Ted Kooser explains with exquisite detail and humor the area he calls home in the rolling hillsides of southeastern Nebraska, a location referred to as the Bohemian Alps. Nothing is too large or too little for his interest, including memories of his grandmother’s cooking. Kooser also reminds us which the closing of local schools, thoughtless state weed control, and irresponsible housing development destroy more than just the view.

What makes lifestyle meaningful for Kooser are the ways in which his neighbors care for one another and exactly how an afternoon jogging with a vintage dog, cooking a pie, or decorating the home for Christmas may summon memories of his Iowa child years.

This writer sees the extraordinary within the ordinary, the deep under the shallow, and the abiding wisdom in the pithy Bohemian proverbs that are woven into his essays.