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The Birdhouse Chronicles: Surviving the Joys of country Life
In THE BIRDHOUSE CHRONICLES, internationally best-selling author Cathleen Miller offers a funny and wise account of how she and her husband, Kerby, abandoned their San Francisco advertising careers to make a radical new life for themselves in a one-hundred-year-old Pennsylvania farmhouse located in the middle of an Amish corn patch. Part memoir, part nature writing, and part old-house-restoration journal, this wonderfully intimate narrative brings home all the humor, exhilaration, and disappointment of pursuing a realer, "simpler" life. In her sassy, self-deprecating style, Cathleen Miller puts a fresh, authentic spin on the classic country memoir, and surprises us with many unique twists.
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
258 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Cathleen Miller
7 books15 followersCathleen Miller is a bestselling American author, journalist, and public speaker.
She has traveled around the globe to write her books telling the stories of people and places. She’s interviewed diplomats and heads of state on five continents, patients in an Addis Ababa hospital, rape camp survivors in Kosovo, and midwives in the mountains of East Timor. Her work sometimes places her in strange circumstances, for example cruising St. Petersburg in a Winnebago to interview prostitutes, and running down a Brazilian mountain at midnight fleeing bandits.
Miller is the author of Champion of Choice (University of Nebraska Press), the story of UN leader Nafis Sadik, named one of the top biographies of the year by the American Library Association. Dr. Sadik’s work managed to cut the global birthrate in half by giving females access to birth control and education. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, provided this blurb: “A beautiful and long-awaited tribute to one of the greatest women’s advocates of the 20th century.”
Miller also wrote Desert Flower (Harper Collins), the life story of Waris Dirie, which describes the Somali nomad’s experience with female genital mutilation. This book’s print version has sold 11 million copies in 55 languages, and the UN believes its powerful message has played a major part in stopping FGM. In both Desert Flower and Champion of Choice, Miller utilizes storytelling as a rhetorical device to demonstrate how the issues which affect one individual are representative of a larger world order. Desert Flower was adapted as a feature film, released in 34 nations to date.
The Birdhouse Chronicles (Lyons Press) is Cathy’s memoir, telling the story of leaving San Francisco, buying a dilapidated farmhouse sight unseen, and living amongst the Amish. As Booklist says: “If you move to the country and feel compelled to write about it, let Miller be your guide.” Recently released as an audio book read by Grammy-nominee Garrison Starr.
A winner of the Society of American Travel Writers’ gold award, Miller’s travel essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times. She taught creative writing at San José State University for fifteen years, where she directed the prestigious speakers’ series, the Center for Literary Arts.
She has traveled around the globe to write her books telling the stories of people and places. She’s interviewed diplomats and heads of state on five continents, patients in an Addis Ababa hospital, rape camp survivors in Kosovo, and midwives in the mountains of East Timor. Her work sometimes places her in strange circumstances, for example cruising St. Petersburg in a Winnebago to interview prostitutes, and running down a Brazilian mountain at midnight fleeing bandits.
Miller is the author of Champion of Choice (University of Nebraska Press), the story of UN leader Nafis Sadik, named one of the top biographies of the year by the American Library Association. Dr. Sadik’s work managed to cut the global birthrate in half by giving females access to birth control and education. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, provided this blurb: “A beautiful and long-awaited tribute to one of the greatest women’s advocates of the 20th century.”
Miller also wrote Desert Flower (Harper Collins), the life story of Waris Dirie, which describes the Somali nomad’s experience with female genital mutilation. This book’s print version has sold 11 million copies in 55 languages, and the UN believes its powerful message has played a major part in stopping FGM. In both Desert Flower and Champion of Choice, Miller utilizes storytelling as a rhetorical device to demonstrate how the issues which affect one individual are representative of a larger world order. Desert Flower was adapted as a feature film, released in 34 nations to date.
The Birdhouse Chronicles (Lyons Press) is Cathy’s memoir, telling the story of leaving San Francisco, buying a dilapidated farmhouse sight unseen, and living amongst the Amish. As Booklist says: “If you move to the country and feel compelled to write about it, let Miller be your guide.” Recently released as an audio book read by Grammy-nominee Garrison Starr.
