Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir

I appreciate the author’s honesty. She tells about her life after foreclosure and her experience with a few goats and an old cabin. She paints a vivid picture of the natural beauty of the Appalachian mountains. Unfortunately, she is just a terribly irresponsible and selfish person so much that I had trouble enjoying her book. Her family maxed out credit cards and failed to pay taxes for several years while going on European vacations, sending her kids to private school, living in a big home, and working part time at an easy job. Ultimately they racked up over $100k in debt to society, which I do not think they ever plan on paying back. Even after foreclosure and bankruptcy, they continue to dine out on oysters and drink pricy beers and buy PET goats. They are what’s wrong with America. They should be in jail eating cold oatmeal and doing hard labor to repay their debts.

I couldn’t finish it. As others wrote, the author comes across as irresponsible and entitled. Her tales of stumbling through the challenges of no longer living the rich life seem intended to be funny at times, but the humor falls flat. The book is very shallow. Serious challenges emerge, but the author never really explores anything in any depth nor seems to grow as a person. Little is said about the people hurt by her and her husband’s irresponsibility. The book is simply a dull recitation of events great and small that happen in her life.

This true story brings out so many emotions. Some reviews have said the book was "all over the place" - and I guess that is true. But I believe that is what might happen if the life you think you have is suddenly revealed to be a sham. What a horrible way to learn your current life is over and to have to start over in a rundown cabin with no running water and no source of heat except a stove. This book is compelling. I don't think the author should be faulted for telling this story through her own eyes and experience. I am glad that I had the chance to read it. It makes me grateful for every thing.

I sure learned about goats, and there was some tasty looking recipes. I did feel like the story lacked "substance". Her husband seemed more like a roommate. There had to be more hurt, reconciling, and maybe romance? Her children were perifery characters never developed. What were their feelings about losing their home, this move to an alien place, their parents brief separation? So while I enjoyed the story their seemed to be a lot lacking in the telling.

This was offered as a “online book club” book by my library. Some of it was interesting but I was mostly annoyed by their choices. The lost all their money, then proceeded to dabble like gentlemen farmers. No real attempt to earn a living or pay people back.

I read this book while traveling and thoroughly enjoyed it. The author writes candidly about her experiences in a way that was both relatable and humorous. She also includes a few recipes. I've never had a desire to live in Appalachia, but a learned quite a bit about the area and people, and it sounds a lot more civilized that I'd though (at least I don't think of the movie Deliverance anymore). I highly recommend this book, and hope McGaha writes a follow up.

Uneven book by narcisistic writer. First part covers how they ended up going from "upper middle class" to living "in a shack with critters." Yes, nice upper middle class life when you overspend and don't pay (or file!) taxes. Stop paying your mortgage, but keep sending your kid to a private school.

The writer does write well, so that's a plus. However, the second part of the book offered little insight into living in "a shack with critters" in the Appalachian mountains and seemed to dwell almost entirely on taking care of chickens and goats. This is fine, but learned nothing about adapting from a hoity-toity living in a nice McMansion (I assume) to the shack in the woods paying off debts.

One big annoying things was the quotes to responses to other in the book such as "okay" and "yes". These responses added no insight into what they meant by okay and yes, what the person was thinking at the time. I didn't really learn anything about the writer or her family. Her husband did seem to work a lot, but not much to how he thought or was feeling.

An honest and telling account of difficult events which reconnected McGaha to her Appalachian roots, this book bursts with wit, honesty, homesteading tips, and scenes that had me laughing out loud. Stories about her grandparents thread through accounts of the foreclosure of the family home and an unsought life in a run-down cabin, struggling to pay bills and adjust to a new reality. But the book is more than just storytelling. McGaha explores her complicity in the financial reversal, how she coped with grief over the death of her grandmother, and the difficult choices she made as she learned how to persevere. I can't wait for her next book!

An inspiring and delightful memoir with in your face and richly descriptive passages of hosting and living in a cabin with a multitude of animals. Hard to put down. I want to visit Jennifer's new home and animal family. Her raw emotions and hindsight of her previous middle class upbringing is refreshing and honest. I'm happy she and her husband figured it out as a team and strengthen the family. Well done, well written and glad you shared.

The first half of this memoir was an enjoyable read but halfway through it was hard for me to
even comprehend why Jennifer didn’t get a job, any job, and help out. Even though it was not really her fault that they ended up in their position, she didn’t do anything to relieve it and I found this frustrating, not entertaining. I couldn’t really keep reading once she decided to take out more loans and go back to school, I just skimmed the pages to make sure so I didn’t miss her “ah ha” moment where she decided to suck it and do her part.

