Michael Perry

"Somewhere between Garrison Keillor's idyllic-sweet Lake Wobegon and the narrow-mindedness of Sinclair Lewis's Main Street lies the reality of small-town life. This is where Michael Perry lives."--St. Paul Pioneer Press"Perry can take comfort in the power of his writing, his ability to pull readers from all corners onto his Wisconsin spread, and make them feel right at home."--Seattle TimesTuesdays with Morrie meets Bill Bryson in Visiting Tom, another witty, poignant, and stylish paean to living in New Auburn, Wisconsin, from Michael Perry. The author of Population: 485, Coop, and Truck: A Love Story, Perry takes us along on his uplifting visits with his octogenarian neighbor one valley over--and celebrates the wisdom, heart, and sass of a vanishing generation that embodies the indomitable spirit of small-town America.

"A touching and very funny account. . . . Thoroughly engaging."--New York TimesHilarious and heartfelt, Truck: A Love Story is the tale of a man struggling to grow his own garden, fix his old pickup, and resurrect a love life permanently impaired by Neil Diamond. In the process, he sets his hair on fire, is attacked by wild turkeys, and proposes marriage to a woman in New Orleans. The result is a surprisingly tender testament to love."Part Bill Bryson, part Anne Lamott, with a skim of Larry the Cable Guy and Walt Whitman creeping around the edges."--Lincoln Journal Star"Perry takes each moment, peeling it, seasoning it with rich language, and then serving it to us piping hot and fresh."--Chicago Tribune

Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember meets Louis Sachar's Holes in this imaginative and hilarious middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling author Michael Perry. When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities...or take their chances outside. Maggie's family chose to live in the world that was left behind. Deciding it's time to grow up and grow tough, Maggie rechristens herself "Ford Falcon"-a name inspired by the beat-up car she finds at a nearby junkyard. Ford's family goes to this junkyard to scavenge for things they can use or barter with the other people who live OutBubble. Her family has been able to survive this brave new world by working together. But when Ford comes home one day to discover her home ransacked and her family missing, she must find the strength to rescue her loved ones with the help of some unlikely friends. The Scavengers is a wholly original tween novel that combines an action-packed adventure, a heartfelt family story, and a triumphant journey of self-discovery in a world where one person's junk is another person's key to survival. Katherine Applegate, author of the Newbery Medal winner The One and Only Ivan, raves "Michael Perry pulls out all the stops in this colorful tale."

"Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination of life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter." -- Seattle TimesWelcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin (population: 485) where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Michael Perry loves this place. He grew up here, and now--after a decade away--he has returned.Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Perry figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, Population: 485 is a comic and sometimes heartbreaking true tale leavened with quieter meditations on an overlooked America.

Fractures of the Facial Skeleton, Second Edition gives a clear, concise and practical overview of the management of maxillofacial injuries. This new edition has been fully updated to include recent developments and improvements in facial trauma management, with expanded sections on emergency and early treatment, soft tissue injuries and major maxillofacial injuries. Written by an experienced author team, this text will appeal to trainees in all surgical specialities involved in facial trauma. Summary tables and colour illustrations throughout aid understanding, making this both an ideal introduction to the subject and a useful exam revision text. Key features include: New, updated edition of a well-respected textEasy-to-read, practical clinical handbookCovers aetiology and anatomy, emergency management of trauma, imaging, treatment of dentoalveolar, mandible and midfacial injuries, postoperative care, and complicationsSuitable for postgraduate students, trainees and practitioners in oral and maxillofacial surgery and practitioners of other medical disciplines involved in facial trauma

New York Times bestselling humorist Michael Perry makes his fiction debut with this hilarious and big-hearted tale, a comic yet sincere exploration of faith and the foibles of modern life that blends the barbed charm of Garrison Keillor, the irreverent humor of Christopher Moore, and the audacious insight of Chuck Klosterman.Life is suddenly full of drama for low-key Harley Jackson: A woman in a big red pickup has stolen his bachelor's heart, a Hummer-driving predatory developer is threatening to pave the last vestiges of his family farm, and inside his barn is a calf bearing the image of Jesus Christ. His best friend, Billy, a giant of a man who shares his trailer house with a herd of cats and tries to pass off country music lyrics as philosophy, urges him to avoid the woman, fight the developer, and get rich off the calf. But Harley takes the opposite tack, hoping to avoid what his devout, dearly departed mother would have called "a scene."Then the secret gets out--right through the barn door, and Harley's "miracle" goes viral. Within hours pilgrims, grifters, and the media have descended on his quiet patch of Swivel, Wisconsin, looking for a glimpse (and a percentage) of the calf. Does Harley hide the famous, possibly holy calf and risk a riot, or give the people what they want--and raise enough money to keep his land--and, just possibly, win the woman and her big red pickup truck?Harley goes all in, cutting a deal with a major Hollywood agent that transforms his little farm into an international spiritual theme park--think Lourdes, only with cheese curds and t-shirts. Soon, Harley has lots of money . . . and more trouble than he ever dreamed.

Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember meets Louis Sachar's Holes in this imaginative and humorous middle grade debut from Michael Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the adult novels Population: 485 and Truck: A Love Story.When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities...or take their chances outside.Maggie's family chose to live in the world that was left behind. Deciding it's time to grow up and grow tough, Maggie rechristens herself "Ford Falcon"--a name inspired by the beat-up car she finds at a nearby junkyard.Ford's family goes to this junkyard to scavenge for things they can use or barter with the other people who live OutBubble. Her family has been able to survive this brave new world by working together. But when Ford comes home one day to discover her home ransacked and her family missing, she must find the strength to rescue her loved ones with the help of some unlikely friends.The Scavengers is a wholly original tween novel that combines an action-packed adventure, a heartfelt family story, and a triumphant journey of self-discovery in a world where one person's junk is another person's key to survival. Katherine Applegate, author of the Newbery Medal winner The One and Only Ivan, raves: "Michael Perry pulls out all the stops in this colorful tale."

This manual is a condensed and didactic "how to" book, demonstrating surgical procedures in a step by step manner. It is fully comprehensive and highly illustrated (in colour, using mostly operative photographs), restricted solely to the surgical management of maxillofacial trauma, but includes most of the surfical approaches and methods of repair for all maxillofacial injuries. By including all surgical procedures (in trauma) this manual will make a useful and portable accompaniment to the Atlas of Operative Maxillofacial Trauma Surgery. It will be a good resource for all trainees, not only in maxillofacial surgery, but also in other related specialties.

"Bottom line is, I'm the kind of guy who's happy to go to the opera, but I should like to be allowed to wear steel-toed boots with my evening suit. I like to read Harper's with a chaser of Varmint Hunter Magazine. Maybe that's why I enjoy a good show under canvas. Here we sit, brain-deep in arts and culture, but we're also just people hanging out in a tent, some of us wearing boots, a few of us wearing Birkenstocks, but best of all we're breathing free fresh air filled with music." 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 a rare ability to touch both the funny bone and the heart.

From barnyard to backyard, lowly hens have flown the country coop and joined the city chicken movement. A new generation of small-acreage farmers raising heritage breeds has inspired urbanites and suburbanites across America to install some poultry out back for eggs, meat, fertiliser, and cockeyed companionship. Whether the breed is Jersey Giant, Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, or Silver Frizzle Polish—chickens are now chic. This is not a how-to book on raising chickens but rather a wry, fascinating, sometimes startling appreciation of them, conveyed in compelling accounts by Susan Troller and striking prints and paintings by S.V. Medaris. A bonus: chicken stories from three of Wisconsin’s most celebrated writers—Jane Hamilton (The Book of Ruth, A Map of the World), Michael Perry (Coop, Population 485), and Ben Logan (The Land Remembers)—round out the collection.

"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 a man struggling to put down roots." -- Jonathan Miles, author of Want NotIn over his head with two pigs, a dozen chickens, and a baby due any minute, the acclaimed author of Population: 485 gives us a humorous, heartfelt memoir of a new life in the country.Living in a ramshackle Wisconsin farmhouse--faced with thirty-seven acres of fallen fences and overgrown fields, and informed by his pregnant wife that she intends to deliver their baby at home--Michael Perry plumbs his unorthodox childhood for clues to how to proceed as a farmer, a husband, and a father.Whether he's remembering his younger days--when his city-bred parents took in sixty or so foster children while running a sheep and dairy farm--or describing what it's like to be bitten in the butt while wrestling a pig, Perry flourishes in his trademark humor. But he also writes from the quieter corners of his heart, chronicling experiences as joyful as the birth of his child and as devastating as the death of a dear friend.

Successful writer Peter Felix is still, years later, dealing with the fallout from the disastrous reception of his novel Dark Conquest when he gets a call from iconic British screen idol Guy Larymer. This fast-paced novel plots the course of the two men as they struggle with unreliable financial backers, over-emotional actors and their own volatile personal lives in their fight to bring their blockbuster of the Norman Conquest to the big screen and revive their stalling careers. The fights; the intrigues; the gory glory of one of history's greatest events, the Battle of Hastings, is paralleled in this hilarious account of the making of the movie. A must for film-buffs, this poignant story will touch anyone who is stirred by history and gripped by the bitter-sweet follies of life.

Running a successful freelance writing business requires an understanding of a host of critical details. This handbook looks at how to find markets, make contacts, get inside information, deliver work - and get paid promptly.'