"A Country Year"
October 24, 2004
11:18 a.m., MT
About this time last year, I purchased a delightful book on cassette entitled "A Country Year: Living the Questions," by Sue Hubbell. Since I have relatively little time to read recreationally, and a long commute to work, I particularly enjoy audio books as a means of passing the drive time more productively than I might otherwise. The narrator's voice (Alexandra O'Karma) was particularly well-chosen, IMO, and makes listening seem all the more enjoyable.

The author relates her experiences over the course a year in her life as a solitary woman, living and maintaining a beekeeping business in the Ozark Mountains. Her story telling style feels fresh and charming, full of feminine wit and country wisdom, and often her observations seem quietly profound. She speaks of the wild and anarchistic nature of her existence, and the fact that it has unsuited her for any other sort of life - still, it's plainly a challenging lifestyle, despite occasional idyllic moments, and one that many women would find unsustainable even though we might dream of living such a life ourselves.

One of my favorite quotes from the book, and unfortunately the only one I've scribbled down: "Politics has a way of turning the absurd into reality." So it does...

Cat