What do you think?
Rate this book
How to Catch a Frog: And Other Stories of Family, Love, Dysfunction, Survival, and DIY
Much of Heather Ross’s creative work has been inspired by her being born into an eccentric family of artists and idealists in a rural corner of Vermont during the 1970s. According to Heather, that environment was defined by stunning natural beauty, creative and innovative living, and daily lessons in self-reliance. It also included equal parts of general dysfunction, a self-imposed but nearly inescapable poverty, and little exposure to basic life skills.
When, as a twenty-something, Heather complained to her mother about a long list of things she had missed out on and that had compromised her chance of ever leading a “normal” life (immunizations, a healthy respect for authority), her mother waved a hand and replied, “Well, you should thank me, because you have a lot of good stories instead.” How to Catch a Frog is a collection of those stories, plus others that show Ross's eventual route to success as an artist, entrepreneur, and mother, all animated by Ross’s delightful illustrations and how-to instructions.
When, as a twenty-something, Heather complained to her mother about a long list of things she had missed out on and that had compromised her chance of ever leading a “normal” life (immunizations, a healthy respect for authority), her mother waved a hand and replied, “Well, you should thank me, because you have a lot of good stories instead.” How to Catch a Frog is a collection of those stories, plus others that show Ross's eventual route to success as an artist, entrepreneur, and mother, all animated by Ross’s delightful illustrations and how-to instructions.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 20, 2014
17 people are currently reading
824 people want to read
About the author
Heather Ross
29 books26 followersHeather Ross is an illustrator and fabric designer. She lives in New York City and the Catskill Mountains.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
May 22, 2014
As a disclaimer: I know Heather in real life and I also designed this book.
Heather had an extraordinary childhood growing up on the hills of Vermont. I loved every minute of this book about her journey as an artist, and her experiences now as a wife and a mother. We all come from somewhere.. I loved learning about how Heather came to be the kind, talented, wonderful woman she is today.
Heather had an extraordinary childhood growing up on the hills of Vermont. I loved every minute of this book about her journey as an artist, and her experiences now as a wife and a mother. We all come from somewhere.. I loved learning about how Heather came to be the kind, talented, wonderful woman she is today.
Read
July 23, 2014This book is so authentic that,it was uncomfortable to read in parts. Ms Ross' voice is unapologetic and she takes responsibility for her journey.Thank you for telling your story. I hope there are more to follow.
July 30, 2014
I totally loved this book...the contents, the stories, the cover and the illustrations. Everything about it was perfect for the time and place I was reading it...at the beginnings of our summer holidays, with the heat of the sun pouring in through the windows. The mixture of tales, some happy, some sad, the good and the bad honestly told, made me laugh and cry and left me thinking long after I closed the cover. I didn't really know what to expect when I started (shallow enough to have chosen the book by its cover!) but I will now be recommending it to all my friends, especially all those that grew up in the 1970's like the author and I did...
January 23, 2017
Let me start by saying I couldn't finish this book (I read half). I have a lot of respect for Heather's work as a fabric designer. And I even thought her ability to tell a story through writing was entertaining. I appreciated her openness about her background/ family story. I just felt she was too quick to generalize groups of people and that saddened me. She mocked children that were the result of incestuous relationships and basically said they were a bunch of stupid hillbillies. She portrayed all Christians as ignorant and would mock the very missionaries who recognized Heather's awful home life, taking time away from their own homes to help two children in need. Not cool, Heather. Not cool.
I would have loved to have finished all of the essays, but the above attitudes just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I would have loved to have finished all of the essays, but the above attitudes just left a bad taste in my mouth.
June 26, 2014
Could not love this book more...
March 24, 2015
What makes a book 4 stars not 5? The 5 star books are the ones that are so good I still think about them when I'm done and I can't wait to tell others about. So I will say: read this book! There's just something about the tale of Heather's childhood that draws you in. She shares milestones and mishaps and it's a story about people and childhood survival. Her creative success was inspiring to hear about. I love her different characterizations of her Aunt Jane or her friends the Canfields. Her mothers response when she was bit by the horse gave me brief love for her mother. Heather Ross is a great writer and I loved this book.
