Welcome to Litsy!

The title seemed intriguing and growing up in Ohio and Michigan I totally thought I would be able to relate. But no. The title really ought to have the word farming in it; I now know more about farming than I ever thought I would. I stuck it out and finished but definitely want those 8 hours back.

This is a great, powerful memoir of growing up in rural poverty. It's a really interesting format, written as a series of letters to a child she chose to not have. It describes the experience of generations of her family, the limited opportunities available to them, and what impact that had on the choices they made.

Appreciated her acknowledgments to her teachers in Kansas public schools too: “Thank you to the English teachers…who told a child from a family of laborers that she was a writer who deserved to be heard…” She goes on to list them by name. We owe them a debt of gratitude for this book too.

This book was not at all what I expected. It was memoir and social commentary woven in with personal experience in a way I hadn‘t anticipated. But once I got used to her writing, I found it incredibly moving and a deeply worthwhile read. Highly recommended.

This brought tears to my eyes…

I‘m 90 pages in and don‘t know what to say. I expected this to be a tough read but I still think I underestimated how bleak I would find it. Planning to finish but not sure I will have much to say after I do…

#ReadHarder challenge 18: a book set in the Midwest

Compelling story of growing up dirt poor in America

It‘s not you, it‘s me. First bail of 2021. It‘s fascinating, I just couldn‘t get into it. I have taken it out from the library 5 times and I started reading it on the first go. I don‘t want to force myself to read this lovely book.

Good book. Looking back thinking about the adults around me who worked so hard to give each generation better than they had. Really made me stop and think how far my family has come and what I have done to help break the cycle.

Mixed reactions to this one. Definitely a lot to unpack and think about related to poverty in plain sight, federal policy and rural America. I found the dialogue with August unsettling. As a north star she had an important part in motivating the author to break the cycle of teen pregnancy, violence, substance abuse and poverty that had plagued her family for generations. Thoughtful and thought provoking. 🌟🌟🌟

I compared it too closely to Educated and Hillbilly Elegy, which I both LOVED, so it wasn‘t quite as good but I did grow to really like and respect Sarah and her family. Gotta love a good underdog story!

This memoir about growing up in poverty in the farmlands of Kansas was slow for me at the beginning, but I truly fell in love by the end. The author‘s choice to speak to the “daughter she never had” instead of the audience ended up being insightful and poignant to me. My favorite parts were regarding the social commentary around America‘s poor, and the implications of our view “poor people” throughout our society.

Interesting memoir, well-written with insights into white poverty in America. Eg feeling shamed & excluded from education & other institutions, people may resent elites & politicians; one could see the appeal of Trump (as outside the system). Also, a sense of being ‘forgotten‘ amid sympathy for other minorities; the failure of safety nets, & danger of stereotypes (eg they‘re ‘lazy‘). I would have preferred less memoir, more social commentary.

Sunday reading

Playing catch-up on this photo challenge since life has kept me from Litsy lately.

#MemoirMonday @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620

There are mixed reviews about this memoir, but it hit really close to home for me. The author doesn't shy away from revealing the hard truths behind trying to survive, and thrive, in a small rural town.

I‘m reminded when a person living in poverty believes themself a burden to their family, and their family a burden to society, they feel invisible. And invisible has no color. That the author wrote her personal narration to the impoverished daughter she was determined to never have rather than us, the reader, makes this invisibility even more poignant. I see you Dorothy, Betty, Jeannie, Sarah. Rock Chalk Sarah.

#ReadTheUSA2020 Kansas

Something about economics. #nonfiction2020

Another great nonfiction read this year. Growing up in small, southern town to young parents who felt like if they just worked hard they'd somehow make it, made this book feel very familiar to me. Sarah's story is in Kansas, but poor families everywhere can relate to this struggle. The emotions mixed with true stories and facts makes it an incredible read.

Also works for my #Nonfiction2020 for Something about Economics. @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

I‘ve decided I don‘t have enough books going at the same time. 🤣 Needing some nonfiction. Pie mentions on p. 9, 17, 57: baked pies, frozen pot pies, “taking the pies up to the funeral” #PieinLiterature
Esther assisting. #DogsofLitsy

First book finish of 2020! Of course it‘s non fiction! Really an insightful look at being working poor. #2020

I had a difficult time separating myself from this author‘s story. I really disliked some of what I was reading so I DNF‘d after a few chapters.

I understand generational poverty acutely but I understand too about repeated destructive behaviors and how blaming others will not help. Maybe I‘ll try it again later, but I really need to be in a different frame of mind when I pick it back up, I guess. Maybe I felt some of what she was saying too much.

“This country has failed its children, August, failed its own claims about democracy and humanity. The American Dream, in particular, sometimes seems more like a ghost haunting our way of thinking than like a sacred contract worth signing toward some future.” Amen to that.

#Vermont

I understand complaints folks had with this book: her frequent conversation with her never-to-be-born child being the most discussed. However, I found this book to be outstanding in outlining class issues, naming them directly and providing historical details. Reagan did a number on the working class and for years people have voted against their own economic salvation. She did a good job telling her family‘s story which couldn‘t have been easy.

