Terry Ryan (1)Besprekingen

parts of the book were a bit tedious, but it was interesting that the author's mother chose to stay with the alcoholic father, that didn't support the family. The excuse was that in the '50's and '60's women did NOT leave/divorce their husbands. I think this mother would have done better without the husband. The ending is good though.

This was recommended to me by a good friend, and it was an interesting and pleasant distraction from some heavier reading I have planned. An enjoyable memoir written by a daughter about her mother, particularly focusing on her mother's talent for writing advertisements and jingles for competitions in the 50's and 60's. Along the way, she provides a view of growing up on the very edge of poverty with a large family and an alcoholic father. I particularly loved the contest entries that are included in each chapter. Clearly, Evelyn Ryan was an intelligent and witty woman who found satisfaction, friendships, and monetary reward in her contesting.

I recently finished this great book. The author is the daughter of Evelyn Ryan, a fiesty, resilient mother of 10, who writes jingles and ads for contests. The story is mainly about her contesting.. but I am getting more 'umph' from the author's story behind the story: how her mother manages with 10 children, a drunken husband and a car that falls apart for years, washing machines and other appliances that die every month, not enough money for food and constant trips to the emergency room.. and yet everyone survives. That alone inspires me. I am looking for more stories like this one.

Great fun but also touching. Story of a family with an alcoholic dad and an literary minded and clever mother who manages the impossible: a reasonable quality of life for 10 kids.

had to give up halfway though....couldnt follow the story with all the verses and entries scattered on each page throughout the story

had to give up halfway though....couldnt follow the story with all the verses and entries scattered on each page throughout the story

I just wanted to give the mom in the book the biggest hug. I can't believe all she managed to do for her family. She led an amazing life and the author, her daughter, perfectly captured her tireless spirit. This was definitely one of my favorite nonfiction reads of the year.½

A wonderfully upbeat story about a woman who raises her large family by entering contests.

While this was a somewhat interesting, sometimes amazing, and occasionally horrifying memoir, I had several problems with it. Not only was it not particularly great writing, but I didn't believe that she remembered this much about her childhood. Clearly she must have interviewed her family to get lots of information, misremembered things so that they were mixed together or added to the wrong day, or she kept an excellent diary. She explains none of this. My biggest issue with the book was that except for the fact that her mother used her intelligence and creativity to enter and win so many contests, there was nothing new or particularly interesting about this life. For me, a short story would have covered it better.

How my mother raised 10 kids on 25 words or less…

This book caught my attention through the recommendation of a friend. I approached it cautiously, knowing that this particular friend loves stories full of pablum and sap. It turns out I was right to do so, as this book tends to beat you about the neck and head with it’s “message”. On occasion I had to put it down and walk away, thinking “we get it, we get it, she survived by her wit and still raised ten kids in the face of her husband’s alcoholism - enough already!” Read The Rest of This Review: [http://books.bgwe.org/?p=13]

Another one I forgot to log.
Read it in 2009 or 2010.
Another fascinating true story.
Lots of kids, little money, and creative optimistic mother.
Wow - She wrote good copy and won a lot of fantastic prizes.
Lots of struggle, lots of love, lots of family working together.

I found this book about the author's mother to be interesting but flawed. I think she could have used a strict editor. I am just old enough to remember the tail end of the big contests for housewives, and it was fun to find out more about them. I found this book to have too many details about things not germane to the actual story, though.

Just love this story of resilience.

Excellent story of a family growing up in a generation before my own. Through struggles with finances brought on by an alcoholic father, a family of 9 manages to stay afloat through the mother's ability to write small jingles that win contests. Ultimately, the story provides some hope and a good look at family dynamics in the 1950's.

(Transplanted from my old booklog... I didn't give a star rating there, but I'm pretty sure it was in the 4-5 range.)

Oh, this was good.

The subtitle concisely summarizes the entire book. It's the true story of how the author's mother, during the contest craze of the 1950s and 1960s, entered every contest in sight, winning often enough to keep the family afloat.

I liked this for several reasons. For one thing, I confess I give bonus points to any book chronicling a family whose size is in the ballpark of mine. (Ten is close enough to be in the ballpark, I figure.) This is one reason why I've long been a fan of Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes. (Of course, small families can be nice, too: that's one reason why I've liked watching The Brady Bunch over the years.)

Anyway. Aside from that, the story is engaging, and it's pretty well written. I particularly liked the fact that the author didn't fall into the trap of foreshadowing contest entries that were going to win. As the narrative progresses, some contests disappear into the mists after the entries are sent out, never to be heard of again, while others pay off. You have to read on to discover which is which, though.

Finally, the book includes many of the actual contest entries, and while some of them are almost incomprehensible (but right up the alley of the contest judges), others are a delight to read. In one case, I'd actually read it before, in a collection of Burma-Shave signs, just without attribution to the author. (It's a real beaut, having relevance both to the actual product, and to the fact that it's being read from a car speeding along a highway: "Hairpin turn, / Hotrod ditched. / Lost control, / His whiskers / Itched. / Burma-Shave.")

