Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Oct 04, 2008

Sonia rated it:

This IS like listening to your grandma (or that old lady in the Titanic movie) telling in a gentle, slow-cadenced voice, about the old days. Some topics covered are thrift, medicine, chores, farm food, gathering wood, and wash day. The book starts off entertaining, but like Grandma (or Grandpa) it gets long-winded; and you start to feel bored and restless and wonder how much more you are willing to sit through before you make the move for your coat. You might decide that next time she repeats More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ginny rated it:

Mildred Kalish's memoir of life on a farm during the Depression is packed with fascinating experiences and observations. I loved the content, but was not crazy about her writing style, which often sounded to me like a transcription of an oral history. But Kalish, a former English professor, does, in fact, know how to tell a story (and share a recipe and give instructions on cleaning a sink). She's friendly and chatty, and intersperses her observations with lots of (very definite) opinions and a More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2007

Nomi rated it:

This was not particularly well written but rather had the effect of sitting by your (possibly dying) grandmother's bedside while she tried to cram a life's worth of lesons and experiences into a couple of hours. The result is not at all unpleasant and is chock full of fascinating descriptions of labor intensive farming without the luxury of modern day conveniences. Eye-opening for todays suburbanites and city dwellers.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Joanne rated it:

I was surprised to see this book on the New York Times' list of Best Books of 2007: it's Midwestern AND it's by a woman. Glory be.

Anyway, this is a cross between reading an updated _Little House on the Prairie_ and sitting at my grandparents' respective tables listening to their stories about growing up. There's a lot of wonderful description of nature and school and how to do things on the farm. There's a little less than I would like of the author's introspection or reflectio More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2008

Alison rated it:

If I were looking at this from a literary perspective, I'd probably knock it down another star. The writing isn't great; the back-in-my-day tone in particular gets irritating. Most of the narrative focuses on farm chores, but the epilogue alludes to a far more interesting story about the author's experiences during the war. Maybe another book is forthcoming?

I think it is useful as a historical book, though. It's strange to think how much life has changed in just two generations, More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Kirsti rated it:

This sounds like a dreadful idea . . . retired English teacher writes her first book, an account of her rural childhood. The only reason I picked it up was the rave review in the New York Times. What a fabulous memoir. Her writing is utterly clear, and the events, both everyday and extraordinary, are fascinating.

In a nutshell: May baskets, outhouses, taming wild horses, treating puncture wounds (don't go up the house to tell the adults, because they won't care--just go to the barn an More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2008

Erin rated it:

The man at the cool little SF bookstore where I bought this book highly recommended it, so I was pretty excited about reading it. I liked it at the beginning, but as it went on I disliked it more and more by the page. The old woman who wrote the book had a serious age-based superiority complex, and gets heavier and heavier on phrases like "these days, people don't know about..." or "today's Xs don't even compare to what we had back then..." or "young people today don't More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2008

Heidi rated it:

I enjoyed this book so much that my hubby is now reading it. It is a memoir of a woman that takes place during the depression. It describes daily life for the author who is a child during these years. It could be read as short stories because the chapters don't really build on each other. I am really excited to try a couple of the recipes that she gives in the book. For not having very much money, it seemed to me that they had a lot more than what we have today. In the way of a community a More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2007

Maya rated it:

I loved this book, and I hope all the people I gave it to as a Christmas present love it, too!

Reading through some of the reviews here, I notice that some people are irked by the folksy, chatty style of the author. I found it charming--maybe it sounds like you're sitting around talking to grandma. So what? Perhaps because I never got to sit around and talk to grandma about the good ol' days myself (and if I had, my grandmothers' "good ol'days" would have sounded nothing More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2007

David rated it:

There were times where I found this book very enjoyable. Then, there were other times where I was afraid to turn the page because Millie'd be yelling, "You kids git off my yard!" - there's a certain harrumphing tone to much of it that gets a little bit annoying.

There's also a section on the box social that I simply did NOT get. Some kind of scandal or hurt feelings or something I just couldn't see.

Still, there's a great poem of her female relatives voices on T More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2007

Maudeen rated it:

I delved into this book with great anticipation. The author is only a few years younger than my mother and the area she writes about in rural Iowa is just 50 miles east of where my grandfather was born.

