This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone (Hardcover) by Melissa Coleman

from akblanchard

Caught up in the idealism of the early 1970's, the author's parents established a homestead in the inhospitable wilds of Maine. Their unorthodox lifestyle, which involved constant labor, anxiety and poor diet, eventually lead to tragedy. In some parts, Coleman's writing is achingly beautiful. In ...

from lauriebrown54

Author Melissa Coleman was a child born during the back to the land movement of the 1960s-70s. Her parents, inspired by Helen and Scott Nearings book "Living the Good Life"- the story of how the Nearings moved to the unforgiving climate of the Maine coast and produced 'all they needed' from the l...

from eenerd

Page-turning memoir of life on an organic farm in mid-coast Maine in the 1970's, at a high-point of the back-to-the-land movement. The Coleman family was idealistic and hard-working, but the life they chose for themselves turned out to be ruinous for the whole family, while at the same time inspi...

from nightprose

To say this book is a beautifully written memoir does not do it justice. Melissa Coleman tells the story of her parents and what moved them not to be hippies, but to be true back-to-nature farmers. They were not interested in the drug culture, altering their minds, or a commune way of life. They ...

from gaillamontagne

You won't regret spending the time to read this book. Set during the early 1970's, in the forests of Maine, the author shares her childhood experiences as the daughter of an idealistic ,well-intentioned "back to the land" couple where heaven was just a garden away. The author's story reveals the ...