The Dirt She Ate

Suffused with pain and power, Minnie Bruce Pratt's poetry is as evocative of the swamps and streets of the southern United States as it is of the emotional lives of those too often forced into the margins of society. Vivid, lush, and intensely honest, these poems capture the rough edges of the world and force us to pay attention.

Finalist for Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, given by The Publishing Triangle, 2022 This collection of love poems draws us into the sacred liminal space that surrounds death. With her beloved gravely ill, poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt turns to daily walks and writing to find a way to go on in a world where injustice brings so much loss and death. Each poem is a pocket lens "to swivel out and magnify" the beauty in "the little glints, insignificant" that catch her eye: "The first flowers, smaller than this s." She also chronicles the quiet rooms of "pain and the body's memory," bringing the reader carefully into moments that will be familiar to anyone who has suffered similar loss. Even as she asks, "What's the use of poetry? Not one word comes back to talk me out of pain," the book delivers a vision of love that is boldly political and laced with a tumultuous hope that promises: "Revolution is bigger than both of us, revolution is a science that infers the future presence of us." This lucid poetry is a testimony to the radical act of being present and offers this balm: that the generative power of love continues after death. Oh Death Someone sang, Oh death! Oh death! Won't you pass me over for another day? Someone said, I dreamed of you last night. I dreamed you were telling me your whole life story. Whole. Whorled. Welkin, winkle, wrinkle. The loop of time holds us all together. The pile of laundry on the bed. You folding socks one inside the other. We have had this day, and now this night. The clothes are put away, and from the bed we see the moon folding light into darkness, not death.

“A must-read . . . Takes you inside a child’s gut and shows you how to give kids the best immune start early in life.” —William Sears, MD, coauthor of The Baby Book Like the culture-changing Last Child in the Woods, here is the first parenting book to apply the latest cutting-edge scientific research about the human microbiome to the way we raise our children. In the two hundred years since we discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we’ve battled to keep them at bay. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to a child’s well-being. Our modern lifestyle, with its emphasis on hyper-cleanliness, is taking a toll on children’s lifelong health. In this engaging and important book, microbiologists Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta explain how the trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies influence childhood development; why an imbalance of those microbes can lead to obesity, diabetes, and asthma, among other chronic conditions; and what parents can do--from conception on--to positively affect their own behaviors and those of their children. They describe how natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and solid foods influence children’s microbiota. They also offer practical advice on matters such as whether to sterilize food implements for babies, the use of antibiotics, the safety of vaccines, and why having pets is a good idea. Forward-thinking and revelatory, Let Them Eat Dirt is an essential book in helping us to nurture stronger, more resilient, happy, and healthy kids.

Gus herds his people like sheep. Abby loves borrowing slippers. And once, Mr. Beefy ate a pie. It's a dog's life. Filled with squeaky toys, mischief, and plenty of naps. Every dog has a tail to wag and a tale to tell. Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest asked this collection of canines to speak up with their own words, barks, and yips.

"Designated as the prestigious 1989 Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets, and winner of the 1991 American Library Association Gay/Lesbian Book Award, Pratt's Crime Against Nature is a stunning achievement. This beautifully crafted sequence of poems takes its title from language in the statute under which the author could have been prosecuted as a lesbian if she had sought legal custody of her children. These are poems of despair, self-doubt, sexual bliss, sexual shame, exhilaration, rage, hope, victory. In Crime Against Nature, Pratt breathes new life into the words lesbian, poet, mother. Without contradiction or self-denial, she holds herself, her loves, and her children in a world of passion, of power being realized, of wholeness."--AUTHOR WEBSITE.

Gert loves dirt. She rolls in it, digs in it, even tastes it. But one day, while she's making mud pies, all that dirt changes her. Gert sprouts leaves, grows roots, and begins to photosynthesize in the sunlight! Gert is delighted, but the neighborhood can’t believe it. . . and soon the notoriety becomes too much for the grungy, green girl. Luckily, Mom and Dad know just what to do! Told in rhythm and rhyme and full of fun, tongue-twisting vocabulary, Dirty Gert is a celebration of individuality and unconditional love. . . and, of course, of the fun of playing in the dirt. Tedd Arnold’s cartoonish illustrations—complete with a cast of whispering worm commentators—express the joy of making mudpies, playing with worms, and most importantly, spending time with your loving family.

"In these lyrical vignettes, Pratt expands the boundaries of gender and its theory. She explores the inconsistencies, the infinities, the fluidity of sex and gender, and asks intriguing questions: How many ways are there to be girl, boy, man, woman? Is there a connection between feminine, masculine, lesbian, heterosexual, between desire and liberation? How many ways can the body's sex vary---by chromosomes, hormones, genitals? How many ways can our gender expressions multiply---between home and work, at the computer and when we kiss someone, in our dreams and when we walk down the street? What is our dream of who we want to be? Pratt's stories are part of new theory appearing at the intersections---of the feminism of U.S. women's liberation, the writings of women of color in the U.S. and internationally, the queer ideas of lesbian and gay liberation, and the emerging thought of transgender liberation. S/HE helps move these ideas into action by giving us theory that has flesh and breath, that exists in all of our eccentric, complicated, daily lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma. Out of the Dust joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content!"Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ."A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better -- playing the piano -- is impossible with her wounded hands.To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. While others flee from the dust bowl, Billie Jo is left to find peace in the bleak landscape of Oklahoma -- and in the surprising landscape of her own heart.

Affecting 80% of the population, leaky gut syndrome is the root cause of a litany of ailments, including chronic inflammation, allergies, autoimmune diseases, hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, diabetes, and even arthritis. In order to keep us in good health, our gut relies on maintaining a symbiotic relationship with trillions of microorganisms that live in our digestive tract. In Eat Dirt, Dr Axe explains that what we regard as modern improvements to our food supply – including refrigeration, sanitation, and modified grains – have damaged our intestinal health. In fact, the same organisms in soil that allow plants and animals to flourish are the ones we need for gut health. When our digestive system is out of whack, serious health problems can manifest and our intestinal walls can develop microscopic holes, allowing undigested food particles, bacteria, and toxins to seep into the bloodstream. This condition is known as leaky gut syndrome and manifests differently in every individual. In Eat Dirt, Dr Axe identifies the five main types of leaky gut syndrome and offers customizable 30-day plans for diagnosing and treating each 'gut type' with diet, lifestyle, and supplementation. He explains that it's essential to get a little 'dirty' in our daily lives in order to support our gut bacteria and prevent leaky gut syndrome, and offers simple ways to get these needed microbes, from incorporating local honey and bee pollen into your diet to forgoing hand sanitizers and even ingesting a little probiotic-rich soil. The premise is simple: identify your gut type, learn which foods to eat and to avoid, incorporate your daily dose of 'dirt', and make simple lifestyle changes.

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2017 One of NPR Fresh Air's "Books to Close Out a Chaotic 2017" NPR's Book Concierge Guide To 2017’s Great Reads “How lucky for us readers that Shapiro has been listening so perceptively for decades to the language of food.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh Air Six “mouthwatering” (Eater.com) short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking, probing how their attitudes toward food can offer surprising new insights into their lives, and our own. Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives—social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people’s attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was on the plate in front of them. Once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Food stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming-of-age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table. What She Ate is a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.