{"product_id":"babushkas-beads-elisavietta-ritchie-9780990925798","title":"Babushka's Beads: New and Selected Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eElisavietta Ritchie is a woman who has really lived and this verbal rumination on her heritage, the\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003epeople she has loved, the family recipes for borscht or cherry vodka or bread\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eare filled with such exquisite, well-realized detail, a reader is drawn along with\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ethe force of a rip tide on a summer afternoon at the beach. It's all simply so interesting.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnd her conversations with the past and recently dead intrigue us: \"It\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003etolls for thee,\" they remind us, and yes, we all do eventually get out alive according\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eto this wise woman when it comes our time to ponder the great mystery of death.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRussia's nostalgia for its glorious past - its literature, art, dance, theatre could\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003enot be extinguished in a century of Communist revisionism. This nostalgia seems\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eworked into the very DNA of the Russian soul right down to the present day as\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ethe country seeks to take the world stage once again. At the root of this nostalgia\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eis the ghost of a genteel aristocracy which ended in the forest assassination\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eof the Czar's family and the Russian diaspora after the world wars that\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003efollowed. As one of the world's great cultures, it continues to shape history and\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eart and in this beautiful example, poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhat we have to learn from the poems of Lisa Ritchie is everything worth preserving\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eand protecting in life: Love, lovers, children, cousins, parents, home, shared\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003emeals, the memory of those who shaped us, the courage that won freedom, pride in\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eself and country, an abiding attachment to the beloved dead reaching to us from the\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eother side of life. Here are poems that extol life, sing of its joy, despite the cruelty and\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eentropy that threaten at every turn. Lisa Ritchie is a person you would want to know, \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhose poetry you have here, life seen through her bright, intelligent, compassionate\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eeyes, what poetry does at its best, give heart. An old proverb has it that \"it is in the\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eshelter of each other that we live.\" These poems give respite in a world too often in\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eneed of such shelter.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Elisavietta Ritchie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 099092579X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780990925798\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Poets Choice Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/28\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 126\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.52lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.34d","brand":"Elisavietta Ritchie","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48174896873727,"sku":"9780990925798","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_fcdc4166-eb21-4e1b-9a4f-5595822ff09c.jpg?v=1771331237","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/babushkas-beads-elisavietta-ritchie-9780990925798","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}