There were many things to like in this book that combines anecdotes from the 1930s with recipes and how to do things the old way. I enjoyed the anecdotes and would have enjoyed the book if it had been sprinkled with less of the recipes and more of t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 15, 2009

Kellidee rated it:

Oh the despair I felt as my eyes reluctantly devoured the last page of this book. Functioning as my stationary bike companion for weeks, I fell in love with the simplicity and wisdom of Mildred's childhood.

I could go on for hours about this book. I felt a kinship to the author simply due to the manner in which I grew up. My grandparents were dairy farmers. Their ideals, morals and ethics were drilled so deeply into my mother that no matter how hard she tried, she still imbued the More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Annie rated it:

i am really torn about how to review this book partially because the 85 year old author's photo on the back flap is so damn cute. plus she's old and i really think the book was mainly written for her family and to get a bunch of memories down on paper. however: the writing was kind of painful and contained a lot of cliched, old person sayings. had some interesting info on farm life during the 1930s, but not as much as i was hoping, and too many family remembrances without fully flushed out chara More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2007

Jeanoc rated it:

Disappointing after reading positive reviews. Writing was poor. Parts were interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the author seemed to think they were! Kent looked up reviews and they were all by people in their 20's and 30's. For us boomers and older there really wasn't much unique about the author's experiences and they weren't enlivened by any kind of narrative to draw the reader along.
I hardly dare mention Annie Dillard's An American Childhood in the same breath. My favorite boo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2009

L. Frockcoat rated it:

Mildred Armstrong Kalish paints a rich picture of her childhood on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression. You can hardly read this book without marveling at how much has changed in such a relatively short time and wondering whether it's all been for the best.

I enjoyed the unusual structure of the book. It has the feeling of sitting down for long conversations with a grandparent, running from memorable stories, to recipes, to family lineages, and so forth. It's remarkable that More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2009

Ashley rated it:

Mildred Kalish's book is a look into her life growing up as a young girl on a farm in Iowa. The book is broken up into several sections, beginning with a brief family history before moving into tales and stories from the author's childhood. The chapters are divided by subject with stories that relate to each (for example, there is a whole chapter devoted to cooking and recipes and a whole chapter devoted to her experiences going to country school versus the city school).

I liked the More...

0 comments like

Dec 24, 2008

Ellen rated it:

This book was referred to me by my grandmother, and it was actually pretty enlightening and damn impressive. If I were a person who actually enjoys cooking it would be even more interesting, because a lot of this book consists of old timey farm style chicken-plucking oat-growing recipes and other things concerning domestic sciences. The rest of it is all about life and work on the farm, complete with endless daily family chores and routines.

Reading about life on a Great Depression Io More...

0 comments like

Nov 01, 2008

Shirley rated it:

I really enjoyed reading about how my family lived in this era. Even though my family lived in Indiana lives were the same in county-living.

The recipes were a nice add to the book. Again, same recipes were used here in Indiana by my family.

Too bad there weren't any pictures to go along with the book.

I enjoyed the story telling of Mrs. Kalish. It wasn't fancy just plain good reading.

Not everyone will like this book. I have recommended it for our

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 10, 2011

Melee rated it:

YES!!! I FOUND IT!

This is yet another book I read years ago and then forgot the title of. For some reason, I got a bee in my bonnet today to find it. The library website was no help, but as I thought about searchable plot points of this book, I realized that a snippet of a sentence from this book was imprinted in my brain. With slight trepidation and a few giggles, I typed the fragment into google. To my great astonishment, my remembered snippet was word perfect! Want to know what i More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

McGuffy Ann rated it:

This book honours a time, place and way of life that unfortunately is lost to most of us today. This book is a joy to read, allowing one to live vicariously the happy childhood that Ms. Kalish so joyously shares.

Family is the central focal point. It is, in fact the importance of family ties that drive the entire book. Each story stresses the bonds that hold family together through the thick and inevitable thin of farm life and the Great Depression.

It was the love and comm More...