This is one of those angst filled books where nothing really happens. If the story is going to be boring, then the people need to be interesting or memorable. They are not. Unless you enjoy irresponsible people who make poor decisions over and over again, forced cliche built-in recipes, and whining, skip it and read a good book.

That two people with college educations could get themselves into such an idiotic mess of situations makes me sad. Oh, the feckless blunders and earnest angst! The lamentations! The woe! This is four hours I can never get back.

I started reading not realizing it was biographical. We’ve been close to where the author was financially. We took a different approach, but we also had a process that took us out of our comfort zones and changed us, our marriage and the way we live our lives. The author takes the reader through her family’s process of returning from a major setback with humility and humor! The recipes were a surprise and added to the beauty of the book. This describes a very personal journey, getting through stronger with faith and hard work and a big sense of humor!

Yes, I was pretty upset by this book. First when she cries and leaves her husband because she has to live in a cabin on 30 acres under a spectacular God given waterfall -- a Godsend and dream to billions on the planet. My God, just awfully insensitive). Then when she tells her husband "I am the victim." Lastly, when I actually threw the book across the room at the end (and I am Library Director at a public library. Shame on me). I just nearly cried at the wonder of her beautiful life that she thought so shameful and decrepit. Of course no one ever knows everything. People look at my life on the outside and imagine fairy tales. But this was a memoir, and I felt the author really represents --ug, just, I can't go on.

I disliked the author right from the get-go. Unreal that she and her husband were so financially irresponsible. I didn't feel one bit sorry for her. She mentions often that she had this and that growing up, as if she was entitled. Then when she started describing in detail the abuse from her first husband, that was it for me. I skipped ahead a little till they were getting the cabin, but decided I wasn't wasting anymore time on this book. I thought it would be a nice , interesting story about going back to the land. It was basically a dysfunctional couple in so many ways, which I was not interested in reading.

I found this a fascinating read, though I doubt I found it fascinating for the reasons the author intended. The title and publisher's blurb seem to promise a story of personal growth based on the hard physical and emotional work of suddenly becoming poor in rural America. Instead, we meet a woman who continually refers to a three-story home (with a working dishwasher) as a "cabin." Anyone who has experienced poverty, or who has even struggled to pay for necessities each month, might find that odd. I began to see her memoir as a fascinating look into the mind of someone who has no real concept of what it means to be poor. The author writes in an introspective, humorous, and engaging style about her self-perceived poverty, and then tosses in phrases like, "In between my hair appointments and David's dentist appointments" with no sense of irony. The truly fascinating thing about this whole book is that the author apparently completed and published it without anyone ever pointing out that she never was, in fact, flat broke.

Jennifer McCabe spent most of her life wearing blinders, floating along and taking her "good life" for granted until one day it all comes crashing down. This is a story of how the blinders came off and how she learned to really live. It's also a story about the redemptive qualities of chickens and goats. Great recipes, too.

I liked Flat Broke with Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha. McGaha did a great job of detailing her previous life and what happened to cause her & her family to be flat broke. She didn't make excuses for her circumstances, but willingly stepped up to accept to role in them.

McGaha did an excellent job of developing the story, characters and animals so that you felt a connection to them. I think it would be interesting to read another memoir from McGaha in five years or so to see how their lives and financial situation have evolved.

I would recommend Flat Broke with Two Goats by J McGaha to readers who like: non-fiction, memoirs, stories about animals, stories about people who neglect their financial responsibilities and how they recover from that.

In my dreams, I think of homesteading and returning to rustic roots. In this book, McGaha makes me question my dreams. She is tough and tender, studious and stupid (in a delightful way), determined and delirious, all qualities necessary to survive the circumstances she finds herself in...and I’m not sure I could follow in her footsteps. The animal husbandry alone sounds exhausting and terrifying but, not only does she manage, she finds ways to embrace the effort in a whole and poetic fashion..learning to deal with buck goats peeing themselves, copperhead snakes slithering through her home, and facing the life and death decisions her little farm requires.

SPOILER ALERT: And that’s all before dealing with the reality of WHY she’s doing what she’s doing...that her husband tossed their family into seemingly insurmountable debt through a series of bad decisions that she willingly admits she chose to being oblivious to, if not contributing to through he own desire to let him handle all of their “grownup” decisions. (I love her honesty in this.) But she stays with him and, together, through all the hard work, uncertainty and anger, they craft a basic and real life that has true moments of warmth, bliss and genuine gratitude.

I say “cheers” to McGaha and her stalwart determination, and to this book she’s crafted as surely as she’s built her surprising new life. This is a thoroughly engrossing read for those of us who think we have the guts to return to a clearly misnamed “simple life.”

