When Ithaca Books went out of business, on their last day they gave away the remains of their stock to nonprofits. I took many books on behalf of BookCrossing; some are at the OBCZ at Letters Cafe, and some I'm wild releasing. Although I can't personally read and comment on all (or even most) of them, I hope that finding them will inspire people to make their own journal entries, and share books with other readers. -- Vasha

Book Description: From Kathleen Norris's thoughts on being a member of a literary culture outside of where "place can stick to us in western South Dakota", to Jon Hassler's remembrances of the houses of his childhood, Imagining Home begins at the real places of the Midwest and finishes with the locales that fill a writer's memories and desires.

Imagining Home centers on the premise that a sense of place is far more than a matter of geographical landscape, comprising instead a complex web of associations, human communities, history, spirituality, and memory. In untangling and reweaving these various strands, the authors consider that although the Upper Midwestern terrain is quite diverse, there is nonetheless a kind of cohesiveness — a lack of large urban centers, a low density of population — that makes the area almost invisible to itself. These essays offer a chance to look at the way landscape plays a key role in the formation of imagination as well as to come to terms with the paradox of love and disdain for one's home place.

• Michael Martone  –  The Flyover
  
• Robert Schuler  –  Putting Myself in My Place
  
• Mary Swander  –  The Roosting Tree
  
• Kathleen Norris  –  Places and Displacement: Rattlesnakes in Cyberspace
  
• Jack Driscoll  –  Homing In
  
• Martha Bergland  –  Stewards of Memory
  
• Jon Hassler  –  Remembering Houses
  
• David Haynes  –  Breckenridge Hills, 63114
  
• David Allan Evans  –  From the Pole Vaulter's Bluff
  
• Larry Watson  –  When Everybody Wore a Hat
  
• Patricia Hampl  –  In the Mountain Ranges and Rain Forests of St. Paul
  
• Paul Gruchow  –  Rosewood
  
• Linda Hasselstrom  –  How I Became a Broken-In Writer
  
• Carol Bly  –  The Maternity Wing, Madison, Minnesota
  
• Bill Holm  –  Is Minnesota in America Yet?
  
• Kent Meyers  –  Abandoned Farmsites, Yuppies, Drug Wars, and Geese

Copyright date: 1995.

RELEASE NOTES:

Your amazing box made it here yesterday. Thanks so very much! This will help fuel the next five or six trips to the OBCZ!

RELEASE NOTES:

left in the window of a yellow free paper box facing the station entrance.

I found the book as I was scrounging through a sidewalk kiosk for apartment guides and free weeklies. I use the photographs in these give away mags as inspiration for my drawings. This was an exciting added bonus to my week. My kid was astonished that I was considering taking the book and warned me against it saying,"you don't know where that thing has been, Mom!" Her admonition caused me to reflect on what a stale old housecat I've become. Despite her moans, I took the book and felt, although not exactly free-wheeling, perhaps a bit less predictable than I am normally. Thanks anonymous booklover. I'll let you know what I think of this book and I'll pass it on. E

CAUGHT IN EVANSTON ILLINOIS USA