0 comments like

May 30, 2011

Summer rated it:

Very informative and fun. Lots of recipes included. For those who love L.I.Wilder and the like. So many fun bits to mark that I stopped half way through:
p.14: The only things they spent money on were tea, coffee, sugar, salt, white flour, cloth, and kerosene.
p.17: 'The most dangerous gun,' we were cautioned, 'is the one that isn't loaded.'
p.19/20: Mama's loose routines also made us kids remarkably flexible in handling unforeseen events as we grew up.
p.21: Without hesitation, More...

0 comments like

Feb 17, 2011

Jenn rated it:

I loved, loved, loved this book! I can't begin to tell you how touching it was. Imagine you've just been invited into the living room of a sweet old lady, you've nestled into a comfortable chair with a hot cup of coffee after a big meal. There's a roaring fire in the fireplace to keep you all warm and with many friends and family gathered around she begins to spin the yarn of her youth. It's all the stories you imagine your grandparents would tell if they were still alive. It's a simple life fu More...

0 comments like

Jan 17, 2011

Cynthia rated it:

Charming true story about life growing up on a farm when money was tight and possessions were few. The author wrote this first book while in her 80's and I must say it was very well written. She chronicles the antics of herself and siblings, and how they worked hard to help with all the chores that come with living on a farm at that time in history. Yet they were happy and managed to make their own fun and have fond memories of family and gatherings. Food was a big part of their lives, both More...

0 comments like

Sep 08, 2010

Kathy rated it:

This book is a woman's memories of being a child on a farm during the depression and it is a great and quick read. I highly suggest it to anyone who is interested in everyday rural life during the 30s. Mildred has a great voice and I love the way the book is organized. I found a lot of my "How did they do that?" questions answered while reading this book. For example, one thing I've always been curious about is how people line dried clothes during winter. Mildred explains how the famil More...

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2010

Dnicebear rated it:

Mildred Kalish reminds me of my Aunt Beulah, and she has stories from my childhood region--all of which help me understand my region and my people even more. I get the sense that the title of her book is a succinct way of describing how grownups viewed children in 'those days,' and I/we are still recovering from that view of childhood. However, Kalish delivers all her remedies, recipes, character sketches and vignettes with a large dose of humor and deep appreciation for what her family gave h More...

0 comments like

Oct 27, 2011

Kelsey rated it:

Some readers' reviews have mentioned the condescending "kids these days are useless" tone found in this book. I agree that this was annoying at times. My family planted a garden and tended fruit trees during my childhood in the 80s and 90s, so I found it bothersome when the author claimed that a child growing up now will never know what it's like to eat a freshly picked tomato or whatever. Some things are different like indoor plumbing and electricity, but the author seemed most concer More...

0 comments like

Nov 27, 2010

Kathy rated it:

The depression certainly did not have the same effect on these hard working farmers as it had on the Oakies in Grapes of Wrath. Hard to believe it was the same time period. I wish I had as detailed a memoir from one of my ancestors. Mildred compares life in the city living with her serious grandparents and going to school in the winter with summer in the country living on a farm near cousins and attending a few months of school each year there. My favorite anecdote from the book was: "There More...

0 comments like

Nov 19, 2010

Clif rated it:

This is a happy memoir. It’s sort of a latter day “Little House on the Prairie,” but intended for adults. There are no sour grapes (or grapes of wrath) dredged up here. And contrary to the subtitle, the childhood remembered here was well insulated from the hard times of the depression. The rural life depicted here was on a mortgage free farm owned by her grandfather. Though land rich, they were cash poor. So they needed to be self sufficient to the extent possible. But frugality was secon More...

0 comments like

Jan 10, 2012

Amatullah rated it:

Delightful book about growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression. Even though it was a strict, difficult upbringing with an absent father, Kalish is able to highlight the warm memories and advantages of her childhood. As an Iowan she brought back many warm memories of my grandparents and the work ethic we were raised to live. Kalish, her mom, and her siblings were enveloped by an extended family after her parents divorced. In many ways the book highlights the advantages of extended f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Kathleen added it

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression,
Mildred Armstrong Kalish,
narrated by Ruth Ann Phinister, produced by Recorded Books.

This is Mildred’s story, written when she was in her 80’s, about growing up on an Iowa farm during the depression. We don’t have the usual story of poverty and bleakness. What this author does is tell us how people in the 30’s cooked, throwing in a few of her grandmother’s recipes; how they farmed More...

0 comments like