{"title":"Dale Kueter","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"ma-bremer-s-boys-book-dale-kueter-9781647193324","title":"Ma Bremer's Boys","description":"\u003cp\u003eMolly Bremer, like any other woman on her wedding day, does not expect to become a single mother. However, that is her fate during the trying times of World War II.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA high school romance, rooted mostly in hormones, fades. Three children and a tight budget make for difficult times. An insecure husband, with growing dependency on alcohol, turns to abuse and then abandons the family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMolly Bremer is alone in Little Rock.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo aggravate her stark new condition in life, her spouse takes their oldest son with him on his way out of town. Her life and her family are disintegrating in staggering quickness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMolly's struggles during that awful year of 1942 are overwhelming. The weeks and months are like a prison sentence for her, locked on the absence of Peter, her son, and frustrated that she is giving insufficient attention to Hattie and Bobby.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut like most single moms, she manages. She has little choice. But it isn't easy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen Christmas arrives early. Peter returns home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut life's trials seem to be a relentless saga for Molly Bremer. Her sons follow wayward paths as they grow into manhood. Peter is seduced by avarice and falls in love with money and success, while Bobby, the youngest, bows to his churlish nature and ends up with a life in prison.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter's trip with vanity wends its way from Arkansas, St. Louis and finally to Cedar Rapids where he is crowned the king, president of a new cattle slaughtering company that is ready to duke it out with America's Big Four meat packers. Ambition collides with reality. His desire for a fast buck runs into the deliberate constrict of mob business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeanwhile, Bobby's inability to suppress an impulsive and dour personality heaps unending distress on his mother. He eventually becomes a permanent resident of the Kansas State Penitentiary, the final sentence for murder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIronically, along their errant paths and aberrant lifestyles, both men marry strong women. But like Molly, these women were unable to bring permanent change to the dark side of their husbands -- Peter and Bobby Bremer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe two brothers and their mother are the focal point of the novel by Cedar Rapids author Dale Kueter. It is his second fiction book. The first, Motel Sepia, is a story based on a real motel of the same name operated by a Black Cedar Rapids couple in the 1950s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMa Bremer's Boys illustrates how trying life can be for a single mother. It is difficult to walk in another person's shoes, whether it is to experience the ecstasy of good fortune or the hardships of defeat. And while Molly Bremer's role as a single mother may be unusual, it casts insight on the challenges of being a single parent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYet Molly, like all mothers, never surrenders her love and dedication for her children.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe is a constant fixture in the tumultuous lives of her sons, standing by them from the starkness of prison to the darkness of the unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat else can a mother do?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49554290802961,"sku":"GOR013207618","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50447801811217,"sku":"CIN164719332XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51043616522513,"sku":"NIN9781647193324","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/164719332X.jpg?v=1750863795"},{"product_id":"smell-of-the-soil-book-dale-kueter-9781468544541","title":"The Smell of the Soil","description":"Stories bring people to life, even the dead. They paint an indelible history. It's commendable to have an orderly and complete genealogy. It is the official family record, but it's only the bare bones. Stories put flesh on these people. The Smell of the Soil is both a montage of my stories (including a revealing account of why I danced naked in front of my mother) and an earnest plea that you write your family stories. My sincere hope is that my stories will jog memories of your stories. Stories are for joining the past to the future, says author Tim O'Brien. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story. That is a defining tribute to stories. It is compelling testimony why you should write yours. What could be more precious to preserve than the stories that comprise your family's life? What greater gift could you give to your family than a book of family stories? That's what I request, implore: that you write stories of zany Uncle Louie, sedate Aunt Daphne, cool cousin Corrine, those precocious grandchildren and all the characters in your life. You be the author. You can do it. I believe this book will help. -- Dale Kueter","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50093935886609,"sku":"CIN1468544543G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51028055359761,"sku":"NIN9781468544541","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52146145558801,"sku":"NLS9781468544541","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1468544543.jpg?v=1751084835"},{"product_id":"motel-sepia-book-dale-kueter-9781524620363","title":"Motel Sepia","description":"\u003cp\u003efrom Motel Sepia \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e . . . Roy picked up a pebble and casually tossed it into a part of the stream where water had pooled. He watched the widening ripple. Every action we take, he pondered, produces some form of reaction. Parts of the ripple bumped into the surrounding bank and were repelled, while other parts filtered through reeds, engulfing them gently. Another section of the growing undulation was quickly swallowed by the force of moving water. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e . . . Just a few hours ago this man was enjoying life. How can this be? Byrne fought off the impulse to consider that killing was part of man's nature, an inherited trait that was not discarded after the Stone Age. Do we exit our mother's womb with an intrinsic proclivity to harm others? Is the belief of most religions that man is basically good - is that wrong? \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e . . . The two people, entangled in the rigors of bad decisions, traveled through one of the most bountiful regions on Earth, but were bound in the poverty of mutual anxiety. The marrow of their existence was soured by servitude. It was a tragedy in which a crime was consummated, and the usual joyous condition of a honeymoon reduced to contrivance. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e*Other books by Dale Kueter \u003cbr\u003e Vietnam Sons \u003cbr\u003e The Smell of the Soil \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e *Available at: Author House, Amazon and Barnes \u0026amp; Noble \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50202909966609,"sku":"CIN152462036XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51033744310545,"sku":"NIN9781524620363","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52537723519249,"sku":"NLS9781524620363","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/152462036X.jpg?v=1750990212"},{"product_id":"vietnam-sons-book-dale-kueter-9781425969318","title":"Vietnam Sons","description":"The man raises redbone bloodhounds. 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