Book Review & Giveaway! 500 Acres and No Place to Hide: More Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl

The great folks at Penguin sent me Susan McCorkindale's hilarious memoir, 500 Acres and No Place to Hide: More Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl (NAL; August 2011). It is the follow-up novel to her first memoir Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl and, like the first, it is really a lot of fun!

Born and bred Jersey Girl, Susan McCorkindale, was a high-powered Marketing Exec at Family Circle until her husband convinced her and their two young sons to move to a 500-acre beef cattle farm in Virginia. Life down South is verrry different than life in Ridgewood, NJ (how can a girl survive without a Starbucks or Bloomies for miles??) and Susan's memoirs chronicle the family's acclimation to their new rural habitat in side-splitting detail.

I really enjoyed both of Susan's memoirs--she is self-deprecating like the majority of us and the jams she gets herself into are hilarious and strangely familiar (Getting chased by a herd of cattle on her morning run? Check. Dropping a ham on the floor, washing it and serving it anyway? Why not?) And while some may be turned off that Susan is a bit of a moneyed princess who does farm work in her Jimmy Choos, I just found her unwillingness to give up the Jersey in her made me laugh even more.

My only beef (haha--beef, farm, you get it?) are the million footnotes. I'm a lover of the footnote and comments in parentheses as you can tell, but even I felt some of Susan's were superfluous. So, a little editing of the footnotes would have been nice, but the books are enjoyable anyway.

The giveaway!
Penguin is generously offering a copy of 500 Acres and No Place to Hide to a lucky Rockland Mother reader in the United States! If you're interested in winning a copy of the book, please comment below before 11:59 on August 31st.

Good luck!

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Author Guest Post! Cynthia Ellingson author of The Whole Package

Have I've got a treat for you today! Cynthia Ellingsen, author of the newly released and perfectly named novel THE WHOLE PACKAGE is here as a guest blogger. You're definitely going to want to hear more about Cynthia and her book--which is about a restaurant where scantily clad men do the serving. Yes! 


A full Rockland Mother review and giveaway of the book are just a couple weeks down the line too, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for that. In the meanwhile, sit back and enjoy today's guest post! 

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Hi Rockland Mother! Thank you so much for having me to guest blog.

The Whole Package was released on August 2 and it’s been a delight to hear from readers. I’m going to share with you some of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked since the launch of the book.

What is The Whole Package about?

The Whole Package is about three women, friends for life, who open a restaurant staffed by scantily clad men. Very attractive, scantily clad men.

Seriously, what’s the book about?

Even though there are some very attractive, scantily clad men, the story is actually about friendship. The three main characters, Jackie, Cheryl and Doris, are best friends who have lost touch. The book is about the three of them coming back together.

How long did it take you to write it?

It took about six months to write the rough draft of The Whole Package and about a year to polish. I love to drink coffee while I write (wine doesn’t work when I’m writing - I’d nod off over the computer!) so that probably equals about 1,620 cups of coffee.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes, yes and yes. In third grade, the teacher designated Friday as story writing day. He would create these blank books with wallpaper covers and we were expected to write a book every Friday. While most of the class would feign illness, I would happily scribble away.

How did you pursue a writing career?

Unfortunately, I didn’t. Not for years. I went through that thing in middle school that a lot of girls fall victim to - the ol’, “boys will only like me if I’m dumb”. So, I didn’t pursue writing as a career until I was older, wiser and... okay, fine. Smarter.

What do you hope readers will get from reading The Whole Package?

I just got a wonderful email from a reader that can help me answer this question. In her email, she talked about the various themes in the book. One message she settled upon was the importance of staying true to who you are. (One of the main characters, Jackie, is a painter who has long since given up the desire to paint. It’s only a tiny part of who she is but it’s very significant in terms of what makes her happy.) The reader pointed out that, in life, we often lose sight of what it is as women that truly makes us happy. The Whole Package reminded her the importance of staying true to who she is and to set aside time and enthusiasm for those things that bring her joy.

I hope that all readers can find a similar message as they read The Whole Package.

Thanks for reading! I hope to hear from you, too, at www.cynthiaellingsen.com

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A Cat Named Finn

I haven't mentioned yet that we adopted a little kitten a couple weeks ago from Hi-Tor Animal Care Center. We named our 4-month-old ball of terror Finbar (Finn for short) and he is causing quite the stir in our little family. He is ridiculously energetic which means Andrew and he are perfectly matched for play--except that Andrew has the strength of a million babies and often threatens to whack, suffocate or crush Finn and Finn has razor sharp teeth and claws that he bares indiscriminately.

Aww, look at Finn in this picture! He is so stinking adorable. We just didn't realize how much work a tiny kitten would be! We thought that cats pretty much take care of themselves, and we were wrong--small kittens want your constant attention just like human babies, and will trip, scratch and bite the hell out of you if you don't keep a spray bottle ready.

That said, we are smitten with Finn and Andrew is often brought to hysterics by his antics so this "kitten-period" is well worth it (we just hope its just a very short period...) I will be sure to post pet-related product review now that I need to learn by trial and error the best ways to tame the beast and his poop.

If you're interested in adopting a kitten from Hi-Tor, they've got an adopt one kitten get one free promotion going on this summer. The adoption fee is a hefty $145 but it includes spay/neuter, shots, and a free local vet visit. They didn't require an interview or any references when we went, so we were able to walk out the same day with a cat, but I'm not sure if that is a good thing! (Although in NYC they almost require a urine sample for you to adopt!)

They've also got dogs, small animals, adult cats, and the occasional barn animal (rooster, anyone?) to love. Check them out!

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That's More Like It! Hefty 55 Qt D Style Touch Lid Wastebasket

You'll probably recall my hate letter to my Simple Human Round Trashcan. While sleek looking and metal, it was so small as to be useless and was constantly leaving me with ripped trash bags and garbage on the kitchen floor (yuck!) Well, we finally got our asses in gear and bought another--albeit plastic--wastebasket and it is a winner!

We bought Hefty's 55 Quart "D" Style Touch Lid Wastebasket at a local Target (Spring Valley, NY) for about $17.00. The trash can is large enough for all of our kitchen trash and not once has my garbage bag become lodged within it or shred into a million  pieces. It looks great in the black color we purchased--because white gets dirty so easily--and the touch lid is wonderful. This is a push button lid which needs to be manually closed, which I actually prefer over the step trashcans because you can leave the lid open for big jobs.

The cons are that, if your husband is like mine and shoves garbage in the can until it is brimming, you will need stretchy trash bags such as the ForceFlex bags so that the bags do not slip down into the wastebasket. Also, as mentioned, this is a plastic wastebasket so it will retain some odors from particularly stinky garbage. I've found that the odors actually dissipate fairly quickly, but I still like to spray inside the can with Lysol between the stinky bag changes.

Oh, and I can't seem to find the "D' Style Wastebasket anywhere online anymore except at Walmart ($16 in White HERE). It seems that the similar Hefty 13.5-gal Touch Lid Wastebasket has taken its place ($14.97 at Walmart in black and white HERE.)

I'm really floored that these inexpensive trash cans have the stupidly expensive Simple Human models beat. Serves me right to get all fancy when all we had to do was visit a local store and trust a brand who really knows their garbage (er, stuff)!

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