This month’s selected book by the Library’s book club members is a nonfiction book entitled, “This Blessed Earth: A Year In The Life Of An American Family Farm” by author Ted Genoways. This novel has been chosen for the joint 2019 One Book One Nebraska and All Iowa Reads selection reading programs. The family farm lies at the heart of our national identity, yet its future is in peril. Rick Hammond grew up on a small ranch, and for forty years he has raised cattle and crops on his wife’s fifth-generation homestead in York County, Nebraska, in hopes of passing it on to their four children. But as the handoff nears, their small family farm―and their entire way of life―are under siege. Rising corporate ownership of land and livestock is forcing small farmers to get bigger and bigger, assuming more debt and more risk. At the same time, after nearly a decade of record-high corn and soybean prices, the bottom has dropped out of the markets, making it ever harder for small farmers to shoulder their loans. All the while, the Hammonds are confronted by encroaching pipelines, groundwater depletion, climate change, and shifting trade policies. Far from an isolated refuge beyond the reach of global events, the family farm is increasingly at the crossroads of emerging technologies and international detente. Following the Hammonds from harvest to harvest, Ted Genoways explores this rapidly changing landscape of small, traditional farming operations, mapping as it unfolds day to day. This Blessed Earth is both a concise exploration of the history of the American small farm and a vivid, nuanced portrait of one family’s fight to preserve their legacy and the life they love (from amazon.com). Is there still a place for the farm in today’s America? There are copies of this book available at the Library.
The One Book One Nebraska reading program is entering its fifteenth year. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss one book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. A committee of the Nebraska Center for the Book selected this book from a list of twenty-seven titles nominated by Nebraskans from across the state. The Nebraska Center for the Book board announced the choice for the 2019 One Book One Nebraska at the Celebration of Nebraska Books on December 1, 2018 in Lincoln.
