Back to the Prairie
A Home Remade, A Life Rediscovered
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3.6 • 28 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling author and star of Little House on the Prairie returns with a hilarious and heartfelt memoir chronicling her journey from Hollywood to a ramshackle house in the Catskills during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Known for her childhood role as Laura Ingalls Wilder on the classic NBC show Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert has spent nearly her entire life in Hollywood. From Dancing with the Stars to a turn in politics, she was always on the lookout for her next project. She just had no idea that her latest one would be completely life changing.
When her husband introduces her to the wilds of rural Michigan, Melissa begins to fall back in love with nature. And when work takes them to New York, they find a rustic cottage in the Catskill Mountains to call home. But “rustic” is a generous description for the state of the house, requiring a lot of blood, sweat, and tears for the newlyweds to make habitable.
When the pandemic descends on the world, it further nudges Melissa out of the spotlight and into the woods. She trades Botox treatments for DIY projects, power lunching for gardening and raising chickens, and soon her life is rediscovered anew in her own little house in the Catskills.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actor Gilbert (Prairie Tale) leaves Hollywood behind for life in the country in this utterly entertaining account. With her characteristic wit and self-deprecating charm, Gilbert—best known for her role as Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie—takes readers on a ride through the highs and lows of her recent life with her husband, actor and West Wing alum Timothy Busfield. A few years after an eventful (practice) run for Congress in Michigan in 2015, she and Tim purchased a run-down house in upstate New York. Just as they had finished rehabbing their little home, the pandemic hit, forcing the two actors to fully commit to rustic life, which included building a chicken coop, raising chicks ("I was a motherclucker"), and gardening. Hilariously recounting their new life "on a DIY budget," Gilbert writes, "We were the aspiring Chip and Joanna Gaines of the Catskills." While decrying pandemic pounds, Gilbert peppers in delicious recipes for comfort food staples that saw her through her rockier days, such as slow cooker "loaded baked potato soup," spaghetti pie, and gingersnap pumpkin pie. Along the way, she delights in the little things that came from hunkering down, revealing that she's not above such simple joys as Trader Joe's stuffing-flavored potato chips. Fans will have no trouble devouring this.
Customer Reviews
Could have been better
Quick review: Wish this had been more a book on tips for starting a homestead, cooking & simplifying your life & less a memoir of her current life.
I enjoy Melissa Gilbert’s writing style and have read her other memoir & intend to buy her cookbook. This book,as expected, contains a lot of personal info I was just mildly interested in but also much more of her political opinions which I very much didn’t want to hear about. I would have rated it 5 stars had it been solely about her remodeling her mini farm, gardening, cooking & raising chickens during the pandemic. For me many of the personal (particularly political) anecdotes should have been left out or much more minimal. Not a bad book, just not a favorite for me. If you are a strongly left leaning democrat then the political commentary likely won’t be an issue. If you tend more towards middle of the road or conservative, you might find some portions a bit irritating. I think Ms. Gilbert might want to consider that many who loved the little house series or who are interested in homesteading and simplified living are also conservative and might feel put off by the political/social commentary she occasionally shared. If you are purchasing this book just because you are a huge Melissa Gilbert fan and want to know lots of details on her current life & don’t mind occasional disparaging political comments about the former Trump administration and lots of talk in support of masking & vaxing you will enjoy it very much. If you are a hard core conservative you may really dislike parts of the book. Overall I’m not that political so for me it was an ok read that could have been much better. I’d have preferred more of a country lifestyle book than the memoir style. I really enjoyed when she wrote about chickens, gardening, and cooking as well as how much she got from slowing down and simplifying her life. I also really liked the parts she wrote about embracing her age and wish she’d written even more about that.
Ugh
Another Hollywood democrat who thinks they’re a “hot siren making heads turn”. The only advice worth taking from Half Pint is her potato soup recipe. I got half way through it a gave up.
Prairie Tale
Terrible book