Showing posts with label Worcester's Winter Hill Farm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worcester's Winter Hill Farm. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2025

 

Author Richard F. Wright Updated His Blogger Profile

Richard F. Wright is a New England writer and independent publisher who turned to full-time authorship after a long career in the corporate world. Working from a distinctly Massachusetts vantage point, Wright writes in several registers — memoir, local travel guide, cultural polemic, and investigative political non-fiction — yet his voice is consistently plainspoken, curious about people and institutions, and willing to move from affection to blunt critique when the subject calls for it. His books are widely available online, including through Amazon, and have found a small but steady readership across genres.

The World’s Seven Biggest Liars — cultural polemic
In this short, provocative book Wright takes on the grand myths that he believes shape—and too often mislead—modern life, with a particular focus on organized religion and the social power of enduring falsehoods. The book reads like a restless essay: part personal argument, part cultural diagnosis. Wright’s tone here is argumentative and satirical; he writes as someone trying to pry open comfortable assumptions rather than soothe them. The title and framing make the book appealing to readers who enjoy contrarian, idea-driven criticism.

Worcester’s Winter Hill Farm — memoir and place
Wright’s Worcester memoir is a warm, detail-rich account of growing up with an “urban farm” on Winter Hill that shaped his early life and imagination. The book mixes small domestic scenes (animals, neighbors, school) with a wider curiosity about technology and science that later became part of his intellectual life. It’s the most personal of his titles, written in the reflective, anecdotal mode readers expect from place-based memoirs of New England childhood. Anyone interested in Worcester history or the texture of mid-century New England family life will find it especially rewarding.

A Vacationer’s Guide to Rural New England Bookstores — a reader’s road map
This compact guide collects Wright’s recommendations for independent and rural bookstores across New England. It’s practical, conversational, and aimed at travelers who want to combine a scenic road trip with bookshop browsing. With an author who clearly loves both place and print, the guide functions as a map for bibliophiles who prefer local shops to chains, and it showcases Wright’s knack for curating small, characterful destinations. The book first appeared in digital/paper formats and has been used by readers planning literary excursions through the region.

The John Fresolo Saga — investigative political non-fiction
Wright’s most recent and highest-profile book is a deep dive into Massachusetts politics. Written as an investigative account, The John Fresolo Saga examines the resignation of a well-known Massachusetts state legislator and the tangled mixture of personal scandal, local power, and political consequence around it. This volume demonstrates Wright’s shift into reportage and political analysis; it’s longer, more documentary in tone, and aimed at readers interested in statehouse intrigue and the mechanics of local American politics. Reviews and listings show it marketed as a serious look at political conspiracy and institutional behavior inside the Massachusetts State House.

Common threads and strengths
Across these four books, two strengths stand out. First, Wright is an observant localist: whether describing a Worcester childhood, a chain of rural bookstores, or the corridors of the Massachusetts State House, he writes with an eye for the small detail that reveals larger character and consequence. Second, he’s versatile — able to switch from memorial warmth to polemical heat to investigative cool without losing an accessible, conversational tone. Readers who prefer straightforward, idea-driven prose and who have an appetite for New England place, local politics, and contrarian cultural essays will find his work congenial.

Where to find the books
All four titles — The World’s Seven Biggest Liars; Worcester’s Winter Hill Farm; A Vacationer’s Guide to Rural New England Bookstores; and The John Fresolo Saga — are listed on Amazon and on several bookseller sites (Goodreads, Books-A-Million, Walmart), making them easy to order in print or digital formats.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Use Amazon Author Page to Find My Books


Author Page of Richard F Wright
With the recent publication of my Memoir, Worcester's Winter Hill Farm, I am pleased to now have an Author's Page on Amazon.com featuring three of my books. When I refer someone to Amazon, I use a link to this page so readers can find the one book we may have been discussing, but they can also find my other books. Up to now, I had to send multiple links if I wanted to show them other titles.

For the record, I support independent bookstores, especially used bookstores as much as possible. I'm not against online book buying. But we must have balance.

I have a lot of updates to bring to this blog about new bookstores I visited recently and the books I'm writing now, but the writing has been keeping me very busy. So, I will work on my updates as soon as possible. In the meantime, please feel free to visit my Author's Page and let me know what you think.

Use this link to find my books:

My Author's Page


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    READ my Blog about Life in Jefferson - Or, how I'm spending my retirement. 

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Paperback and eBook Now on Amazon.com

Newest Book by Richard F Wright

Jefferson, MA - As of today, my newest book, Worcester's Winter Hill Farm, is now available as an eBook and a Paperback on Amazon.com. Links on the right side of this blog take you to where you can place an order.

The book is a recollection of my growing up on an urban farm in Worcester, Mass., between the ages of eight and 13 years old. Although we were in the city, we were actually living a very rural existence including boarding horses, raising sheep and chickens, and growing food and fields of hay to feed the livestock.


My brother Steve and I spent our formative years on the farm and its effects on us were direct in some cases and indirect in others. My view today is that in the years that followed the "farm" years, we did not have as idyllic a childhood as we might have wished. But the farm years were exciting, wondrous and worth remembering.

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    READ my Blog about Life in Jefferson - Or, how I'm spending my retirement. 
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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Memoir About Winter Hill Farm is Published

Rick and Steve Wright
Published May 14, 2019

The long-awaited memoir is published and available now on Amazon.com.


Worcester's Winter Hill Farm is a visit to my life as a young urban farmer. We had crops, farm animals, pleasure horses, and acres of mystery just past the stone wall. My brother and sisters experienced the farm life too, but I'm sure they got something different out of it than I did. 

Throughout my life, when I reflected on why things happened or why I felt the way I do about something, I have found that it often reflects on what life was like for me as a boy on the farm. It was a strange farm, as it was only minutes from the downtown of the second largest city in New England: Worcester, Mass. We had acres of land and forests that we never found the far edge of in all the years we lived there.

Exploration and Discovery
As small boys, my brother and I explored but never found the full limit of the area. And then, within minutes we would be downtown like my friends, walking from shop to shop with our Mother, buying back-to-school clothes in sprawling department stores such as Denholm and McKay or Jordan Marsh and Company. Our visits to New Hampshire and Cape Cod, plus treks to family in Brooklyn, made the unique features of our home on the farm all the more intriguing for us.

If you have sharp eyes, you can make out a portion of the sign over Steve's shoulder. (Click on the photo to enlarge it). The painted sign hung over the barn door. You can clearly see "Hill," which is part of the whole sign: Winter Hill Farm. On the left edge of the photo, over my right shoulder is the back porch to the farmhouse. This was the main entrance as the staircase to the second floor went directly up from the back hall.

Not My First Book
After you enjoy reading Worcester's Winter Hill Farm you can read another one of my books. One of the books is about all of the rural independent bookstores in New England you can visit that are near typical vacation locations - and are among my favorites. It's called A Vacationer's Guide to Rural New England Bookstores. I have been to all of them and made purchases at all of them. The other book is my assessment about why humankind is as messed up as it appears. I boil it down to the misrepresentation by religious prophets over the centuries about how and why the world exists and operates. Going to a priest, minister, or guru is surely the worst path to enlightenment. How did this situation emerge; you may be shocked to learn it's your fault for listening to The World's Seven Biggest Liars.

Not My Only Blog
For some lighter reading, visit my other blog (see link below). It's always a fun read.

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    READ my Blog about Life in Jefferson - Or, how I'm spending my retirement. 
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