I related to so much of this book, having grown up poor in rural Kansas myself. Some of her observations were striking and insightful. What got old, though, was her constant references to her imaginary unborn daughter. She spent too much time congratulating herself on not becoming a teen mother, but overall, this was a pick for me. I listened on audio- I always love when the author reads the audio version. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reading this novel by a local author. In the vein of Educated and Where the Crawdads Sing. i‘m trying to keep an open mind. I think she does it herself as a victim more than a survivor

I enjoyed the stories as they brought back memories growing up on a dairy farm in rural North Dakota however I didn't like how she told the story talking to her daughter that she chose never to conceive. I still recommend though.

Happy Tuesday! I‘m spending my morning diving into this before I head to my job that overworks and underpays me. Coincidence? 🤔 Have a lovely day everyone 💕

“The term ‘poor‘ is used to represent those without money, and it also is a descriptor meaning outright badness, as in ‘poor health‘ or ‘poor results‘. In a country where personal value is supposed to create wealth, it is easy for a poor person to feel himself a bad one.”

I learned a lot about rural #Kansas and growing up in poverty. Smarsh makes such objective and intelligent observations. I admire her and her family highly.

Poverty described as a #GypsyRoad in my current read. An intense one, so far. #WanderingJune

Yes, getting past this book as a letter to an unborn child is a thing readers must do. As the NYT suggests, “Forgive the baby.” If we do, this memoir feels right to this Plains girl, though I do not see myself as rural. Smarsh does acknowledge that being white is privilege no matter how poor.

I hated it before I even got through the author's note in the beginning, but I wanted to at least give it a chance. Now I've wasted an hour and it's still driving me nuts. Ugh! This is another one that hogged a precious spot on my Overdrive hold list for too long....

Enjoyed hearing Sarah Smarsh in my city last night. She is smart, insightful, and personable. A treat for me. #writersinthewild

Listening in preparation of her visit to Des Moines this spring #AViD

I think I went into this book with high expectations because there have been so many good books recently about growing up poor in America. But this one felt a little self congratulatory and seemed to skim over the details.

I found the literary device of speaking to the author‘s unborn (and unwanted) daughter too much of a trick but otherwise found this memoir to be insightful about the role poverty plays in limiting opportunities in the US. I also found her very gutsy and wild grandmother to be inspirational. #sjpbookclub

Her family story was interesting, but I am not sure I needed another story about poor/overlooked white people right now. And I was sort of thrown by the central conceit in which she addresses the whole book, in the second person, to a hypothetical daughter she never had when she was a teenager. (She was never pregnant, it‘s just to illustrate how she escaped the cycle of poverty.)

"Economic inequality is one cultural divide that causes us to see one another as stereotypes, some of which allow the powerful to make harmful decisions in policy and politics." -- Heartland

This memoir is heartbreaking, powerful stuff.

This #BlameItOnLitsy purchase came yesterday. Thank you @Hooked_on_books @8little_paws for recommending it!

Throughout the book she constantly talks to a never-conceived, unborn poor daughter named August that while endearing at first quickly becomes old. this a Pick b/c i enjoyed the stories of the author‘s family & it shows the dysfunction & struggles poor women have to endure. Author narrates the book and she does a good job. A lot of statistical & factual info that shows how the Republican Party is not looking out for the common folk.

#bookmail I didn‘t realize that I won 5 books from @simonbooks so this was a great surprise! I‘m not much of a memoir person but I‘m curious about it! Thank you so much again Simon and Schuster!

This went from a near bail to a solid pick. Try to get pass the mess of the beginning, the disorganized timelines and the weird “writing to my unborn daughter with whom I‘m not pregnant and don‘t want” to the meat of this book: the story of Great Plains poverty. Solid research on history with personalization of the author‘s family. This helped me better understand how some folks vote against their interests.

#ReadingUSA2019 #Kansas

I wanted to slow down my reading this year. This book certainly helped with that. It‘s nice to read about my home state although I‘m not familiar with the particular area the book was set in.

1) Teleport- I could go anywhere & not have to pay for airfare!
2) I‘m a little more than halfway done the audiobook for Heartland by Sarah Smarsh.
3) To spend less money on frivolous things and to read more & post on #Litsy more! I‘ve missed this community terribly!
4) I want to check out #You, but I‘m a couple episodes into the final season of House of Cards. I work near one of the places they filmed in MD.
5) will do! #friyayintro

You won't be disappointed reading this gripping memoir-a National Book Award finalist. Sarah Smarsh's memoir of working hard and being broke in the richest country on Earth will shed light on the many challenges to break a cycle which devastates not just the Heartland but many areas in America. #Midwestpride
#personalmemoirs
#Breakthecycle
#whereyoucomefromshapesyou

Consider this a light pick. I struggled to retain interest initially, but found the back half much stronger than the front. Not totally sold on the conceit of writing to one's unborn child, still. This book reminded me of hillbilly elegy, only it's much better.

Chilly night = blanket and new book.

Wonderful!!!

Heartland is about a girl from Kansas who grows up poor on a farm and gets herself out of the cycle of her family—teenage mothers—to be something more. Very interesting even if it was a slower read! I liked that it was set up as written to the unborn daughter who she refused to have, or really a version of herself that she didn‘t want to be.

Talk about #debbiedowner. I am torn on this book, because the story itself was compelling but there were some fundamental flaws. The biggest one for me was the timeline. Smarsh tells the story of the women in her life—most were married multiple time. So it was difficult enough to follow in that regard but her timeline was non existent, which made it doubly difficult. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the flow of her story. #nofemmeber