June 24, 2014
This was a collection of stories from the author's life - and some were spot on! I really enjoyed the section called, "How to start a children's clothing company" - the success to failure and determination that failure isn't a bad thing is a key life lesson. I only wish I was creative or of the "arts", but the lessons here hold true for whatever field you're in. The courage to try overrules the sense of failure!
The other section I loved, maybe more so than the one above is, "how to not turn into your mother"...yes, the ties that bind and gag!! The circle of life we think about as we are pregnant can deeply impact us. It's important to get perspective - that we are NOT our pasts and we are NOT our parents. Funny to have read this book and that section, on day of my daughter's own ultrasound for her first child.
There are some real life lessons in this book - on how to do this or that, how family can mean so much, but can be quickly gone, that home isn't necessarily a place, but where your heart is, and more.
The other section I loved, maybe more so than the one above is, "how to not turn into your mother"...yes, the ties that bind and gag!! The circle of life we think about as we are pregnant can deeply impact us. It's important to get perspective - that we are NOT our pasts and we are NOT our parents. Funny to have read this book and that section, on day of my daughter's own ultrasound for her first child.
There are some real life lessons in this book - on how to do this or that, how family can mean so much, but can be quickly gone, that home isn't necessarily a place, but where your heart is, and more.
October 26, 2016
What a delightful surprise this book was! I've long been a big fan of Heather Ross's textile designs and read her blog for years, so of course I wanted to read her book when it came out.
To be honest I expected it to be little more than cute little anecdotes among many DIY projects. Instead, this was a thought-provoking and captivating look back at her magical but deeply dysfunctional childhood. Heather and her twin sister learned early on to survive essentially on their own with very little food, comfort, shelter, guidance and love from the adults in their lives. Fortunately Heather came through with her sense of wonder intact which she shares in both her playful designs and this beautifully written memoir. Two thumbs up!
To be honest I expected it to be little more than cute little anecdotes among many DIY projects. Instead, this was a thought-provoking and captivating look back at her magical but deeply dysfunctional childhood. Heather and her twin sister learned early on to survive essentially on their own with very little food, comfort, shelter, guidance and love from the adults in their lives. Fortunately Heather came through with her sense of wonder intact which she shares in both her playful designs and this beautifully written memoir. Two thumbs up!
September 1, 2016
Such a refreshing change from the last dysfunctional memoir I just read. Ross grows up in rural Vermont with very few parameters and precious little in the way of possessions, support and even victuals. Despite having no support or direction she works her way through life to become a fabric designer, author and all around balanced woman. Three cheers for the resilience of her spirit!!!
June 14, 2018
This was an interesting read, especially for me as most of the memoir is set in Vermont where I lived for 5 years. So much of what the author wrote about Vermont rang true for me and brought back memories, good and bad.
I love memoirs wherein the author accomplishes a great deal after growing up in a very difficult family setting, as this author did. The book, however, is quite funny and entertaining, as well as poignant. I just wish it had a different title. While I like frogs, I don't think the title alone would have been enough for me to buy the book, although the cover really captured my eye, and of course the fact that the memoir is set in Vermont.
Kudos to the author who is now a textile designer and children's book illustrator as well as an author in her own right. There was a time in her life when she and others doubted her capabilities, but she came into her own and proved the doubters wrong.
I love memoirs wherein the author accomplishes a great deal after growing up in a very difficult family setting, as this author did. The book, however, is quite funny and entertaining, as well as poignant. I just wish it had a different title. While I like frogs, I don't think the title alone would have been enough for me to buy the book, although the cover really captured my eye, and of course the fact that the memoir is set in Vermont.
Kudos to the author who is now a textile designer and children's book illustrator as well as an author in her own right. There was a time in her life when she and others doubted her capabilities, but she came into her own and proved the doubters wrong.
