One Hundred Years Of Dirt

Violence, treachery and cruelty run through the generational veins of Rick Morton's family. A horrific accident thrusts his mother and siblings into a world impossible for them to navigate, a life of poverty and drug addiction One Hundred Years of Dirt is an unflinching memoir in which the mother is a hero who is never rewarded. It is a meditation on the anger, fear of others and an obsession with real and imagined borders. Yet it is also a testimony to the strength of familial love and endurance.

No Marketing Blurb

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America. Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

From Rick Morton, the author of the bestselling, critically acclaimed memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt comes a dazzlingly brilliant book about love, trauma and recovery, My Year of Living Vulnerably. 'Wonderfully readable and wide-ranging exploration of the visible and invisible touchstones of our lives ... this is nourishing reading for our lonely, frightening and fraught times. Part self-help book, part treatise on the importance of love, kindness and forgiveness ... Morton is a national treasure and we need more like him.' Books+Publishing In early 2019, Rick Morton, author of acclaimed, bestselling memoir One Hundred Years of Dirt, was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder - which, as he says, is just a fancy way of saying that one of the people who should have loved him the most during childhood didn't. So, over the course of twelve months, he went on a journey to rediscover love. To get better. Not cured, not fixed. Just, better. This is a book about his journey to betterness, his year of living vulnerably. It's a book about love. What love is, how we see it, what forms it takes, how we practice it in our lives, what it means to us, and how we really, really can't live without it, even if, like Rick for many years, we think we can. As he says: 'People think they want cars - and they do, to get to jobs and appointments in cities and regions where public transport has failed them. But what gets them into those cars, out of the house, out of bed for God's sake, is love.' 'Read this investigation because it will remind you of how optimism and love work together. Read it because your heart has been broken somewhere along the line and you need to know how to mend. Read this book because Rick Morton is the bloke we all need in our life to show us it is going to be okay.' Readings 'Wryly comic, hard-thought and deeply-felt ... It is a heartbreaking book, but a beguiling and necessary one. And a work far wiser than the modesty of its author would allow.' The Saturday Paper 'One of the many charms of Morton's seductively clever book is the treasure trove of scientific, philosophic and literary observations, scattered throughout its pages, like beacons ... This is a significant book, to be read, dipped into, put aside and then revisited. Morton writes with grace, enlivened by vivid imagery and spontaneous wit.' The Canberra Times Praise for A Hundred Years of Dirt 'Morton is fresh ... He's brilliant.' Helen Elliott, The Monthly 'Dark and provocative ... It's one of the saddest books I have read in a while, and one of the most honest .... I think this book should be read by every Australian.' Stephen Romei, The Australian 'Morton is a crack storyteller and his words and stories are infused with genuine compassion.' Christos Tsiolkas

Our over-sanitized world threatens children’s health, but parents can change their environment into one where they’ll thrive. Babies and young kids are being raised in surroundings that are increasingly cleaner, more hyper hygienic, and more disinfected than ever before. As a result, the beneficial bacteria in their bodies is being altered, promoting conditions and diseases such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, allergies, and autism. As Let Them Eat Dirt shows, there is much that parents can do about this, including breastfeeding if possible, getting a dog, and avoiding antibiotics unless necessary—and yes, it is OK to let kids get a bit dirty.

This colorful history of pioneer life in Arizona sheds light on the experiences of the homesteader families who founded the Kansas Settlement. In 1909, fifteen families left their homes in Kansas to claim homesteads a thousand miles away in a remote region of the Arizona Territory. In this beautiful but unforgiving new home, they would realize their dream of owning their own land. They named their new community Kansas Settlement. Those who persevered met the challenges, raised their families, and prospered. Their determination was inspiring and left a legacy of courage. In One Hundred Sixty Acres of Dirt, author Marsha Arzberger tells the tales of these remarkable people—farmers, cowboys, pioneer women, and schoolmarms—drawn from personal journals and family scrapbooks. A descendent of one of the original Kansas Settlement families, Arzberger vividly recounts their journey West, as well as their dealings with rustlers, droughts, Apaches, and straying husbands. This carefully researched account captures the daily lives, joys, and tragedies of Arizona’s Kansas Settlement.

Black Inc.’s bestselling Growing Up series goes to the country 'You will find in these pages a colourful and gripping pastiche that updates the experience outside Australia's cities and large regional centres. You will find, despite the absolute variety in these essays, that there is still something ineffable about life in the country.' -Rick Morton Growing Up in Country Australia is a fresh, modern look at country Australia. There are stories of joy, adventure, nostalgia, connection to nature and freedom, but also grimmer tales - of drought, fires, mouse plagues and isolation. From the politics of the country school bus to the class divides between locals, from shooting foxes with Dad to giving up meat as an adult, from working on the family farm to selling up and moving to the city, the picture painted is diverse and unexpected. This is country Australia as you've never seen it before. With nearly forty stories by established and emerging authors from a wide range of backgrounds - including First Nations and new migrants - Growing Up in CountryAustralia is a unique and revealing snapshot of rural life. Contributors include Holden Sheppard, Laura Jean McKay,Annabel Crabb, Sami Shah, Lech Blaine, Tony Armstrong, Bridie Jabour, Jes Layton, Lily Chan, Jay Carmichael and many others.