Home Economics

Novelist and poet Berry offers an eclectic group of essays on subjects ranging from economics and education to agriculture and the feminist movement. In ""Six Agricultural Fallacies,'' for example, he argues in his typically individualistic way, that agriculture cannot be considered an industry because industry centers on machinery, which is not alive, while agriculture is a matter of living and breathing organisms. He also maintains that a factory may break down and machinery will fall into disrepair, but that soil, when properly used, will never ``wear out.'' Elsewhere he praises the art of working by hand. Noting that he is not an authority on many of his subjects, he gives his opinions nonetheless, which help make this collection quirky and amusing. (June)