September 16, 2019
One of the most delightful books I’ve read in a long time. Heather Ross writes of growing up surrounded by nature, love, dysfunction, and instability in a manner that is honest, yet careful not to demonize the complicated adults in her life. Each chapter contains a story from her life, as well as a short “how to” guide on everything from making cream of broccoli soup, to catching frogs, to making paper flowers. While Ross’s childhood was unique, if you grew up outdoors, around addiction and dysfunction, or with a complicated class story, you’ll find her collection of stories relatable and touching. I laughed out loud, I cried, I canceled plans because I couldn’t put it down, and when I finished, I felt that, “I’ll never find another book I love like this again!” feeling.
July 10, 2014
I randomly picked this up at BookPeople after my boyfriend asked me to help him find an autobiography (despite my apparently superior alphabetical searching skills, we did not find it), and I'm so glad I did. I'm almost certain that no matter what else I read this year, this will continue to be my absolute favorite. It's inspiring, engaging and touching. Definitely the best autobiography I've ever read.
March 27, 2015
My Review
Charming and comforting.
Amidst all of the family chaos and tough relationships and harsh winters, there was still this effervescent love of life and adventure that made me want to live in a cabin with no front door or ride a horse bare-chested or take baths in a forest covered in snow.
Favorite Quote
My sister shared my dedication to the protection of The Cute, especially The Baby Cute.
Charming and comforting.
Amidst all of the family chaos and tough relationships and harsh winters, there was still this effervescent love of life and adventure that made me want to live in a cabin with no front door or ride a horse bare-chested or take baths in a forest covered in snow.
Favorite Quote
My sister shared my dedication to the protection of The Cute, especially The Baby Cute.
May 16, 2014
Great insight into Heather Ross's life and how being true to herself and taking risks paid off. It's the sort of background information you don't get from a blog who's authors often feel like they lead perfect lives and never suffered failure. She's honest about her lows and dysfunctions and shows that her successes are well earned.
October 5, 2014
What a lovely memoir. I also grew up in Vermont, in Johnson, I wonder if I ran into Heather at the grocery store? or if she picked berries at the farm I grew up on... You should read this book. It is a brave telling of an individual life, and teaches you that failure is not a bad thing.
May 22, 2014
I was totally smitten with this magical memoir!
July 1, 2020
Amazing. Maybe not the BEST book I’ve read this year, but it is my FAVORITE. Top 10 books of my life, I think.
April 8, 2015
good. a memoir that is not at all what i thought it would be when i began.
May 28, 2020
I'm not sure why I loved this book so much. Well, what I really mean is I'm not sure I can do justice to why I loved this book so much.
I had a thread of Heather Ross through my creative life for years before this book was written. When I first discovered fabric and quilting, hers, the now famously collectable Lightening Bugs collection was one of the very first I bought. I made a little cot quilt (rather badly) for the birth of the second child of the best man at our wedding. The whimsical North American nature camping hippie childlike bug collecting vibe spoke to me and millions of other women. Then, during the great creative blogging explosion of the mid-2000's (roughly 2005-2009), I purchased her Weekend Sewing book, made nothing from it but read it cover to cover and loved its easy, sunny, enjoy the vintage machines (like mine), don't sweat the details and just make things for hanging out in a tree house or on the dock of the bay. As time passed, I continued to collect little samples of her colourful and quixotically illustrated fabric ranges.
I became aware of this memoir, published in 2014, when one of her fellow quilter/fabric designers reviewed it and spoke of the courage in writing a book like this. It had the effect of putting me off reading it. It seemed I wouldn't want to know of the struggles of this artistic woman, whose work I admired and loved. Then, in 2019, she offered on her website to inscribe copies and draw little doodles for the purchaser. I asked for a doodle of a frog and the inscription "To Melissa, and all the other Leominster frogs" and it arrived and was better than I expected. My childhood experiences at my grandfather's home in Leominster, Massachusetts were now connected to this amazing woman and her difficult and moving life.