A winner of the Society of American Travel Writers’ gold award, Miller’s travel essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times. She taught creative writing at San José State University for fifteen years, where she directed the prestigious speakers’ series, the Center for Literary Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 5, 2014
At one point in this journey back to simplicity, the author specifies the basics amidst the craziness of her new life:
- breakfast to be made
- birds to be watched
- books to be read
That is a recital which makes this book such a pleasure to read. Stepping away from the fast lane of urban corporate life, Cathleen Miller takes us to a broken down house in Amish country as she learns to adapt to a lifestyle initially outside her comfort zone. Money is tight, nature is unsteady, and the neighbours keep to themselves, but there is a farmhouse to resurrect and a softer daily melody to follow.
Here in Zion we struggled to adapt, to listen to the rhythms of life outside the noise we generated ourselves.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it came out to be about 1/3 lifestyle change, 1/3 rebuilding and farming, and 1/3 reflections. That was fine with me. Miller's ability to describe what we can't see ('the woolly mammoth of furnaces', the steam pouring from a draft horse's nostrils, the kvetching of noisy crows, the wind whipping a yellow maple naked) kept my attention, as I also slowed my pace to match hers.
It's as if each of us decides just how far down this path of progress we're willing to venture, with something besides logic determining the distance.
Book Season = Autumn (take time to enjoy the leaves)
- breakfast to be made
- birds to be watched
- books to be read
That is a recital which makes this book such a pleasure to read. Stepping away from the fast lane of urban corporate life, Cathleen Miller takes us to a broken down house in Amish country as she learns to adapt to a lifestyle initially outside her comfort zone. Money is tight, nature is unsteady, and the neighbours keep to themselves, but there is a farmhouse to resurrect and a softer daily melody to follow.
Here in Zion we struggled to adapt, to listen to the rhythms of life outside the noise we generated ourselves.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it came out to be about 1/3 lifestyle change, 1/3 rebuilding and farming, and 1/3 reflections. That was fine with me. Miller's ability to describe what we can't see ('the woolly mammoth of furnaces', the steam pouring from a draft horse's nostrils, the kvetching of noisy crows, the wind whipping a yellow maple naked) kept my attention, as I also slowed my pace to match hers.
It's as if each of us decides just how far down this path of progress we're willing to venture, with something besides logic determining the distance.
Book Season = Autumn (take time to enjoy the leaves)
wish-list
March 6, 2014Part memoir, part travelogue, part nature writing--an intimate first-person narrative of returning to a realer simpler life.
Spotted on GoldCato's update
Spotted on GoldCato's update
August 23, 2008
This bopok was a delightful look at a year in the lives of a very cosmopolitan couple from San Francisco who purchase a fixer-upper house in tiny Zion, PA on a dirt lane populated by mostly Amish families. I'm not sure they would have survived if it weren't for the fact that they grew up on farms! Cathleen Miller offers hilarious stories of their ineptitude at things like remodeling and canning,yet woven throughout is their love of the country and this particular house, a fondness for their wildlife friends and the deep peace they found in this quieter lifestyle.
August 11, 2022
This book is gorgeously written, funny, self-effacing and poignantly insightful. Ostensibly it's about moving to the country and remodeling a house. But it's really about how we humans try to make lives amidst the swirling, changing facets of nature and humanity. How do we continue on in the face of concerns small and large--from trying to heat our homes in the midst of severe winters, to facing the loss of those we count on and love? Never mawkish or cloying, Miller is an astute, sensitive observer of the human condition.
February 8, 2010
I am on page 57 and really enjoying this - who knew?
I finished this book and LOVED it!
The story of a couple who chuck it all in California to purchase and remodel a 10 year old farmhouse in northern Pennsylvania. Good times and hard chores - a true picture of what it means to remodel on a minimal budget, by yourself and yet, notice the lovely nature and landscapes, friendly neighbors - so different from California and high pressure jobs.
But the best part?
This same author wrote with a young Somali woman. Desert Flower: the Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie, who at age 12 escaped an arranged marriage with a 60 year old man - ran to the desert and found her way to an aunt in Mogadishu and then to London as a servant of her uncle, a Somalian ambassador. She became a well-known fashion model. Then as a special ambassador to the United Nation, where she is an outspoken advocate against ritual female mutilation - a common practice in her homeland. A-mazing story, I think.
