Book Giveaway and Review: Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson And Learned To Love Being Hated By Alison Arngrim

It’s Little House On The Prairie week!  To celebrate, I’m giving away 5 copies of Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch to 5 lucky readers! 

  

Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson And Learned To Love Being Hated By Alison Arngrim is as delicious, pleasurable, and juicy as a memoir by television’s most hated childhood villain should be.  People usually read “celebrity” memoirs for two reasons: either to find out that person’s secrets, or to find out the secrets that person has managed to keep about others.  Well, Alison’s memoir goes way beyond and above both of those basic reasons.  Not only did she play a beast of a bully on television, but she used what she learned from Nellie Oleson to help her deal with darkest secret with her own “bully.”   Alison not only become a survivor, but she become a champion for other children getting abused.  She managed to use her celebrity to get a claw passed in California, and for that, you have to stand up and applaud the woman.  In Prairie Bitch, she has a lot to say about her former co-workers on Little House, but she also had a very interesting family, parents in the business, and plenty of famous folks that crossed her path.  Ms. Arngrim writes her phenomenal story with grace, humility, and humor.  She is so down to earth, it is as if you were reading a memoir that could have been written by someone who never spent a second in front of a camera.  To put it in perspective, I’m more of a diva than Alison Arngrim is, and that’s pretty hilarious, since I’m an under-employed (Part Time) writer working in the non-profit agency who doesn’t even own a car.  (Yep, that’s right, I finally got a new job, and I started today!)  That’s probably what I liked best about Alison’s memoir – she’s just so damn grateful for everything she’s ever received in her life.  That’s the way we all should be, and I appreciate how genuine she is, especially since this is a trait you normally don’t find anymore in people, let alone famous “celebrity” people.  Obviously, I’m now one of her biggest fans, and I hope you will be, too after you read her book.

Here is a shocker – I forgot about how much I loved Little House.  I’m not saying I forgot about the books, or the actors, what I’m saying is I actually forgot about what I saw on television.  After reading all three of the girl’s memoirs, and after watching a lot of YouTube videos, I realized much of what I knew about the show has been blocked out of my memory.  I had a terrible childhood, and I can’t remember a lot of things before high school.  I’ve got some journals, but I didn’t really write about tv shows.  I’ve blocked out a lot of memories in my life, and the only way I can remember things is if I’ve managed to hold on to a photo or an image that can trigger my memories.  Sometimes I have friends who can remind me about things that happened, but when it comes to Little House, that was a show I watched with my mother.  All I know is that was one of two things we bonded on.  My mother and I had The Beatles, and we had Little House.  Since I don’t own the DVD’s, I’ve managed to forget how much I enjoyed watching Alison Arngrim played a scheming,  lying, manipulative bitch for seven years on my favorite tv show.  I even forgot about that great scene where Laura throws Nellie into the mud.  I don’t know how this is possibly, but I did.  So, reading Prairie Bitch not only was like reliving the past for me, it was basically filling in a lot of blanks as well.

In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Alison really let us know what life was like for her growing up in Hollywood.  It seemed like a fairy tale, as she lived in a castle known as the Chateau Marmont, and she was a famous television star.  But, she didn’t have a “normal” life at home.  Alison had a gay father who was more or less happily married to her mother.  Her father was Thor Arngrim, who was a talent manager to Liberace.  Alison’s mother was voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost.  I loved hearing how her mom would come to school and do her Underdog voice for her classmates – her mother played Sweet Polly Purebread, Underdog’s girlfriend.  Alison’s brother Stefan was even in the business, he was a teen idol and featured in everything from Tiger Beat, 16, and Teen Beat.   He wasn’t exactly what you’d call dreamy – he ended up raping and beating up Alison for years, without anyone finding out about it.  Alison shares her personal struggle to survive years of depression and shyness.

There are plenty of fun Little House stories, and I don’t want to spoil any of them here.  Alison really gets into what it was like working on the set, not just your typical “And, we shot this scene and then went to a party.”  She doesn’t take for granted that most people have no idea what a film or television set looks like, or what it takes to get a few seconds on film, so it is so much fun hearing what went into each take, and learning how she did her work as an actor on the set.  You get to hear plenty of Little House adventures off the Prairie, too.  I had no idea she was so close to her TV husband Percival, played by Steve Tracy.  He was her best friend, and his young death from AIDS inspired her into a life of activism, which I love, as I am a proud activist myself.