Heather Ross writes beautifully, with a melancholy and yet sunny touch. She manages to convey the splendour and love in her unconventional and unstructured childhood and yet she so clearly is looking back, almost asking herself and us, her readers, 'could this really be true?'. Did the adults around me really act with such selfishness, irresponsibility and neglect? How did I survive this? And like many people who didn't experience straight up criminal, domestic violence she is also trying to work through how much of the lost years of her early adulthood were the result of the deprivation in her childhood and how much her own responsibility. And even as I write this, I can't quite do justice to how much beauty there is sitting alongside these troubling questions.
She spends a good deal of time in the book exploring the themes of her experience that fed directly into her creative life. Each chapter title is a "How to": How to catch a frog, how to run away, how to eat fresh trout, how to begin again....A big theme of the book, because we her admirers so much want to know, is what is the source of your creativity? This aspect of the narrative is deeply satisfying.
I felt a strong sense of pride and comfort when she writes somewhat obliquely about her present happiness and love - her husband and daughter and lovely homes in New York and the Catskill mountains. And I related to her feeling of loss associated with the properties and buildings of her Vermont childhood. I understood her walking through the paddocks and finding the sink. It was discarded and yet precious.
I don't know that you need to have Leominster frogs in your past in order to love this book. My guess is, like her fabrics, it appeals to a great many of us.
I had a thread of Heather Ross through my creative life for years before this book was written. When I first discovered fabric and quilting, hers, the now famously collectable Lightening Bugs collection was one of the very first I bought. I made a little cot quilt (rather badly) for the birth of the second child of the best man at our wedding. The whimsical North American nature camping hippie childlike bug collecting vibe spoke to me and millions of other women. Then, during the great creative blogging explosion of the mid-2000's (roughly 2005-2009), I purchased her Weekend Sewing book, made nothing from it but read it cover to cover and loved its easy, sunny, enjoy the vintage machines (like mine), don't sweat the details and just make things for hanging out in a tree house or on the dock of the bay. As time passed, I continued to collect little samples of her colourful and quixotically illustrated fabric ranges.
I became aware of this memoir, published in 2014, when one of her fellow quilter/fabric designers reviewed it and spoke of the courage in writing a book like this. It had the effect of putting me off reading it. It seemed I wouldn't want to know of the struggles of this artistic woman, whose work I admired and loved. Then, in 2019, she offered on her website to inscribe copies and draw little doodles for the purchaser. I asked for a doodle of a frog and the inscription "To Melissa, and all the other Leominster frogs" and it arrived and was better than I expected. My childhood experiences at my grandfather's home in Leominster, Massachusetts were now connected to this amazing woman and her difficult and moving life.
Heather Ross writes beautifully, with a melancholy and yet sunny touch. She manages to convey the splendour and love in her unconventional and unstructured childhood and yet she so clearly is looking back, almost asking herself and us, her readers, 'could this really be true?'. Did the adults around me really act with such selfishness, irresponsibility and neglect? How did I survive this? And like many people who didn't experience straight up criminal, domestic violence she is also trying to work through how much of the lost years of her early adulthood were the result of the deprivation in her childhood and how much her own responsibility. And even as I write this, I can't quite do justice to how much beauty there is sitting alongside these troubling questions.
She spends a good deal of time in the book exploring the themes of her experience that fed directly into her creative life. Each chapter title is a "How to": How to catch a frog, how to run away, how to eat fresh trout, how to begin again....A big theme of the book, because we her admirers so much want to know, is what is the source of your creativity? This aspect of the narrative is deeply satisfying.
I felt a strong sense of pride and comfort when she writes somewhat obliquely about her present happiness and love - her husband and daughter and lovely homes in New York and the Catskill mountains. And I related to her feeling of loss associated with the properties and buildings of her Vermont childhood. I understood her walking through the paddocks and finding the sink. It was discarded and yet precious.
I don't know that you need to have Leominster frogs in your past in order to love this book. My guess is, like her fabrics, it appeals to a great many of us.
