Michael Perry

Written in a spirit of exploration rather than declaration, Montaigne in Barn Boots is a down-to-earth (how do you pronounce that last name?) look into the ideas of a philosopher "ensconced in a castle tower overlooking his vineyard," channeled by a Midwestern American writing "in a room above the garage overlooking a disused pig pen." Whether grabbing an electrified fence, fighting fires, failing to fix a truck, or feeding chickens, Perry draws on...

Tom is 82-year-old Tom Hartwig, an old-timer best known locally for building and firing homemade cannons. Toiling in a shop that Perry describes as an "antique store stocked by Rube Goldberg, curated by Hunter Thompson, and rearranged by a small earthquake," Tom works from scratch to make everything from shovel handles to parts for quarter-million-dollar farm equipment. He has an endless reservoir of stories dating back to the days of his prize Model...

"You can read Michael Perry's Coop as an outrageously funny comedy about a semi-hapless neophyte navigating the pitfalls (and pratfalls) of the farming life. Please do, in fact. But scratch a little deeper, past Perry's lusciously entertaining and epigrammatic prose, his ultra-charming combo of Midwestern earnestness and serrated wit, and you'll find a reflective, sincere, and surprisingly touching-at times, even heart-cracking-story about

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"New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry returns with a new collection of bite-sized essays from his Sunday Wisconsin State Journal column, "Roughneck Grace." Perry's perspectives on everything from cleaning the chicken coop to sharing a New York City elevator with supermodels will have you snorting with laughter on one page, blinking back tears on the next, and--no matter your zip code--nodding in recognition throughout"--

"From Scandihoovian Spanglish to snickering chickens, New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry navigates a wide range of topics in this collection of brief essays drawn from his weekly appearances on the nationally syndicated Tent Show Radio program. Fatherhood, dumpster therapy, dangerous wedding rings, Christmas trees, used cars, why you should have bacon in your stock portfolio, loggers in clogs-whatever the subject, Perry has...

Whether he's fighting fires, passing a kidney stone, hammering down I-80 in an 18-wheeler, or meditating on the relationship between cowboys and God, Michael Perry draws on his rural roots and footloose past to write from a perspective that merges the local with the global.

Ranging across subjects as diverse as lot lizards, Klan wizards, and small-town funerals, Perry's writing in this wise and witty collection of essays balances earthiness

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The author chronicles a year during which he struggled to grow his own food, live peaceably with volatile neighbors, and fix his pickup truck, at a time when he also fell in love and befriended a paraplegic and quadriplegic biker team.

In this fresh collection of "Roughneck Grace" columns, New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry reinforces his reputation as a writer navigating between the transcendent, the quotidian, and the goofy. Whether putting himself on roller skates for his daughter's birthday, fixing the chicken fence, or celebrating St. Jude ("the patron saint of fools"), Perry writes with a big heart from a small place.