I picked up this book because of Big Library Read.

It's was very hard for me to rate. On the one hand McGaha's writing was good and very lyrical, but on the other hand I was complete disliked the author's descriptions of their life and the resulting thoughts and actions.

If you are facing financial difficulties, you learn to live within your income. The fact that her husband knew very well that they didn't have money, but then she continued to just let her husband take care of the money matter completely. I felt no sympathy for this family, who then, left their friends holding a mortgage, continued to send their children to private schools that they could not afford, and then purchase animals they had little knowledge of when it made no logical sense. I finished the book, but at the end felt very angry about their poor decisions, rather than their poor status. Perhaps they deserved to be flat broke. She often glosses over some of the deeper problems the author and her husband created for themselves, their adult children, and their friends.

I loved Jennifer's story of failure and redemption, even the parts that told of hardship. It's the story of a woman who overcomes very difficult circumstances and triumphs, which I could relate to. She's funny, insightful and she might just make you yearn for a goat or two!

Flat Broke with Two Goats was a very absorbing memoir. I can understand how money mismanagement can easily get out of hand. I actually kept waiting for some gambling secret or something like that to appear, but it turns out that her husband just did not manage their money well.

Jennifer McGaha and her family lived a normal suburban type life that all came to an end when their youngest was a senior in high school. They ended up living in a cabin of a friend of theirs that was not necessarily up to par for living. She had to come to terms with living there and finding the occassional snake in the house and decided to cope by trying to live off the land and raise animals to use for food. They quickly got chickens to use their eggs and eventually some goats to used the goat milk for several products and to drink of course.

There were times when she felt hopeless, but came out of it with a positive attitude even though she only had $4.87 in the bank. It was a great memoir for people that feel hopeless in regards to their finances that affect their entire lifestyle and for just anyone that like to read a about the strength of the human spirit.

Brilliant, her relating her lineage back several generations of women is touching
The collapse of her suburban life ending in foreclosure and the reluctant retreat to the cabin only to start life over and create it newly
The escape to the midwest to teach and the bittersweet reluctant return to the cabin and her husband is conveyed quite beautiful my
Her looking at herself and her part in the troubles she must sort through is quite honest.
The loss of her friend , the chaos of raising goats all well told.
An excellent effort

Couldn't wait for my allotted reading time at night before bed to get in a few chapters. Most enjoyable was when she started to acquire animals and observe their endearing ways, their love for each other & for us as their caretakers. Makes you want to go out immediately and get a couple of goats to go with my 6 chickens & one sweetheart of a yellow lab.

Such a nice read. The author's descriptive scenes come across with honesty, candor, and a smathering of just the right amount of emotion. Like a lot of her recipes, you're in for something good; spices, good ingredients, and lots of taste. One of those books you hate to see come to an end. Her love and caring for the animals is refreshing. Well done!!

It was a really inspirational story. The author was brave enough to share a very sad time in her life and the decisions she made that helped her through this and changed her views on what was important in life

I was so surprised that many people did not enjoy this book. I was constantly so curious about what was coming next that I could hardly quit reading. Great writing, descriptive, interesting, humorous. To me, it was just interesting reading about another person's life adventures. I too wondered how they could spend the money they did on the animals but I believe they must have made good money at their jobs (He as an accountant and she who had several of her writings published.) They had paychecks as we know since the IRS and state were getting their money.

But rather than judging the couple for the way they lived their lives, I just enjoyed reading about them and the great changes in their life style. Also liked reading about the trials and tribulations of living close to the earth and loved the parts about dealing with the animals and their personalities. The recipes were fun to read (although I don't think I would try them.) A very interesting read and would recommend it to others.

Hum, let’s see ... woman who is educated enough to be a teacher is totally clueless about family finances, yet sends her kids to private school, drinks craft beer, and doesn’t notice that she hasn’t paid taxes in five years???? And then writes a book that is supposed to be heartfelt about living off the land?

At first I couldn't understand her choices or reasoning. How could she not know their finances and then when she did, how could they continue to so live beyond their means? But the author's honesty and spirit kept me reading. The writing is clear and engaging and Jennifer's strengths became something to cheer on. By the end, it was such a relief to believe they would be okay.

The only people I can imagine liking this book are people as vapdily shallow and lacking in any shred of self awareness as the author (and I use that term loosely). A few chapters in and I can't get past the utterly self-absorbed tone of this book. There's a complete disconnect from any sense of ownership or personal responsibility for her circumstances, prattling on about beer snobbishness and how they are victims of circumstance vs. people who lived outside their means for decades and then faced the consequences. Maybe they redeem themselves somewhere later in the book and take some responsibility for the situation they found themselves in, but I won't be reading to find out - there are more interesting things waiting to be read. How this got chosen as a must read is utterly beyond me.

