]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72776394 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179428046s/915387.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:26:03 -0700 Coyote Warrior: One Man, Three Tribes, and the Trial That Forged a Nation, Second Edition (Paperback) by Paul VanDevelder]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72777354 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255795840s/6877632.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:17:53 -0700 Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime (Hardcover) by Kenneth Helphand]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69321165 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180903171s/1090130.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:37:49 -0700
As I write and you read this, war rages on and defiant gardens are celebrated somewhere in the world. It has always been so: In 2004 soldiers from North Dakota of the 141st Engineer Combat Battalion stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, planted gardens with seeds donated from home. Sergea...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69321165 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180903171s/1090130.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:36:31 -0700
As I write and you read this, war rages on and defiant gardens are celebrated somewhere in the world. It has always been so: In 2004 soldiers from North Dakota of the 141st Engineer Combat Battalion stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, planted gardens with seeds donated from home. Sergeant Bob Syverson and Staff Sergeant Bill Poukka planted sunflowers. Syverson said of the garden, “I thought it’d be kind of [a:] homey touch over here,” and revealing a true connection to the landscape of home, he added, “It’d be nice if there was a lawn to mow, too.”

Sergeants Justin Wanzek and Carl Quam Jr. decided to plant a garden because “we were missing home, farming, and the joy of growing something.” Neither their Meals ready to Eat (MREs) nor the supply trucks arriving at their Forward Operating Base (FOB) supplied fresh vegetables, which proved a strong motivation to plant produce. Garden hoses and sprinklers were ill adapted to local conditions, so the soldiers adopted local irrigation and planting techniques, and they learned from local practice how to plant in this arid, sandy environment. They were pleased “just to grow something green out here.” Quam described their North Dakota garden experience as “good family times and maybe in a way, the garden helped me kind of cope with missing them, I caught myself drifting back to home with the four of us all spending quality family time in our garden.” These soldiers’ gardens were made in their limited spare time that Quam describes as follows” “At the time of garden prep, planting, weeding and watering, Sgt. Wanzek and myself, along with the rest of our crew, were running 4-6 combat patrols a week, in 100-140 degree weather. When we came back to our area, we had a hard time getting motivated to work and weed, but we did. Like I said, it was good therapy to relax after a day of dodging roadside bombs, RPGs and escorting semi trucks full of unexploded ordnance over the worst stretch of road in northern Iraq.”
]]> White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Hardcover) by Brenda Wineapple]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/69097488 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255904939s/3361966.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:13:33 -0700 Open Secrets: Stories (Paperback) by Alice Munro]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57061157 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166586090s/14286.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:11:47 -0700 Count Luckner: The Sea Devil (Paperback) by Lowell Thomas]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65381854 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1183576780s/1436235.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:02:12 -0700 Spirit Horses (Paperback) by Al Hunter]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59410877 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1189048017s/1840186.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:31:18 -0700 His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina (Paperback) by Danielle Steel]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57061342 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171026178s/82816.jpg 622061 Lise http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1236482794p2/622061.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/622061-lise Sat, 23 May 2009 09:52:33 -0700