Probably the best part of this book (although juicy Little House gossip really did tickle my fancy) is how Nellie Oleson taught Alison to become more like the character she played on tv, and less shy and traumatized.  Not only in her home life, but in her school and person life off set.  If she didn’t have Nellie, who knows where she would have ended up.  If you have ever watched Little House on the Prairie, you have to read this book.  If you are a fan of memoirs, you need to read this book.  If you are a fan of books, then you need to read this book.  If you’ve never read one book in your entire life, and someone put a gun to your head and asked you to read one or else, then you’d better read this book.  It is so good, and so much more than you’d expect it to be.  Just watch the video, you’ll see what I mean.

To purchase your own copy of Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson And Learned To Love Being Hated, click here.

CONFESSIONS OF A PRAIRIE BITCH CONTEST 

RULES:
**Open to U.S. and Canadian residents
**No P.O. boxes, please
**Must include your email address in comment (You don’t have to type it in your comment, just use your “real” email account when you sign in to leave a comment)
**ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO COUNT   HOW TO ENTER:   

 

+1 ENTRY: Go to Alison Arngrim’s website HERE and tell me via your comment below what fascinating thing you learned or noticed on her website.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Watch the video above and tell me what you liked best about it.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Comment if you are a loyal follower of hers, either on Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads.  Tell me where and how you follow her.

+1  MORE ENTRY: Comment if you are a loyal follower of mine, either on Facebook or Twitter or THE GIRL FROM THE GHETTO blog.  Tell me where and how you follow me.

+1 MORE ENTRY: Comment here and tell me why you need to win this book!  Have you ever experienced abuse, stardom, or had a mean streak?  Did you identify with Nellie Oleson?  Have you ever lost a loved one or friend to Aids?  Did you watch Little House On The Prairie faithfully, or are you just a huge fan of memoirs?

+5 MORE ENTRIES: Blog about this giveaway, share a link via Twitter, or post a link via Facebook or any other social networking site about my Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch giveaway and come back here and leave a comment with that link.

Contest ends Monday, July 5th at midnight.  Good luck to you all.  

 Share this post:

It’s Little House On The Prairie Week

Or, what I like to call it, Little Ghetto On The Prairie week.  As you can see, I’ve been a lifelong fan of all things Little House.  I dressed like Half-Pint for many years, thanks to my mama.

Oh, how I loved my Little House braids.  Is this not one of the best kindergarten photos ever?

Letting my hair flow like Mary’s, circa 1977.

Why Little House?  Why the heck not?  Who doesn’t love Little House On The Prairie (LHOTP) or Laura Ingalls Wilder?  It seems Little House is on everyone’s lips these days.  Laura, Mary and Nellie all have written memoirs in the past year.  And, I feel it is never too late to relieve your happy childhood memories.  (Some of us have very few, and it is high time we celebrate those happy memories!)  I don’t know if I started reading the books because of the show, or started watching the show because I loved the books.  All I know is that I sat glued to the tv every week, and had my nose in my LHOTP books 24/7.  I’m hoping you did, too.

Ah, little sister Carrie.  Didn’t you love it when she fell, but kept on going like the little prairie soldier she was?  I lived and breathed Little House as a girl.  Wore the fashionable prairie clothing, and I even had a covered chuck wagon.  I’d take my Breyer horse-drawn chuck wagon out into our backyard rock garden, and loved nothing better than turning Barbie and all her friends into Little House girls for an afternoon.

Even in my adult life, I’ve been known to dress in Little House On the Prairie inspired fashions, as seen above.  That skirt went all the way down to my ankles, lol.

Did you identify with Laura, Mary, or Nellie?  I looked like a cross between Laura and Mary, but as much as I looked like Laura because of my braids, I identified with Mary and her self-imposed rules and good-girl attitude.  I was a bit of a weirdo (thanks to my bipolar mother) and tried my hardest in my early years to be proper, just like Mary always strived to be.  My mother taught me how to walk with books on my head without them falling, how to sit properly, and she didn’t even let me wear shorts or pants until the summer after 1st grade.  (After being repeatedly victimized in the very un-politically correct neighborhood game nigg** pile, I was tired of getting jumped on and having my skirt pulled up, reading my lacy little girl panties.)  And, just like Mary, I was beginning to lose my vision.  I faked my school eye tests from 3rd grade on, and only got my welfare glasses in 8th grade because my math teacher noticed my grades were slipping when I got a B on a math test, since I couldn’t see the board.  In my adult life I’d learn my father (who I didn’t know in childhood) is legally blind, and his parents were totally blind.  Go figure!  As I got older, I got the boldness and scrappiness of Laura, the little ghetto girl of the prairie who was tired of getting picked on just because she was poor.  Laura Ingalls, Mary Ingalls, and even Nellie Oleson all had their roles helping me grow up in the ghetto.

Here I am with Melissa Anderson last month, all grown up.  If only the picture wasn’t blurry, darn it!

