Showing results by author "Betty Macdonald" in All Categories

When Betty MacDonald married a marine and moved to a small chicken farm on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, she was largely unprepared for the rigors of life in the wild. With no running water, no electricity, a house in need of constant repair, and days that ran from four in the morning to nine at night, the MacDonalds had barely a moment to put their feet up and relax. And then came the children. Yet through every trial and pitfall - through chaos and catastrophe - this indomitable family somehow, mercifully, never lost its sense of humor.

" The Plague and I" recounts MacDonald's experiences in a Seattle sanitarium, where the author spent almost a year (1938-39) battling tuberculosis. The White Plague was no laughing matter, but MacDonald nonetheless makes a sprightly tale of her brush with something deadly. "Anybody Can Do Anything" is a high-spirited, hilarious celebration of how "the warmth and loyalty and laughter of a big family" brightened their weathering of the Great Depression.

After surviving both the failed chicken farm - and marriage - immortalized in The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald returns to live with her mother and desperately searches to find a job to support her two young daughters. With the help of her older sister Mary, Anybody Can Do Anything recounts her failed, and often hilarious, attempts to find work during the Great Depression.

The author recalls episodes of love and humor from her experiences living on Vashon Island in Puget Sound.

Děti občas sužují zákeřné slabosti a záludné choroby, jimiž pak trpí i jejich rodiče. Existuje však snadná pomoc: pobyt na čerstvém vzduchu a štěstí z kontaktu se zvířátky. Že to nestačí? Na statku paní Láryfáry to jde skoro samo, protože tahle dáma to s dětmi umí a taky... dokáže trošičku kouzlit.