Good Grief: Life in a Tiny Vermont Village

by Ellen Stimson

Overview

An endless New England vacation becomes a way of life for one woman and her family

Ellen Stimson and her husband had such a wonderful time in Vermont that they wondered what living there would really be like. “What if we stayed here . . . forever?” So began the series of adventures and misadventures of Ellen Stimson’s hilarious first book, Mud Season.


Now, having settled the family in Vermont’s rich, muddy soil, they are faced with new challenges of raising kids in the paradise of this very small, very rural town. Good Grief tells the tales of the hopes and dreams of parents just trying to do their best—and not always succeeding. Imagine being the mom of the kid who peed on his teacher’s chair . . . On. Purpose. Now imagine the governor asking you about it! Good Grief is all about the inevitable moment right after somebody says, “What next?”


Ellen Stimson’s irrepressible optimism and good humor prevail as she, her two husbands, their three kids, and various much-loved pets face down real life, and even death and grieving, with good humor intact. This is life in a state where everyone knows everything, and everything is everybody’s else's business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781581573213
Publisher:	Countryman Press, The
Publication date:	10/26/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	722,103
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Ellen Stimson is blessed with a wild pack of children; not-so-wild but completely adorable husband; and a very civilized group of chickens, dogs, and cats. Lately she's decided that she really wants a pig. She writes about the whole catastrophe from an old farmhouse in Vermont.

Table of Contents

Prologue 8

Chapter 1 At the Table 11

The Table 33

Chapter 2 Naked 35

By the Back Door 59

Chapter 3 Real Vermonters 61

Back at the Table 83

Chapter 4 The Pond 85

Making Home 110

Chapter 5 Imperfect 112

Scraps 142

Chapter 6 Steve 144

No Words 157

Chapter 7 Pants Matter 158

Steve's Table 169

Chapter 8 Fur Comfort 170

Underneath 186

Chapter 9 Bad Juju 188

Making Room 213

Chapter 10 Still Alive 215

The Counter 228

Chapter 11 Good Grief 230

Bedside 235

Epilogue 236

Acknowledgments 239

Editorial Reviews

I laughed and cried the whole way through this marvelous, moving, and, above all, joyful book. A chronicle of the further adventures of Ellen Stimson’s eminently lovable family, Good Grief is a lesson in love and loss, as well as a reminder that life keeps happening, rituals matter, and dogs really are man’s best friend. Ellen Stimson’s voice is humane, human, and hilarious—but always wise. And her family is the one you want to borrow. It’s impossible not to cheer this gang on.

Julia Reed

Stimson makes great, entertaining reading out of kids’ unusual dating selections, shark attacks, sudden illness, and even an untimely death. Entertaining? Yes. She has that articular way with words and storytelling that makes the most out of learning to deal with grief.

Booklist

This is my favorite kind of book—a messy, loving, bubbling over at the edges family, replete with exes, dogs, culinary disasters, and the tender heart of love and loss. A must-read,
never-forget story.

Jo-Ann Mapson

Imagine Jerry Seinfeld and Annie Dillard on the dance floor, gliding gracefully from keenly observed humor to contemplative insight. As they glide by, you join them in a few pirouettes, and the challenges of your own life transform: you laugh at them; you understand them better. When the music ends, you feel grateful, lighter, and more compassionate. That dance is Ellen Stimson’s Good Grief. In the midst of the ups and downs of daily life, Stimson and her nontraditional family choose to respond, as she says ‘with love and humor.’ What shines through these pages is Stimson’s deep and genuine gratitude for this whole messy thing we call Living. Good Grief taught me to laugh harder and love better—and to always, always choose compassion.

BK Loren

Both hilarious and poignant, Stimson spins the tales of her ever-eventful small-town Vermont life with a self-effacing, smart, and heart-touching honesty that will make you feel as if you are sitting across from her at her (burned) dining room table—and wishing so much that you really were!

Suzanne McMinn

Stimson makes great, entertaining reading out of kids’ unusual dating selections, shark attacks, sudden illness, and even an untimely death. Entertaining? Yes. She has that articular way with words and storytelling that makes the most out of learning to deal with grief.

Booklist

2014-09-16
The continuing adventures of a family in Vermont. In magazine articles about the state of American families and their homes, writers will often wistfully long for a time when things were simpler—even while acknowledging that, technically, there was no such time—when families were tightly knit in the bonds they shared. It makes for a good article, but the truth is different; this sort of family exists now just as much in "the good old days." That truth also makes for a good book, as readers of Stimson's Mud Season (2013) can attest. More proof arrives in her second book, which largely picks up where the first one left off. Stimson, her husband and their three children are still living in rural Vermont, dealing with all of the changes that come as children become teenagers and marriages find their patterns. It's difficult to tell, in a satisfying way, whether Stimson's family has an unusually high number of stories that read like heartwarming and amusing family comedy films. For example: Daughter Hannah has a new boyfriend; he's a decade older than she is, and he's Republican, while the family is liberal. He's coming with Hannah to meet the family over brunch; mom also has an elaborate dinner party planned later in the day; before the brunch, mom inadvertently sets the dining room table on fire. Maybe the author's clan doesn't have more mishaps and amusing anecdotes than the average family, and it's simply her engaging writing style that shapes their experiences into these well-balanced stories. Either way, it's an enjoyable journey for readers. Stimson's children will be lucky in having these stories of their lives to pass down through the generations; the rest of us only get to visit for a while, but it's a visit to remember.

Kirkus Reviews

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