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Ms. Mary Agria M.A.
With Bachelor and Master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in literature, author Mary Agria has spent her career writing in and about rural life and communities. As a college chaplain, director of economic development agencies in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and researcher for the Center for Theology and Land in Iowa, Ms. Agria has come to appreciate in rural life a powerful microcosm of the human search for community. She coauthored RURAL CONGREGATIONAL HANDBOOK: A GUIDE FOR GOOD SHEPHERDS [Abingdon] and PLANTING THE SEEDS OF COMMUNITY [CTL], as well as writing numerous books on community building and work force issues. Her syndicated column, WINNING THE RAT RACE, ran for 20 years in newspapers around the country and a book by that title [Wm. C. Brown Publishers] was used as a college textbook.
Ms. Agria is married to a retired university president, the mother of 4 daughters and an avid gardener. She is currently working on VOX HUMANA, a novel about a rural church organist trying to "find her voice" in her retirement years, and polishing A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS, a novel of intrigue and suspense set in a struggling liberal arts college in Pennsylvania.
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR TIME IN A GARDEN HAVE BEEN POSTED ON MY BLOG.
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www.maryagria.com |
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PO Box 133 |
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Southold,
New York
11971
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In Transit
A fascinating glimpse of RV culture, IN TRANSIT tells of a woman’s struggle to redefine what it means to be at “home” with herself in the face of the toughest challenges life has to offer. The 3 years that Lib and her husband spend on the road in a motor home after selling their home are the happiest they have ever known. Widowed at 64 and “homeless” except for her RV, Lib moves in with her adult children——overwhelmed by an uncertain future. When she finds the strength to return to the campground on Michigan’s UP where her world as she knew it came so tragically to an end, it is not just to reclaim her vehicle but her hopes and dreams for independence. She discovers that even in that tiny community along the shores of Lake Michigan, she is not the only one facing transitions and in need of healing. As her personal journey becomes tied to the stories of those around her, Lib learns that she is capable of far more than just survival in the brave new world she is choosing for herself.
Print: $18.00
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Vox Humana: The Human Voice
VOX HUMANA celebrates the transforming power of love, friendship, family and shared human work. As a young woman Charlise Howard left rural western Pennsylvania with music in her soul only to spend her career in Philadelphia as a job counselor helping others "find their voice." Force-retired at 59, Char feels spiritually and emotionally adrift as she moves back to her hometown of Hope. An encounter with a former classmate, Rob Sims now a priest assigned to the struggling Episcopal parish of her childhood, further shakes her assumptions about the choices that have led her to this point. At the keyboard of the historic parish pipe organ and as she helps spearhead a parish-based folk-weaving project to revitalize her dying community, Char learns to risk the love and fulfillment that have so long eluded her. VOX HUMANA is a powerful song of hope for those facing watershed moments in their lives and for generations struggling to reconnect with one another.
Print: $18.00
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Time in a Garden
Laced with gardening tips, wit and wisdom, TIME IN A GARDEN is an inspiring story of emotional and spiritual growth...for gardeners of all ages, for mothers and daughters, and anyone struggling to bloom where they are planted.
Retired and in their sixties, Eve Brenneman and Adam Groft land in an unlikely Eden, helping a crew of senior citizens beautify their dying rural community by creating a perennial garden along an interstate offramp. Eve is widowed, estranged from her daughters. Adam has spent a lifetime avoiding relationships and expectations that he run the family nursery business. When Eve starts writing a garden column in the local county weekly, these unforgettable characters embark on a heartwarming, poignant journey to discover love and meaning and cope with growth and loss in the changing season of their lives.
In Eve’s words: "We all do battle with stony ground and unseasonable dry spells over the years. Though we may not call ourselves gardeners, it is the human experience."
Print: $18.00
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