High School kids in Salmon Falls are much the same as high school kids anywhere else: bored. In the far reaches of Ira County, Vermont, in the dead of winter, it seems there's nothing to do. But when eighteen-year-old Kyle Nelson and a handful of friends decide to challenge the status quo with an act of civil disobedience, they discover that there's more to do than they ever bargained for.
Garret Keizer's gripping novel about young men and women desperate for change bears witness to the dangerous force of ideas and the searing power of friendship. Here is a novel that looks truth squarely in the eye, and dares to keep on looking.

God of Beer

Teen & Young Adult

Keizer, Garret

Literature & Fiction

Harpercollins

HarperTeen

It is the primal cry, the first word in a want ad, the last word on the toolbar of a computer screen. A song by the Beatles, a prayer to the gods, the reason Uncle Sam is pointing at you. What we get by with a little of, what we could use a bit more of, what we were only trying to do when we were so grievously misunderstood. What we'll be perfectly fine without, thank you very much.
It makes us human. It can make us suffer. It can make us insufferable. It can make all the difference in the world. It can fall short.
In Help, Garret Keizer raises the questions we ask every day and in every relationship that matters to us. What does it mean to help? When does our help amount to hindrance? When are we getting less help -- or more -- than we actually want? When are we kidding ourselves in the name of helping someone else?
Drawing from history, literature, firsthand interviews, and personal anecdotes, Help invites us to ponder what is at stake whenever one human being tries to assist another. From the biblical Good Samaritan to present-day humanitarians, from heroic sacrifices in times of political oppression to nagging dilemmas in times of ordinary stress, Garret Keizer takes us on a journey that is at once far-ranging and never far from where we live. He reminds us that in our perpetual need for help, and in our frequent perplexities over how and when to give it, we are not alone.

Help: The Original Human Dilemma

Religion & Spirituality

HarperOne

The prophet Amos, a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, had a parallel, and more challenging, calling as a shepherd of human souls. So too does Garret Keizer, an Episcopalian minister to the community of Island Pond in Vermont's Northeast Kindgdom. This profoundly contemporary book displays not only keizer's knowledge of life's small practicalities (winding the church clock, shopping for groceries), but also his insights about faith and the mysterious ways of God. With an eye attuned to both the pleasures and foibles that make life on earth so rich, he presents a refreshing and often hilarious account of the hands-on work needed to maintain a parish and sustain its spirit. He is a man who believes that God's intentions, if seldom apparent, are inevitably compassionate and compelling.

A Dresser of Sycamore Trees: The Finding of a Ministry

In a book the San Francisco Chronicle called "unclassifiably wise" and a "masterpiece," noted Harper′s essayist Garret Keizer explores the paradox that we are human only by helping others- and all too human when we try to help.
 It is the primal cry, the first word in a want ad, the last word on the tool bar of a computer screen. A song by the Beatles, a prayer to the gods, the reason Uncle Sam is pointing at you. What we get by with a little of, what we could use a bit more of, what we were only trying to do when we were so grievously misunderstood. What we′ll be perfectly fine without, thank you very much.
 It makes us human. It can make us suffer. It can make us insufferable. It can make all the difference in the world. It can fall short. 
 "Help is like the swinging door of human experience: ′I can help!′ we exclaim and go toddling into the sunshine; ′I was no help at all,′ we mutter and go shuffling to our graves. I′m betting that the story can be happier than that . . . but I have a clearer idea now than I once did of what I′m betting against."
 In his new book, Help, Garret Keizer raises the questions we ask everyday and in every relationship that matters to us. What does it mean to help? When does our help amount to hindrance? When are we getting less help-or more-than we actually want? When are we kidding ourselves in the name of helping (or of refusing to "enable") someone else?
 Drawing from history, literature, firsthand interviews, and personal anecdotes, Help invites us to ponder what is at stake whenever one human being tries to assist another. From the biblical Good Samaritan to present day humanitarians, from heroic sacrifices in times of political oppression to nagging dilemmas in times of ordinary stress, Garret Keizer takes us on a journey that is at once far-ranging and never far from where we live. He reminds us that in our perpetual need for help, and in our frequent perplexities over how and when to give it, we are not alone.

Help

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

When a group of high-school seniors decide to make some waves in their sleepy Vermont town, they perform an act of civil disobedience that leads to changes they never expected. Reprint.

Weaving anecdotal narrative with trenchant reflections on his profession, Garret Keizer offers one teacher's answer to the hue and cry over the crisis in education. An English teacher in rural Vermont, he writes of the opposing realities he faces every day: the promise and energy of the young and the oppressive effect of their economic disadvantages; the beauty of the countryside and its people and the harsh, sometimes ugly edge of life there; the need for discipline and the importance of rebellion. In exploring the demands peculiar to his own community, Keizer movingly depicts the difficulties-some triumphantly overcome, some overwhelming-that form the heart of teaching anywhere.

No Place But Here: A Teacher's Vocation in a Rural Community

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Penguin??Books

American essayist and Harper's contributing editor Garret Keizer offers a brilliant, literate look at our strip-searched, over-shared, viral-videoed existence. 
Body scans at the airport, candid pics on Facebook, a Twitter account for your stray thoughts, and a surveillance camera on every street corner -- today we have an audience for all of the extraordinary and banal events of our lives. The threshold between privacy and exposure becomes more permeable by the minute. But what happens to our private selves when we cannot escape scrutiny, and to our public personas when they pass from our control?
In this wide-ranging, penetrating addition to the Big Ideas//Small Books series, and in his own unmistakable voice, Garret Keizer considers the moral dimensions of privacy in relation to issues of social justice, economic inequality, and the increasing commoditization of the global marketplace. Though acutely aware of the digital threat to privacy rights, Keizer refuses to see privacy in purely technological terms or as an essentially legalistic value. Instead, he locates privacy in the human capacity for resistance and in the sustainable society "with liberty and justice for all."

Privacy (BIG IDEAS//small books)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Picador

Provides trenchant commentary on, and anecdotes about, the trials and triumphs of teaching in a rural community, reflecting on the challenges of the teaching profession and the ability of a teacher to make a difference

No Place but Here

VIKING

A lay Episcopal minister in Vermont recounts his vocation and how faith fits into everyday life

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keizer, Garret. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Keizer, Garret

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Keizer, Garret. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

God of Beer

God of Beer

Help: The Original Human Dilemma

A Dresser of Sycamore Trees: The Finding of a Ministry

Help

God of Beer

No Place But Here: A Teacher's Vocation in a Rural Community

Privacy (BIG IDEAS//small books)

No Place but Here

A Dresser of Sycamore Trees: The Finding of a Ministry