{"product_id":"9781453566022","title":"Road Shoes","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt starts as a Martha Stewart-style fantasy.  When newlywed gardening magazine editor Laura Von Baden and her husband, Thomas, purchase 40 acres of land in northwestern Colorado, Laura envisions a picturesque rural retreat; and discovering she's pregnant only fuels her passion for creating the ideal country home--an escape from city stresses--for her family.  But the dream starts to unravel when Laura and Thomas find themselves plagued with absentee landowner responsibilities as a menacing neighbor trespasses, floods their land, and swindles them out of water and mineral rights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the neighborly dispute degenerates into a full-blown feud, Laura begins to see an explosive, frighteningly irrational side to city-bred Thomas, who starts spending spend more and more time up on their 40 acres, even as a pregnancy complication leaves Laura bedridden in Denver, her career and marriage in jeopardy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA rich cast of characters, including Laura's new-age best-friend Serrine, her career-challenged brother Lester, their eccentric mother, an unusual mountain man, and a Native American high school teacher\/deputy sheriff, all play warm and sometimes comic roles as the crises around Laura escalate toward an unexpected but wholly satisfying conclusion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Road Shoes, author Darla Worden addresses a large number of topics of current interest: the subdividing of the West into \"vanity ranches\" ; the baby-boomer propelled gardening boom; survivalists; Native American rights and artifacts; the more subtle, verbal forms of domestic violence; career woman pregnancy; \"Earthships\" (self-sufficient dwellings of the type actor\/environmentalist Dennis Weaver built in Colorado); male bonding and \"drumming\"; and various alternative health practices and new-age ideas.  Worden successfully integrates these diverse elements to create a fascinating, deep-textured--and often humorous--environment in which the story's emotional events unfold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorden has a gift for writing in general, a fresh and appealing voice, and a flair for ironic humor and social satire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Xlibris Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166631477488,"sku":"9781453566022","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781453566022_p0.jpg?v=1763852477","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781453566022","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}