Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir
When life gets your goat, bring in the herd
Jennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle. Or to be setting Merle up on dates and naming his doeling Merlene. She didn't expect to be buying organic yogurt for her chickens. She never thought she would be pulling camouflage carpet off her ceiling or rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it "date night." Most importantly, Jennifer never thought she would only have $4.57 in her bank account.
When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes--a lot of back taxes--her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a one-hundred-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer's life began to more closely resemble her Appalachian ancestors than her upper-middle-class upbringing. But what started as a last-ditch effort to settle debts became a journey that revealed both the joys and challenges of living close to the land.
Told with bold wit, unflinching honesty, and a firm foot in the traditions of Appalachia, Flat Broke with Two Goats blends stories of homesteading with the journey of two people rediscovering the true meaning of home.
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
Jennifer McGaha is the author of Flat Broke with Two Goats, a 2018 OverDrive Big Library Read, and Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out. Her work has also appeared in many magazines and literary journals including Image, The Huffington Post, The New Pioneer, Lumina, PANK, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Brevity, Bitter Southerner, Crab Creek Review, River Teeth, and others. An Appalachian native, McGaha teaches at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, where she also coordinates the Great Smokies Writing Program.
"An easy read with a warm tone, like hearing from an old friend, McGaha's memoir is touching, funny, and hard to put down." -- Booklist
"Flat Broke with Two Goats is a funny, moving and unflinchingly honest reckoning. Reduced by desperate circumstances, Jennifer and her husband find themselves living a life that echoes the hardscrabble Appalachian ways of their grandparents. This sweet miracle of a memoir tells the story of a struggling couple who have to lose their house, and just about everything else, to find home." -- Tommy Hays, author of The Pleasure Was Mine
"You'll be alarmed, breathless, and ultimately charmed by "Flat Broke with Two Goats" because yes, it could happen to you..." -- Terri Schlichenmeyer, Bookworm Sez
"Flat Broke with Two Goats is a brave book written in beautifully unflinching detail. McGaha lays bare the flaws in her marriage, the poor choices that led them to rock bottom and how they found their way to a new definition of home." -- BookPage