I finished this book and LOVED it!
The story of a couple who chuck it all in California to purchase and remodel a 10 year old farmhouse in northern Pennsylvania. Good times and hard chores - a true picture of what it means to remodel on a minimal budget, by yourself and yet, notice the lovely nature and landscapes, friendly neighbors - so different from California and high pressure jobs.
But the best part?
This same author wrote with a young Somali woman. Desert Flower: the Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad by Waris Dirie, who at age 12 escaped an arranged marriage with a 60 year old man - ran to the desert and found her way to an aunt in Mogadishu and then to London as a servant of her uncle, a Somalian ambassador. She became a well-known fashion model. Then as a special ambassador to the United Nation, where she is an outspoken advocate against ritual female mutilation - a common practice in her homeland. A-mazing story, I think.
July 23, 2008
I'm nearly finished with this one and am surprised at how compelling it is. It's the true story of a couple who leaves their high pressure advertising and marketing careers in San Francisco for the simple life in rural Pennsylvania near the Amish. They restore and old farmhouse and discover life in the country. I recommend it.
January 30, 2011
Southern girl feel throughout this fun adventurous story. The Skye in June
April 30, 2021
A very mellow, comfortable read. Birdhouse is the name given to an old house in Pennsylvania Amish country purchased by a young couple from San Francisco. They wanted to leave their busy advertising careers for a simpler life. He to find a job in the building trades and she to go back to college and teaching. She takes us through the years it took to remodel the house on a thin budget with some humorous stories like moving a claw-foot bathtub to the upstairs bathroom and living in a perpetual construction zone. She tells stories of the typical rural neighbors and the nearby Amish neighbors, of her long walks in the woods, of rescuing a baby bunny, of the birds in the yard, of her gardening, and the weather. Off and on, throughout the book, she also tells us about her upbringing and her family, which wasn't very pleasant.
July 6, 2021
My cup of tea :)
October 9, 2023
Delightful read
August 26, 2008
In The Birdhouse Chronicles, Miller describes her back-to-the-land experiences in an old, run-down Pennsylvania farm house. Miller and her husband, Kerby, decide to leave their careers in advertising in San Francisco and pursue a simpler life in Pennsylvania's Amish countryside. In this account of their three year stay in the country, Miller takes us through her battles with an ancient furnace, her husband's jobs in construction and woodcraft, planting a vegetable garden and canning the overflow, the trails the Amish farmer faces in a modern age, and much more.
I originally bought the book because it had one exceptionally bad review on Amazon. One reviewer was so offended by the way Miller treated (in writing) her neighbors that this reviewer sent in her review twice. I was intrigued because this was a trap I wanted to avoid. Miller does, in fact, use her caustic wit to great advantage in describing some of the locals, and I concluded that what might be amusing to her San Francisco audience would, indeed, seem insulting to someone who was her neighbor. Would the book have suffered without her jibes? Probably not,and though her descriptions are funny, they set up a 'them-vs-us'attitude which is somewhat unpleasant.
I originally bought the book because it had one exceptionally bad review on Amazon. One reviewer was so offended by the way Miller treated (in writing) her neighbors that this reviewer sent in her review twice. I was intrigued because this was a trap I wanted to avoid. Miller does, in fact, use her caustic wit to great advantage in describing some of the locals, and I concluded that what might be amusing to her San Francisco audience would, indeed, seem insulting to someone who was her neighbor. Would the book have suffered without her jibes? Probably not,and though her descriptions are funny, they set up a 'them-vs-us'attitude which is somewhat unpleasant.
March 11, 2015
Lovely description of the countryside, however there were some definite dry spots that seemed to go on and on. Although of no fault of the author, the ending was depressing, but the entire book gets points for honesty.
October 20, 2016
I found this book at the library and found it to be interesting. The writer was open about her adventures in redoing an old country house and I liked her writing. She was humorous and charming with her descriptions of her neighbors and her life at that time. I enjoyed this book.
September 3, 2010
was more of a story about her and her relationships - not much about the gardening or the restoration of a farm.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews