NOTES FROM BREAKFAST CREEK: A LOOK AT THE WORLD

by Cathy Salter

Leaving a life of fifteen years of teaching in south central Los Angeles and going to Washington, D.C. to work for National Geographic and then relocating to mid-Missouri brought Cathy Salter face to face with a profound change in both geographic setting and intellectual mindset. A multitude of tasks of animal care, the daily management of a small farmlet in Boone County, and the Great Flood of 1993 transformed Salter's life profoundly. Notes From Breakfast Creek became a weekly column first in a local town newspaper and later in the Columbia Daily Tribune in the nearby university town. Her essays range from the nature of her rural life to recollections of growing up, teaching, urban explorations, and international travel and intellectual whimsy. She has faced the blank computer screen for more than 650 Mondays in a row and has built up a loyal readership captured by her engaging spin on life at many levels.

216 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2008

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put off reading this for a long time, because short pieces just aren't my thing. And the pieces in this work are all very short -- a page or two apiece. Most were originally written for the author's weekly column in a local newspaper. To enjoy reading it, I finally had to treat it just like that -- read one article a day, just as though it were part of the newspaper. Approached that way, they're engaging and diverting. The reader gets a feel of knowing Salter and her friends and family, and a peek into the "farmlet" she and her husband lived on for a number of years.