This was a delightful and heartbreaking read. Ryan's mother was an inveterate contest enterer, and it was the winnings from these contests than kept the family's head above water, due to dad's inveterate drinking. Ryan's portrait of her mother and her family is touching and hilarious.

An entertaining, often humorous look at 1950s America and the life of an intelligent, indomitable women who kept a family of 12 afloat on sheer wit and determination.

An interesting memoir, I think primarily because of its originality. I've heard of people who spend a lot of time with sweepstakes & contests, but have never heard of one who makes a living off of it. I found it inspiring to a certain degree, but I also thought the author's mother was weak in certain ways. Why did she put up with that husband of hers? And really....10 kids? Why keep having them if you know you can't afford them? But granted, that's not the author's fault, so I digress. In many ways this was an inspirational mother & she obviously was doing something right to have her kids turn out so well in the end.

It was the writing style of this story that bothered me more than anything, or maybe the author's monotone in her reading of the audiobook version. Maybe I'm just too used to memoirs that are funny & quirky, but this one just fell flat for me. Perhaps with a different reader, this would've impressed me more. As for the jingles themselves -- it was great that Ryan's mother kept such good records & Terry was able to use them in her memoir, but honestly, I didn't think the jingles were anything spectactular, or certainly not prizeworthy in some cases. Perhaps that's a sign of the times changing, as jingles aren't utilized near as much nowadays as they used to be & I can't appreciate them the way one would several decades ago.

Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for movie adaptations, so I'll probably rent a copy of the movie to see how I like that.

This was such a wonderfully, touching, heartfelt story. Mrs. Evelyn Ryan (and all her various contest aliases) is indeed the "hero" her daughter portrays her to be. Any stay at home mom who can raise 10 kids on an alcoholic fathers meager income by contesting is a saint in my book. Her story is an inspiration to all. Most if not all of her children went on to college to boot. Mrs. Ryan could make or repair just about anything (most comically her own girdle) in order to make ends meet.
Many of Mrs. Ryan's contest submissions are included as well as photo's of herself and sometimes the family when a big contest prize was won. What I enjoyed most about the book was not Evelyn's writing, but that of her daugher Tuff (Terry Ryan, the books' author). Her first person account made me feel as if I was standing in the kitchen smelling the repairs being made to the girdle with the iron, or sitting in the living room when one of the contest judges moved a magazine to sit in a chair only to have a spring pop out in his face that the magazine was covering up, or last but not least standing on the front porch watching Charlie the chicken attack people from the bushes.
It was a great comedy, tragedy and tear jerker all in one...a fantastic book!½

Couldn't put the book down. A story of 10 children raised in poverty by an alcoholic father and one of the most engaging mothers put in print. It's hard to believe she was that saintly; I'm sure there are stories missing, but enough comes through to make this a genuine feel-good tale of a woman who kept her children housed and clothed (barely) through her skill in winning jingle contests. The book also transplants you to the 1950s and, as someone then alive, I remember enough to feel that the author truly caught that era. Unique story, interesting and vivid characters, a book well worth your time.

I enjoyed reading this so much. What stood out for me was the grit and determination of the mom. Raising 10 kids seems herculean by itself, but then you throw in an alcoholic father in a time and age when you just didn't get divorced, and the task becomes all the more daunting. How she went about it was by entering contests; the ones where you came up with catchy slogans; another relic of times gone by, I'm afraid. I truly enjoyed the samples of her writing shared throughout the book. I also really enjoyed the story of Charlie the chicken, who was raised by their door-opening cat.

One of those books you can't lay down. Have read it more than once, and watched the movie. A story that reminds people to be thankful for what they have. Shows what a mother will do to keep a roof over her childrens heads and food in their tummies.

I tore through this book until the last page - the star of this inspirational tale, Evelyn Ryan, is one of the most amazing characters I've ever seen on page. Amazing still, that she was a real person, a 50's housewife raising ten children with little to no help from her alcoholic husband. This would be a tale of woe if it weren't for Evelyn's ingenuity, skill, and luck at entering contests. Her cute and clever rhyming jingles, included appropriately throughout the book along with the kitschy ads and contest forms that inspired them, were all a part of this overwhelmed mom's can-do attitude. The family certainly wouldn't have survived without her. Not only the glue that kept the family together, her prizes here and there replaced broken appliances, helped pay the bills, and even bought the Ryans a house! For every major adversity, Evelyn's prizes saved the day.

It's amazing how much this woman accomplished with so much stacked against her, and here I complain I don't have time to do the dishes.½

As memoirs go, this will always be one of my favorites. The take-away message in this book is that a positive outlook will take you every where you want to go. In my life, I would leave the negative, drunk husband and would also have encouraged Evelyn Ryan to do the same. However, She had the grace to accept him for who he was, ask him to improve and when he could not to get out of the way of her happiness. Despite the hardships, she raised her 10 children to expect more from life and to stay positive. Her lessons were ahead of their time, despite her traditional outlook, for instance when she allows her children to voice their hatred of their dad, or the catholic nuns who look down on them, but shows them where to put that anger where so that it does not consume them in addictions and unhappiness. The 2005 movie, which condenses but follows the book perfectly, is also worth watching.