McGuffyAnn M. reviewed This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone on + 112 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
To say this book is a beautifully written memoir does not do it justice. Melissa Coleman tells the story of her parents and what moved them not to be hippies, but to be true back-to-nature farmers. They were not interested in the drug culture, altering their minds, or a commune way of life. They wanted only to provide a natural, simple, down to earth life for themselves and their family.
Following the example, of Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of Living the Good Life, Eliot and Sue Coleman forged out a sixty acre farm on coastal Maine. It is there they built their home, and then had first Melissa and later her sister, Heidi.
Melissa tells the story of her family, their farm and the simpler way of life they embraced. She writes of a childhood full of eating wild blueberries, running naked in the rain, making homemade bread, chopping wood and gathering seaweed. It is a full and happy life for the Colemans.
There comes a point though, when Melissas parents relationship is strained and pulled apart by outside influences and stresses. Not long after, the sudden tragic death of her three year old sister tears the family and all that it was, all that it stood for apart, leaving only broken dreams in its wake. Melissa is left to neighbors as her family disintegrates.
This book is Melissa Colemans search to sort through her families dreams, to make sense of what happened and why, how such beauty could have gone so awry. She looks to answer how one can find forgiveness when there is no actual blame. Truly, a thread of wisdom winds throughout her book, as she teaches us the price of sacrifice and the value of forgiveness.
Following the example, of Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of Living the Good Life, Eliot and Sue Coleman forged out a sixty acre farm on coastal Maine. It is there they built their home, and then had first Melissa and later her sister, Heidi.
Melissa tells the story of her family, their farm and the simpler way of life they embraced. She writes of a childhood full of eating wild blueberries, running naked in the rain, making homemade bread, chopping wood and gathering seaweed. It is a full and happy life for the Colemans.
There comes a point though, when Melissas parents relationship is strained and pulled apart by outside influences and stresses. Not long after, the sudden tragic death of her three year old sister tears the family and all that it was, all that it stood for apart, leaving only broken dreams in its wake. Melissa is left to neighbors as her family disintegrates.
This book is Melissa Colemans search to sort through her families dreams, to make sense of what happened and why, how such beauty could have gone so awry. She looks to answer how one can find forgiveness when there is no actual blame. Truly, a thread of wisdom winds throughout her book, as she teaches us the price of sacrifice and the value of forgiveness.
Gabby O. (gabrielle-o) reviewed This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone on
Helpful Score: 3
Candid and insightful look into the formative years of the author on a rural New England farm. Very moving story that captures the highs and lows of this family's "back to the earth" existence in the 70's. The tragic drowning death of the author's toddler sister is the final unraveling of the family; and catapults the young author into parenting her own mother. Haunting, yet redemptively healing tale. Well worth reading.
Tonia V. (bvaughnfamily) -
Helpful Score: 1
Note: this review was a part of my blogpost http://bvaughnfamily.blogspot.com/2012/03/sometimes-books-can-help-us-through.html
This book has really hit me hard. I am pretty slow, so I'll be mentally & emotionally digesting this for a while. Chewing on my cud, so to speak. My initial reaction is that if you read a book that inspires you to begin farming, BEFORE you sell your house & all your belongings & pack everything into a yellow truck & begin your farm dream, READ THIS BOOK. I will caution you that this is not a neat & tidy book that you can read to your little ones. Unless you consider skinny-dipping, and some of the other hippie-style social interactions okay. I won't be reading this to my kids. But I'm glad I read it.
This book has really hit me hard. I am pretty slow, so I'll be mentally & emotionally digesting this for a while. Chewing on my cud, so to speak. My initial reaction is that if you read a book that inspires you to begin farming, BEFORE you sell your house & all your belongings & pack everything into a yellow truck & begin your farm dream, READ THIS BOOK. I will caution you that this is not a neat & tidy book that you can read to your little ones. Unless you consider skinny-dipping, and some of the other hippie-style social interactions okay. I won't be reading this to my kids. But I'm glad I read it.
