A Porch Sofa Almanac

Description

For Peter Smith, the assignment from Minnesota Public Radio was simple: try to do something about Minnesota. So he began exploring the simple, everyday Minnesota things he came across and sharing them with listeners each Tuesday morning. The result is a hilarious, often wry, and always remarkable portrait of everyday life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that will resonate with Minnesotans from the state's biggest cities to its smallest towns. A Porch Sofa Almanac is the first collection of Smith's essays for MPR-stories that keep close to the ground and reflect on the common experiences of being a Minnesotan. Small-town football, stacks of Hudson Bay blankets in an antique store, ice fishing, and even those soggy gloves that emerge from melting snowbanks each spring. Following the calendar year, Smith's reflections are the perfect season-by-season companion for that chair by the fireplace, a bench by the campfire, a seat on the bus or train-or, of course, a porch sofa. A Porch Sofa Almanac ultimately casts Minnesota in a wholly unique light. As Smith writes, "The entire state comes across as some wonderful, slightly quirky treasure unearthed at a church basement rummage sale." Much loved-perhaps a little rough around the edges-and absolutely ready to be shared.

Peter Smith (d. 2016) lived in Hopkins, Minnesota. He wrote magazine articles, fiction, poetry, an occasional op-ed piece, and was a weekly contributor to Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer.

"In his wonderful new book Peter Smith has assembled a year's worth of short pieces that prove the true power of story lies not in the ability to reveal but to conjure. Visceral and poignant, these beautiful tales each catch and release a moment. Suddenly memories begin to flood like the Mississippi River in springtime. As he does on Minnesota Public Radio, whether it's a crisp autumn day under a Hudson's Bay blanket, a Little League game, or perhaps the best opening line ever in 'Meditation on a Lawnmower,' Peter reminds us that a year-a lifetime-is made of episodes, times with those we love, community, and family. In Peter's world we are verbs not nouns, always changing, living, experiencing, and yet like the seasons, bound to come around again. These little gems, or at times more like Pop Rocks, burst forth; we belong." -Kevin Kling "I've had the pleasure of knowing Peter for a long, long time. A great guy-and it turns out-a great writer. His radio commentaries on life in Minnesota are real jewels." -Gary Eichten "Smith's prose can have the flavor of Bill Bryson or of that old Minnesota standby Garrison Keillor. Other parts of Almanac are infused with an autumnal quality that's movingly elegiac. Smith's little volume is, overall, heartfelt and appealing." -Star Tribune