When I was a little girl, I watched Little House all the time. Laura Ingalls reminded me of my little sister, and Mary reminded me of my older sister. I remember not understanding why that annoying little buck-toothed kid was so loved by the obviously awesome Pa Ingalls, and being somewhat jealous of that relationship, and then she gets to marry the man of her dreams? Jealous. It was my more recent opinion that Melissa Gilbert went on to relative obscurity in Lifetime TV movies, as I hadn't thought of her or seen her in years, except a photograph here and there that honestly only made me think, "Good grief, what did that woman do to her face?"I recently re-watched the entire Little House series and heard that Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim wrote autobiographies -- I bought used copies of both and settled in to read what I hoped was all the background and funny stories about what it was like to be on that show. I started with Melissa's book (because I heard Alison's was better, so I was saving it), and I was very disappointed to discover that although it has the word "Prairie" in the title, precious little of it had anything to do with Little House.It seemed like she spent several chapters hitting me over the head with some variation of "look how important I was to Rob Lowe!" And her mother messed up her life, and she jumped into marriage with someone she barely knew and he messed up her life, and then she became an alcoholic and that messed up her life, and she was adopted so that messed up her life.... Yikes. The woman is a mess. I kind of felt like her whole book was supposed to convince me that she is very important, but it wasn't very convincing. With all the name-dropping, it came across as desperate, not confident, which really only added to the impression that she has spent her life sort of flailing for attention.When I was little I was jealous of her for being Laura Ingalls and having such a great life, and I'll admit I kind of read her memoir secretly hoping that something happened to her like she gained 10 pounds and someone called her fat and I could say, "Ha! See, she wasn't so perfect after all." But her actual life was so awful and she made such horrible choices that I ended up just feeling sorry for her.I'd recommend this book to someone who needs a reminder not to waste time being envious of Hollywood actors. Even Half-Pint turned out to be a mess. I think, for the most part, I really enjoyed this memoir. She talks about a lot of the actors and shows I grew up watching, and the book is overall a pretty good lazy-day read. However, the thing that annoyed me is her claim to being a genuine addict and alcoholic. I just don't buy that part of her story. Not saying she didn't do drugs and alcohol, but I don't believe she was as hardcore as she wants you to believe.. It seems to me actors claim addiction to be a struggling badge of honor, and it's so played out.Sure, she experimented with drugs, just like most people do during their adolescent, and young adult years. It's just so annoying that she wants you to believe she truly and legitimately struggled with addiction. Yes, I did enjoy her life story, but she comes off as someone who wants to be perceived as a flawed little miss goodie two-shoes. Hearing her talk about her "addictions" and AA meetings induced major eye-rolling moments for me, but other than that I really enjoyed this memoir.btw, I hate the book cover, it's really tacky. It looks fundamentalist.
What do You think about Prairie Tale (2009)?
More touchie feelie than the book by "Nellie Oelson" but still well written and entertaining.
—Mack
Read this shortly before her divorce was announced. Interesting.
—mtmello
Interesting read. Some good behind the scenes stuff.
—nicky
