Review Reading Mary Avidano's poems satisfies my sense of "being there."--Faye Tanner Cool, whose poems have appeared in NEBRASKA LIFE, PLAINS SONG REVIEW, NEBRASKA POET'S CALENDAR, NEBRASKA FENCE POST, and WALL STREET JOURNAL'S "Pepper and Salt""Babushka-its syllables were as satisfying as bread," Mary Avidano writes in this charming maternal collection. Each poem is a fabric square, representing a section of her life, then assembled and stitched together with faith and watchfulness. Babushka is a patchwork quilt that comforts and embraces the reader with her labors of love. Little else embodies grandmothers like the comfort of food, warmth, and a good book, such as this.--Bonnie Johnson-Bartee, creative writing instructor and Visiting Writers Series coordinator, Northeast Community College, Norfolk, Nebraska About the Author Mary Avidano, a retired minister, who is "still preaching," sometimes tells herself that she has been awarded a writer's residency. "I am a writer, and this is a residence," she says, referring to her small house on the outskirts of Elgin, Nebraska. Much of her writing is close to home, inspired by ordinary daily life. Mary believes that good poetry, like good preaching, finds us where we are.