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.  

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