My husband actually read this book and liked it. He's not a reader, but a former farm kid. ( )

Farm, a year in the life of an American farmer by Richard Rhodes
This book starts out with a family that farms. What I found interesting was how the government subsidizes what is harvested. Started in around 1930's and talks of other enhancements to the program through the years.
Always knew the famers would pitch in and help others in time of need-as they do here in our town.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device). ( )

Richard Rhodes' book, Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer reveals the human side of farming. Rhodes lived for a year with the pseudonymous Bauer family (note that Bauer is German for farmer.) Tom Bauer is a 47-year-old Missouri farmer who raises hogs, cattle, grain and a family in western Missouri. The family's tribulations, the son with sight problems, the other son whose schoolwork is not up to par, are an integral part of the chronicle. Rhodes records the daily life with wit and detail.

(I have to applaud the Bauers for their patience, even while anonymous, in putting up with their urban visitor. Rhodes remains in the very deep background, never identified, except in one incident where a "city visitor", clearly Rhodes, almost blows off the head of Bauer's cousin while deer hunting.) Farm should be required reading for all urbanites; who, if nothing else, will learn about the sexual proclivities of corn, not to mention the difficulties encountered by a hog with a prolapsed uterus (having had to deal with this myself in a dairy cow I found myself in complete sympathy.)

Rhodes is an expert at explaining the arcane and enigmatic in very clear and precise prose. When Bauer needs to replace a screen in his combine the process becomes almost visual. His descriptions of the various farm programs, their implications, and the choices the Bauer family must make are the clearest I have read anywhere. I look forward to reading Rhode's [b:Making of the Atomic Bomb|16884|The Making of the Atomic Bomb|Richard Rhodes|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q21FYMMEL._SL75_.jpg|105195] which won numerous prizes for nonfiction. ( )

4763. Farm A Year in the Life of an American Farmer. by Richard Rhodes (read 12 Oct 2010) This is the story of a farmer in Missouri who lives about an hour east of Kansas City. Rhodes names him Tom Bauer and tells of his work as a very hard-working farmer in 1986 and 1987. Though I spent the first 18 years of my life on a farm, nothing about that time led me to recognize what Tom and his wife and family went thru. Farming has utterly changed, They work just as hard as in the past even though the work with the machinery they have now is so different. I read this because I so enjoyed the author's book on the atomic bomb (read 13 May 1990) and on the H-bomb (read 13 Oct 2006). That he can make this book, on a subject so different, readable and interesting (though not exciting), shows Rhodes is an able writer. ( )