Books by Kay Young

Ordinary Pleasures offers a new theory of narrative in its uncovering of how conversations and comic exchanges between lovers in stories create an intimacy and happiness of the everyday. Drawing on a diverse body of theory (from sociolinguistics to philosophy to literary criticism) and reading an unexpectedly eclectic group of texts (works by Shakespeare and Tolstoy appear beside Casablanca and I Love Lucy), Kay Young explores how narrative couples play together, struggle together, and return to one another to experience what it means to be in a relationship over time.

Starting with the first plants ready for eating in the early spring (watercress and nettles) and following the sequence of harvest through the late fall (persim-mons and Jerusalem artichokes), this work offers directions for identifying, gathering, and preparing some four dozen edible wild plants of the Great Plains.