June 30, 2023
Sent to me recently as a sweet little package in the mail (thank you Chloe!), the title alone caught my interest right away. I'm rather smitten with memoirs. I find it fascinating, the many ways you can grow up and turn out to be who you are. The many versions of failure, success and happiness - and the quest to and through all of those. While my growing up was nothing shy of different- our ideologies, how we talked to one another as a family were what made us different. Our activities were very much traditional: celebrating holidays, playing sports, going on vacations to amusement parks, playing video games and going to the movies. I'm realizing now, as Heather expresses in this memoir, that your own raising is a product of your parents' interests and limited knowledge of the world (as all our knowledge is limited). But reading other stories and now traveling the world full-time and expanding my knowledge and interests I'm realizing many things about life, about growing up, about who I am. There are so many ways to have a family and so many different forms of the word family. There are families who teach their kids sports, those who teach them outdoor activities (hiking, biking, etc), there are families of artists who encourage the creativity we all have within us, etc. There are families like mine, without kids and composed of humans and furry friends. So many ways to 'have a family.' None wrong. Each having their own impact. But it's when you leave, as Heather shows, that you find who you are. That you have to venture, to go, to explore things you haven't quite explored before - or not in that way, to find who you are.
Her raising was so different from mine but so fascinating. Growing up in Vermont, by her rather complicated mother, living off the land with little but where her mind could take her. Her growing up taught her strength in herself. It's people like Heather that I wish to know, to learn from. People like her give me that added support, even not having met her, to dream and accomplish those dreams. To be strong. To be willing to try. And to never see failure as the end but a lesson. My favorite chapters were probably 'How to Start a Children's Clothing Company' and ' How to Not Turn Into Your Mother.' The thing I loved the most was her authenticity. The way she wrote was the truest expression of her honest thoughts, experiences and voice. We need more people like that. More people to 'keep at it,' to follow their dreams, to allow themselves to fail but continue to keep going and to have faith. Faith, I've always seen to be a religious word but the chapter 'How to Have Faith,' ending with 'There was my husband, my family. And there was my faith' reminded me that your faith is in those people. Those people like my husband, Heather's husband, our own created families who believe in us, who support us, who are honest with us but always there. A lovely memoir indeed.
Her raising was so different from mine but so fascinating. Growing up in Vermont, by her rather complicated mother, living off the land with little but where her mind could take her. Her growing up taught her strength in herself. It's people like Heather that I wish to know, to learn from. People like her give me that added support, even not having met her, to dream and accomplish those dreams. To be strong. To be willing to try. And to never see failure as the end but a lesson. My favorite chapters were probably 'How to Start a Children's Clothing Company' and ' How to Not Turn Into Your Mother.' The thing I loved the most was her authenticity. The way she wrote was the truest expression of her honest thoughts, experiences and voice. We need more people like that. More people to 'keep at it,' to follow their dreams, to allow themselves to fail but continue to keep going and to have faith. Faith, I've always seen to be a religious word but the chapter 'How to Have Faith,' ending with 'There was my husband, my family. And there was my faith' reminded me that your faith is in those people. Those people like my husband, Heather's husband, our own created families who believe in us, who support us, who are honest with us but always there. A lovely memoir indeed.
March 23, 2017
I have used fabric that Heather Ross designed for quilts I have made. She has really beautiful illustrations as well. When I saw this book's title, I was intrigued because I have caught dozens of frogs and toads and have owned a lot of them. When I saw that it had to do with family, love, and dysfunction, I was all in. Those are things I can relate to.
Heather's story was fascinating at times and other times very sad. She grew up moving between homes in Vermont, Mexico, Virginia, California, and New York between her mom and dad (who were divorced shortly into Heather and her twin sister's years) and grandparents.
What I liked about this book is that it painted a descriptive and lovely picture of her life. While some of her upbringing was a bit romantic between the idea of her walking and exploring as a young girl anywhere she wanted to in Vermont, something I really wish I was able to do in my own upbringing, it was filled with brokenness and heartache. This is pretty much like Laura Ingalls Wilder's story but with a very broken home life during the 1970s and 1980s. Her parents even built their first home together and she lived in a one roomed old school house for a few years with an additional bedroom for her sister and her attached. They had a wood burning stove and everything, but she explains how hard it was living in this way in a modern time with a mother who let her children starve most days while she would go out and get drunk.
