2 of 7
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm
288 pages; Bantam

As a child, she dreamed of the rural life, but at 37, Laskas finds herself ensconced in the city: “I chose order. Of course I did. We always choose the familiar path first.” Then she falls in love with a little plot of bucolic Pennsylvania paradise and discovers that the thing about living on a farm is—it’s a farm. An entertaining tale of reluctant self-reliance.