Over the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of reading Melissa Gilbert’s memoir Prairie Tale, Melissa (Sue) Anderson’s memoir The Way I See It: A Look Back At My Life On Little House, and Alison Arngrim’s memoir Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch.  I’m happy to announce tonight that I’ll be reviewing all three of them this week and I’ll be giving away 5 copies of one of them to US and Canadian residents this week.  Check back later this week to find out which memoir you could win.

For hours of all things Little House:

Check out the Laura Ingalls Wilder website by going here.

You can find out more at the official LHOTP website here.

To visit the Beyond Little House blog, go here.

To find out more & register for LauraPalooza 2010  (Aghh, I want to go and I can’t!) click here.

To find out about the new Laura Ingalls Wilder documentary, go here.

Share this post:

The Starlet by Mary McNamara

The Starlet by Mary McNamara was a fun summer beach read.  I always enjoy chick lit, and besides, who wouldn’t love a novel set in Hollywood and Italy? I know I do.

Mercy Talbot knows how to follow direction.  She’s been listening to everyone from her overwhelming force-of-nature mother Angie since childhood, when she first became a star at age eleven.  Mercy may have started life out as Tiffany Dawn, but she grew into Mercy Talbot, Hollywood starlet, and the book begins with this troubled twenty-three year old jumping from the top of King Triton into Trevi fountain in the heart of Rome.  While paparazzi are capturing Mercy’s drug-fueled public breakdown, Juliette Greyson, a Hollywood insider on a much-needed vacation, gives Mercy the direction she needed to hear.  She tells her to stop, and she “saves” Mercy from further embarrassment.  Even though Juliette had no intention getting involved, she couldn’t help but try to save the girl the world has been watching have multiple breakdowns and failed rehab stints.  To Juliette, Mercy is a girl worth saving.

Juliette and Mercy have a few things in common, including ex-lovers who turned up dead, as well as a history of drug abuse.  Juliette takes Mercy to her Cerreta, the two-hundred acre family farm near Siena that she and her cousin, Gabe inherited.  Gabe does not want Mercy there, and neither does Juliette, especially when she realizes she comes with a lot of baggage, including Juliette’s ex-lover Michael O’Connor who is replacing the actor who had just killed himself and who Mercy found dead in her hotel room.  Juliette’s has her own little Hollywood insert themself into her Tuscan vacation, the very thing she didn’t want to happen.  Then a detective arrives from Rome to say they are reopening the investigation into Mercy’s ex-lovers death. 
 
The Starlet has a bit of everything for everyone – plenty of murder, mystery, mayhem, Italians, Hollywood insiders, and all the drama that comes along with it, including what else … drug addiction.  This is definitely a story that could be ripped from today’s tabloids.  Ms. McNamara writes a one liner beautifully in The Starlet that seems to sum up all of Hollywood’s misadventures – “Or do you save it for the camera?”  You’ll have to read this book yourself to find out whether or not Juliette and Mercy do save it or not.

To purchase your copy of The Starlet click here.

To visit Mary’s website, go here.

CONTEST:

Regal Literary is sponsoring 2 fabulous The Starlet themed vacations.  If you don’t win a vacation, you may be one of the lucky 100 people to win an autographed copy of The Starlet instead.

To win a weekend getaway in Los Angeles, complete with two nights at the Four Seasons, a four-star lunch at the Beverly Hills hotel, a guided tour of Hollywood, and more!

OR

A four days and three nights in the rolling Tuscan countryside at Spannocchia, Italy, for you and a companion, half price tickets for two from New York to Rome, and more!

Enter to win by visiting Mary’s website here.

Share this post:  

  

Every Rose Has Its Thorn: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Field Guide to Guys

Every Rose Has Its Thorn: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Field Guide to Guys by Erin Bradley and Illustrations by Heather Bradley in a word, rocked.

I laughed my a** off at the numerous (and eerily accurate) types of guys in this girls-guide-to-dating with a clever rock-n-roll angle.  Not only does this book have a lot of hilarious illustrations (Picture Batman’s spotlight as genitalia and you have Sexy Motherfu**ers spotlight forever burned in your mind), but every page made me giggle or at least nod my head and mutter “mmm hmmm.”  I may be an old married woman, but darn it, I can appreciate great humor when I see it and read it.

Erin outlines ten types of rock-n-roll guys with a head to toe graphic that is spot-on.  She’s got every guy you’ve ever met down, from Part-Time Lover to Sexy Motherfu**er to The Boy With The Thorn In his Side to Mannish Boy.  She works in memes, quizes, playlists, and does an awesome press kit during each section to keep it fresh and fun.  For instance, in Erin’s press kit of Father Figure, she writes “Father Figure is the guy who … Is a bit like a Gremlin in that he gets really cranky if you keep him up past midnight.”  Being married to a Father Figure myself, this made me laugh extra hard, because it’s so darn true.