How could their families let this happen to their loved ones? How did their sad state of affairs affect their children, she never mentioned this in her book! Hope the animals survive if they manage to screw up once again!

"Flat Broke With Two Goats" is a fetching title, but a more accurate and possibly profitable one would be "Flat Broke With Chickens & Goats". Chickens are what the author and her husband started off with in their new rural life. Chickens have an enormous following these days, too, and sell books. One wants the author to sell a lot of books, so she can fix up her primitive house, or move to another rural location with a much more modern house. Rural life is great. Living in a dump with questionable water, and sometimes no hot water, is not.

Yet Jennifer McGaha not only adjusts to her new cash-strapped life, but begins to see it as more meaningful than her previous life in a decent house. Animals are what appear to transform her step-down to actually a step-up on the happiness stairs. The goats in particular not only bring the author and her husband much joy, but provide Ms. McGaha with goat milk that can be turned into all types of delicious edible things. The book has many recipes, some needing goat milk and others not, and the author often expresses how she can feel the presence of deceased grandparents when cooking in her not so modern kitchen. She's not being sarcastic either, but totally sincere about that.

Why only a 3-star rating? Because I never totally warmed up to the author and her story. In fact, at first, I did not like her very much; and, quite honestly, it's always distressing and downright scary to hear how the financial rug can be pulled out from under others; leaving them with a foreclosed house, no place to go, and little money to live on. Moreover, even though she and her husband are die-hard animal people, which is always a super plus with me, I still couldn't fully embrace them as fellow animal lovers for some reason. I don't know. They're mountain people and I'm a coast person. Maybe it's as simple as that.

(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)

What a great story of human passion and grit. The decision to upheaval one’s life to start anew doesn’t come easy. And ‘new’ isn’t always better, especially when the struggles to survive without hot running water, and venomous critters come to visit your kitchen. It is heart-wrenching and heart-warminng simultaneously.

Every now and then, I fantasize about chucking it all running off to the mountains. This book answers the question of what that would actually be like in real life. I'm curious to find out what happens to the author next, as well as how her adorable goats fare. I listened to the audio book version, and the narrator also had a good folksy manner that seemed to match the material well.

I enjoyed the book. I certainly didn’t always sympathize with the family’s situation. Jennifer and David often proceeded without plans. As realistic as that is, it’s hard to accept. They are just normal people who were lucky not to end up homeless.

Love the dynamics of the author and her husband. Staying together and somehow persevering gives hope to any situation. Amazing what people can find to make them happy. A new life is sometimes not better but different and is all we can hope for.

This memoir tells the struggles that the author's family dealt with when financial difficulties forced them into foreclosure. T g eyes moved into a cabin just n the woods and this is her story of how she came to make peace with her new situation.

Insights into the unpredictable challenges of live and the resilience of the human spirit. An extraordinary journal of nature coexisting with lives lived off the grid A testament to the adaptability within all of us. A joyous read for animal lovers.

Except, I've never lived that upper class life. I have however had a downwardly mobile life since losing my house. The writing is good and the book is entertaining. I felt the subject was a little whiny though I understand to some degree.

Selected because of title. Thought it might be a fun read. Interesting but not so funny. Learned way more about raising goats than I was ever interested in. Sometimes lost me when transitioning from present to past & back to present.

This was an easy, engaging read. Her writing style was clean and concise. I found commonalities with the author and began rooting for her and her family. Sometimes when writing a memoir about life's difficulties authors can come off as whiney. There was a section where it felt like it might go there but Ms. McGaha didn't go there. The stories of the animals were amusing and fun to read about. I don't think I would ever want to raise goats but she made it very interesting. Also, I would NEVER have gotten use to all the snakes but I love how she began to treasure other things in life besides her big fancy house and "middle class life". On top of the financial losses and challenges she lost her beloved grandmother, and grief just complicates everything. I really enjoyed this journey with her. I would like to explore this read further with the reading group guide but it does go to show that life is more than the sum of our working to make a living.

The first 20% was TMI (Too Much Information). I didn't download this book to read about Battered Woman Syndrome. However, the remainder of the book redeemed itself. I enjoyed the author 's growth and could envision her life in western NC. If you enjoy going back to nature or think you might you will enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I don't normally like to read memoir's, I always feel like they are more like a novel based on true events. In this case the book did read more like a novel so I enjoyed it.

I was looking forward to getting to the part about the goats but I got so bored and uninspired I gave up on the story. I usually commit to finishing a book once I’ve started but just couldn’t do so in this case.