Heather Ross also goes through a few of her key relationships with her boyfriends such as a drug dealer who had a small home with no door on it and a bathtub in the woods as well as an outhouse with no door on it. It was pretty entertaining to read through some of these stories.
Ultimately this is about a woman coming to terms with her life and accepting what home looks like for her today.
Heather's story was fascinating at times and other times very sad. She grew up moving between homes in Vermont, Mexico, Virginia, California, and New York between her mom and dad (who were divorced shortly into Heather and her twin sister's years) and grandparents.
What I liked about this book is that it painted a descriptive and lovely picture of her life. While some of her upbringing was a bit romantic between the idea of her walking and exploring as a young girl anywhere she wanted to in Vermont, something I really wish I was able to do in my own upbringing, it was filled with brokenness and heartache. This is pretty much like Laura Ingalls Wilder's story but with a very broken home life during the 1970s and 1980s. Her parents even built their first home together and she lived in a one roomed old school house for a few years with an additional bedroom for her sister and her attached. They had a wood burning stove and everything, but she explains how hard it was living in this way in a modern time with a mother who let her children starve most days while she would go out and get drunk.
Heather Ross also goes through a few of her key relationships with her boyfriends such as a drug dealer who had a small home with no door on it and a bathtub in the woods as well as an outhouse with no door on it. It was pretty entertaining to read through some of these stories.
Ultimately this is about a woman coming to terms with her life and accepting what home looks like for her today.
February 21, 2022
How to Catch A Frog; And Other Stories of Family, Love, Dysfunction Survival and DIY by Heather Ross is a memoir that focuses largely on the early years of Ross’s life with her twin sister, their mother and father, and their mother’s extended family in the mountains of rural Vermont.
The book offers a refreshing look at rural life and yet also paints a painful picture of family dynamics and how those interactions affect its members. While Ross’s life was often chaotic she relished much of her time in the outdoors learning for example, how to catch frogs, or enabling them to escape the clutches of those who would eventually eat them. The poverty she endured with her immediate family created many unusual circumstances and remembrances which marked her departure from her home to college and beyond. However, it was not a totally uphill climb from rural poverty as the criticism of her mother often caused Ross to doubt herself and her abilities. Eventually Ross began to test her drawing skills and designed fabric and clothing. After some business failures, Heather Ross is now well-known in sewing and quilting circles today and her fabric designs can easily be found online.
The book offers a refreshing look at rural life and yet also paints a painful picture of family dynamics and how those interactions affect its members. While Ross’s life was often chaotic she relished much of her time in the outdoors learning for example, how to catch frogs, or enabling them to escape the clutches of those who would eventually eat them. The poverty she endured with her immediate family created many unusual circumstances and remembrances which marked her departure from her home to college and beyond. However, it was not a totally uphill climb from rural poverty as the criticism of her mother often caused Ross to doubt herself and her abilities. Eventually Ross began to test her drawing skills and designed fabric and clothing. After some business failures, Heather Ross is now well-known in sewing and quilting circles today and her fabric designs can easily be found online.
October 15, 2023
Super readable and cute. It seems to be a trend currently to do memoirs in vaguely disconnected essay style chapters, and I liked hers the best of those I’ve read. I enjoyed her light and wry sense of humor, and evocative writing that made the place and some of the people come alive. She seemed to be making a choice on which people she leaned into the characterizations on, and which she didn’t, with some respect for some folks’ privacy.
Her life really turned a major corner when she had someone set her up on a blind date with a perfect man who was, because he’s perfect, willing to financially support them both so she could focus on her art because (he says in the book) that’s what makes her the happiest. And then she had a perfect baby and they bought and remodeled a perfect house in the country whilst maintaining their perfect NYC lifestyle. How do I get this life??
