The Pig Goes To Hog Heaven

Of The Pig Goes to Hog Heaven, the third and climactic entry in Joseph Caldwell’s charmingly boisterous Pig trilogy, one might well repeat the most famous words of the great non-Irish wordsmith and baseball catcher Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Kitty McCloud, the trilogy’s leading lady, would let these words stand, even were she a corrector of aphorisms rather than of great literary works by the likes of Bronte, Hardy and Eliot no less, writing new versions of which she makes her outsized best-selling living. For in Mr. Caldwell’s new comedy, almost nothing seems to be over—disappeared characters rematerialize, romances that seemed dead spring back to life, and even Taddy and Brid, Castle Kissane’s comely spirits, find new meaning in Yogi’s remark. And the pig, ah, the pig! The pig who started it all goes wee wee wee all the way—um—home.

In this third installment of the series, Pig trilogy, disappeared characters rematerialize, romances that seemed dead burst back to ardent life, and even Taddy and Brid, Castle Kissanes comely spirits, find new meaning as they resolve themselves into much-longed-for conclusions.

"In loving yet unsentimental prose, Sy Montgomery captures the richness that animals bring to the human experience. Sometimes it takes a too-smart-for-his-own-good pig to open our eyes to what most matters in life.” —John Grogan, author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish—and she soon found herself engaged with her small-town community in ways she had never dreamed possible. Unexpectedly, Christopher provided this peripatetic traveler with something she had sought all her life: an anchor (eventually weighing 750 pounds) to family and home. The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire, where his boundless zest for life and his large, loving heart made him absolute monarch over a (mostly) peaceable kingdom. At first, his domain included only Sy’s cosseted hens and her beautiful border collie, Tess. Then the neighbors began fetching Christopher home from his unauthorized jaunts, the little girls next door started giving him warm, soapy baths, and the villagers brought him delicious leftovers. His intelligence and fame increased along with his girth. He was featured in USA Today and on several National Public Radio environmental programs. On election day, some voters even wrote in Christopher’s name on their ballots. But as this enchanting book describes, Christopher Hogwood’s influence extended far beyond celebrity; for he was, as a friend said, a great big Buddha master. Sy reveals what she and others learned from this generous soul who just so happened to be a pig—lessons about self-acceptance, the meaning of family, the value of community, and the pleasures of the sweet green Earth. The Good Good Pig provides proof that with love, almost anything is possible.

A full-color compilation of comic strips starring the ever-insatiable orange feline highlights Garfield's sardonic take on the world he begrudgingly shares with the long-suffering Jon, the hapless Odie, and the impossibly cute Nermal.

The Hog Book is one of the most radical works in the annals of classic animal literature. This is the definitive work that touched off the whole recent revolution in our hog awareness leading to the ever-spreading acceptance of pigs as pets, as working partners, organ donors, movie stars, and so many other fresh manifestations of the barely tapped porcine potential. The Hog Book is also a lot of fun.

Holy Cows and Hog Heaven is written by an honest-to-goodness-dirt-under-the-fingernails, optimistic clean good farmer. His goal is to: Empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system Bring clean food farmers and their patrons into a teamwork relationship Marry the best of western technology with the soul of eastern ethics Educate food buyers about productions Create a food system that enhances nature's ecology for future generations Holy Cows and Hog Heaven has an overriding objective of encouraging every food buyer to embrace the notion that menus are a conscious decision, creating the next generation's world one bite at a time.

Originally published in hardcover in 1972, A Day No Pigs Would Die was one of the first young adult books, along with titles like The Outsiders and The Chocolate War. In it, author Robert Newton Peck weaves a story of a Vermont boyhood that is part fiction, part memoir. The result is a moving coming-of-age story that still resonates with teens today.

Picking up where her modern classic The Bean Trees left off, Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling Pigs in Heaven continues the tale of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American girl and her adoptive mother who have settled in Tucson, Arizona, as they both try to overcome their difficult pasts. Taking place three years after The Bean Trees, Taylor is now dating a musician named Jax and has officially adopted Turtle. But when a lawyer for the Cherokee Nation begins to investigate the adoption—their new life together begins to crumble. Depicting the clash between fierce family love and tribal law, poverty and means, abandonment and belonging, Pigs in Heaven is a morally wrenching, gently humorous work of fiction that speaks equally to the head and the heart. This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from Barbara Kingsolver, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.