White Elephants: On Yard Sales, Relationships, & Finding Out What Was Missing

by Katie Haegele

White elephants are among the odd, old, and generally discarded items that end up at yard sales and flea markets, and Katie Haegele loves them all—or at least an awful lot of them. Rekindled friendship and renewed family bonds are the cornerstones of this quirky and touching memoir inspired by odds and ends, but Haegele demonstrates that knick knacks and old lamps aren’t the only things to be found at a yard sale. Her relationship with her mother is unexpectedly transformed through flea markets and garage sales, as is the deepening connection with her deceased father. Even a bit of romance finds its way into this charming story of personal empowerment and strength in overcoming hardship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2012

Reviews

[Zachary Valladon · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I didn’t get it... I mean — I got it — a collection of zines combined to form a book. It felt more like I was reading someone’s journal with some somewhat mundane stories about yard sales for the longest time. Stick it out until the end and suddenly it makes sense. I realized that each of the seemingly straightforward the stories were informing more about the author than I had thought. She really ties it all up nicely in the last few pages. It’s short read and worth it, I’d say.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love finding a bargain at Garage Sales or odd thrift shops. Something from the past that is only a quarter....strikes a feeling deep in your heart and makes your whole day shine. I enjoyed this small book. White Elephants was a joy. Hope to find more books in the future by Katie Haegele.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m going to start out by saying I really like this book. I don’t feel like it’s a book for everyone but I find that the author has very eclectic tastes and a quirky sense of humor and style like I do. In fact I would love to see her collection of items. I’ve been told my house is like a museum and can imagine her space almost the same.

One of the only things I didn’t like was the formatting and layout of the book. Couldn’t really tell when things began and the time periods of the journaling were missing a bit. It made me want to know more about when, time periods and years and months.

However I liked the content. I felt like with her relationships I could identify with her thoughts and feelings and the descriptive way she talked about the sales and the items she picked up I was easily able to picture the pieces and want them for myself.

I won this book through Goodreads. One of the best ones I’ve won in a while.

[Sandra Crane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I love thrift stores, garage sales and flea markets also. I loved finding out what treasures she found and what made them special to her. I also enjoyed the bond between her and her mother. A well written and enjoyable book. Thank you Goodreads Giveaway for a very enjoyable book.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m thankful this book was only 126 pages. It started out interesting and went downhill so by page 126...even I was depressed!

[Alex Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decently fun read. Nothing too earth-shattering but it doesn’t have to be

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a cute little memoir, very sweet and lightly edited. By that I mean, it is not as polished as some of your more commercially produced works. It is based, if I understand correctly, on a blog and/or series of zines that the author worked on for some time. Not sure if it is extant or if this was a collection of something that has since ceased. I forget why I put this on my list of things to read, I think I read a review somewhere and it piqued an interest. The flap copy says picking through church rummage sales and yard sales in her community became a way to connect with her mother and retain some closeness with her late father. These sentiments definitely come through, but again, the narrative has such a light touch, the real intimacy almost seems missing. Perhaps because it did begin as a blog or something similar, it feels like the author is eager to reveal personal details... but only to a point, and then she pulls back. There is a scene near the end where she describes an emotional outpouring she experiences, and the feeling that her boyfriend, who she is on the way to see, may not be able to deal with her torrent of tears, but then he is completely fine, giving her lots of support and being just the right tonic to soothe her frayed psyche. But, she doesn't explain what brought on the outpouring in the first place. There is a suggestion that it is something to do with the anniversary of her father's death, but it isn't explicit. That's the kind of thing a good editor would probably question, and as I mentioned, that level of editing seems absent from this volume.

Nevertheless, it is a charming and entertaining little book. I did find myself yearning for some photos of her house, filled with all the little knickknacks and doodads she picks up at the rummage sales and describes so lovingly, and maybe a photo of her, decked out in her ramshackle outfits. I can't imagine having such a hunger for those kinds of little items. But I appreciate that she has it, and I respect that she has found a way to make a living, or at least keep herself and a small audience entertained, by following a passion.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me want to be friends with Katie Haegele.

She seems cool. And she writes pretty much like this, her prose all straightforward and unladen, as if her writing and her conversation are one and the same. She tells you what she finds on her thrift shopping trips and what that day's rummage sale was like and what her mood was that morning, and her language is as dilatory as the summers she rummages her way through.

I'll admit that this isn't a book for everyone. Haegele leaves much to the assumption that her reader is like her, that our interests and reference points are the same. She doesn't try to make the reader understand the rummaging impulse--she just assumes that you're here because you too might be interested in old stationary sets and 1980s secretarial fashions.

(Fortunately, I am.)

This is both charming--all those "I bet you already get this, so I'll just leave it to your imagination" moments--and occasionally disappointing. Yeah, old stuff is compelling and sad and sweet, and rummage sales have their own pained nostalgia about them, but I read this book because I wanted someone to help me explain why they feel this way. She could have gone deeper, even though I enjoyed the surface on which she skated, the junk and the gossipy old ladies, the stamp sets and purses and avocado green knickknacks.

Because of the writing's ingenuousness, its pointed lack of writerly manipulation in favor of the (emotionally guarded) real, it was an interesting memoir-reading experience, one that was refreshing and funny, especially when read alongside Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" (a book that depends much on Strayed's structural skill and carefully curated emotional tides to make her story compelling).

In conclusion, Katie, if you read this, let's be pen pals. I just picked up a postcard set I think you might enjoy.

[Isobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome for someone who loves second hand like I do, I loved hearing about each sale and its finds, as well as it being short and sweet which is what I needed to get back into reading for summer. Would like to have seen the original zines which the book came from, as I imagine it worked a little better in that format, and I certainly could have liked a little more elaboration on the personal stuff to make a better traditional narrative, like if it had had more of a beginning-middle-end, but it is a little memoir, not a fiction, and I guess you can't novel-ise everything. I really wanna go out to car boot sales now, and get back to making my own zine.

[Michael Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, short memoir focused on the author's love of yard sales, church rummage sales and the like, with little personal bits sprinkled throughout to give it some depth. It touches on relationships, family history and so on, giving equal weight to her growing understanding of her relationship with her dead father, to finding some really great old stationery.

This book collects and heavily revises her zine about her love of yard sales, and as such reads like a conversational letter from a friend. Some might find the switch in material without a switch in tone to be jarring, but it didn't bother me at all.

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet (in the best possible way) and quirky and unique. I have to say first of all that I love almost everything about Microcosm Publishing; I have a bunch of their books and zines and there is something both charming and smart about each one of them--a great (and unusual) blend of qualities. It's hard to categorize this book--a memoir? Sort of. Since I love most memoirs and also love secondhand everything, this was a wonderful read. Katie Haegele's voice is intimate and real; she writes as if she were sitting right across a table in a coffee shop, talking to you.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haegele's writing is completely, totally delightful. This book reads, sounds and feels like an old friend.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine for what it was, though I enjoyed her other memoir more. Haegele's voice is easily readable and personal ; she makes you feel like she's sitting across the table from you telling these stories.

[David Macpherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review

Fun collection of zine writings about yard sales and rummage sales. It has a nice memoir feel of yard saling with her mother