In Every Rose Has Its Thorn, you’ll be advised and guided on how to handle any situation, such as:

• Break-ups: In How To End It Harmoniously with Bad Company, it’s best done with a sponsor.  “A best friend.  A family member.  A cat whose glare is particularly scornful.”
•  Meeting the family: In The Meet & Greet, Johnny B. Goode “He’s the guy who will spend the afternoon working with injured birds of prey and then proceed to get in a vicious fight with your grandpa about politics, despite your prepping him the whole week before not to bring up bisexuality, France, or Barack Obama.”
• How to handle finding the lover of all lovers: In The Meet & Greet, Sexy Motherf**ker “When he’s not f**king your brains out, Sexy Motherf**ker is one of the most enlightened, self-confident-without-being-a-douche-about-it guys around.  He treats you with a surprising amount of respect for someone who can turn around and slap your ass and instruct you to “gag on it” (which you’re all too willing to do).”

I could go on and on, as I have about 60 pages marked, but who has the time for all that?  (I don’t, as I have an evil headache that is stealing my soul right now.)  Just trust me when I say this book was hilarious and it’s a must-read of the summer.  Any fan of rock music will love it, and I suspect, any girl whose been unlucky (hell, even lucky) in love will love it, too.  Plus, I just found out the author grew up near my ghetto and went to college with me at Michigan State.  I’m a few years older, but I wish we had met, because her wicked humor shines through in this book and can be seen on every page.

To purchase your copy of Every Rose Has Its Thorn: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Field Guide to Guys click here.

To visit Erin’s Facebook page, go here.

To visit Erin’s blog, click here.

Share this post:

Rock Girl Weekend – My Love of Van Halen

Seriously, is this not a hilarious photo of me and my friend The Big A?  I’m not just talking about her duck sweatshirt or my dreamy eyes; I’m talking about me posing with my framed Eddie Van Halen photo.  Back in 1984, we both proclaimed that we were going to move to California and change our last names to Van Halen.  We suffered from the fever that is now known as heavy metal fever.  Can you blame us?  For the record, we made those big plans when I was in 8th grade.

Being a teenager in the 1980′s was a magical thing.  Not only was nearly every song ever played on the radio great, but we witnessed the birth of MTV, and got to see our stars make sweet love to us via rock videos.  I actually saw the very first video play on MTV.  I watched that channel daily even though I was a poor white girl from the ghetto.  Rule number one – if you can’t afford cable, find a friend who can.  (I am just kidding.  Every poor person still manages to find money to pay for cable.  That is rule number one.)  I can even semi-proudly say I drank my first California Cooler and coincidently broke my first ever coffee table while dancing along to MTV.

Now, I had been a fan of Van Halen since the summer of 79.  I have trouble remembering a lot of things from that time frame, but I’ll never forget my neighbor W. roll up on his bike and blast me Van Halen’s first album from his ghetto blaster.  I was blown away and hooked within minutes after hearing them jam.  I never forgot them, but, when MTV showed me a fine young man named Eddie Van Halen and I saw him play guitar in that glorious song “Jump” … well, let’s say a school girl crush of epic proportions was born.  I covered all of my walls with his picture, bought my own guitar, and I may have even worn his picture in my heart-shaped locket.  Oh, I even had a boyfriend that looked just like him, but I ended it after 3 days like any other abnormal 8th grade girl would do.

Here I am in my high school yearbook, hard at work with a fashionable side pony heavily sprayed and clipped with the best invention ever – the banana clip.  (Lordy, how I miss them.)  It’s really hard to see, but if you glance at my child development book, you can see where I wrote VAN HALEN.  Well, actually I can only see HALEN if I squint, because this pic was taken of a picture in my yearbook from my sucky cell phone camera, but you get the idea.  I defaced every park bench, textbook, and school locker with my famous VH#1 Forever from 1984 – 1989.  If it was the crappier VH around town, then it was one of mine.  (My neighbor W. had much more time on his hands and could devote hours to his VH defacing.  Am I jealous?  Yep, but I had to do my homework and work two jobs, so …)

Between reading my two rock books this weekend and listening to my iTouch that mysteriously played me nine Van Halen songs during my 4 mile walk tonight, I said to myself … this needs to be Rock Girl Weekend.  Fate was telling me to write about my rock bands.  So there you have it.  Did you have a favorite rock star boyfriend or band in the 80s?

I’ll always have EVH and the memories of the three nights we spent together at concerts.