Granted it didn’t fix her mother, or her mother’s family, but everything else…
Her life really turned a major corner when she had someone set her up on a blind date with a perfect man who was, because he’s perfect, willing to financially support them both so she could focus on her art because (he says in the book) that’s what makes her the happiest. And then she had a perfect baby and they bought and remodeled a perfect house in the country whilst maintaining their perfect NYC lifestyle. How do I get this life??
Granted it didn’t fix her mother, or her mother’s family, but everything else…
January 23, 2018
A very well-crafted memoir and consummate page-turner. Ross deftly incorporates the theme of DIY into her life's story by incorporating small tutorials as fun inserts into chapters of her life that are based on the objets d'art that she teaches readers to create (I found them useful and actually plan to make a few!). The book--her life story up until marriage and motherhood--is akin to a lighter version of Jeanette Walls' "Glass Castle," with an equally inspiring ending, albeit a less sympathetic heroine at times, as this author can't seem to reign in her frustration with her mother, and mother-blame is a passé trope in this genre. Still, the book is a delight to read and very hard to put down, as well as an ideal model for the creative, non-linear personal history.
February 16, 2019
A delightful memoir. Glass castle-lite. The craft instructions and recipes were a bit out of place because this wasn’t a cozy memoir...was the author going for sarcasm/parody of cutesy memoirs that have recipes and crafts? I honestly couldn’t tell because she did go on to become a legit crafter, yet this memoir falls in the deeply scarred childhood genre, so maybe she is simply opening the door for cozy crafters to tell their stories honestly too. Kudos to her, but cutesy crafts still felt out of place next to the tell-all type material in this book. I still recommend it to friends all the time tho! :)
October 26, 2021
I bought it for the sake of the illustration, but end up being amazed by the story. it reminds me a bit like "Educated", with the same broken and old-fashioned family. I had to stop reading just to remind myself that it's a different book, lol.
to be honest, my English is not good enough to understand a word by word translation, so I tried to understand the context, instead.
what I like the most is how she describes her aunt Jane, her up and down on business, and her anxious journey to parenthood.
all of the stories are wrapped by beautiful illustrations and a bunch of diy tips. so, I hope that you will give it a try.
to be honest, my English is not good enough to understand a word by word translation, so I tried to understand the context, instead.
what I like the most is how she describes her aunt Jane, her up and down on business, and her anxious journey to parenthood.
all of the stories are wrapped by beautiful illustrations and a bunch of diy tips. so, I hope that you will give it a try.
February 21, 2025
This is so different than what I thought it was when I added it to my to-read shelf back in 2017, after admiring the cover. If I had noticed, it is right in the title: dysfunction, survival. This is very much along the lines of The Glass Castle and just as good, with maybe a little more heart. This has 21 chapters all titled, as the book, How To . . . and goes in mostly chronological order of her life. Still love the cover as well as the simple illustrations that begin each chapter, and you actually do get instructions for all of the How To's. The upside of having useless parents is that you can write a compelling memoir on how you overcome that and it seems she has.
November 14, 2018
I really enjoyed this book! There are so many stories, each in it's own chapter, but the thread of her life weaves through the whole book. It was refreshing to read about her time playing outdoors, it reminded me of my childhood. Her dysfunctional family also stuck a chord, although our level of poverty wasn't as acute. The family has many low periods, but still there is hope throughout.
Wonderful book!
Wonderful book!
March 20, 2018
3.5--This caught my eye at the library. It turned out to be different than I thought it would be, but it was actually a very interesting memoir by someone raised very differently than I was (but a little like my mom was raised). The language was quite a bit cleaner than I expected. I loved the way she shared the lessons she learn and her courage.
May 31, 2018
Pretty good for a memoir written for adults! I tend to get a little impatient with these things. This book had the grace to teach us how to do things along the way.
I hope Heather Ross' life continues on the upswing that this book ended on. Her husband sounds like a true keeper.
I hope Heather Ross' life continues on the upswing that this book ended on. Her husband sounds like a true keeper.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews