All the Things

After surviving the usual debacles of adulthood (marriage, taxes, divorce), Ammi Midstokke does what any sensible single mom would do: She purchases an off-grid fixer-upper perched on a granite hilltop in rural Idaho. Underprepared and overcaffeinated, she embarks upon a series of seemingly inadvisable activities from getting lost in the mountains after dark to dangling on a rope with a chainsaw to relationshipping with bearded woodsmen and falling in love.

 

In her hilarious yet sage debut essay collection, Midstokke demonstrates that battles with freeloading varmints, clogged stove pipes, childhood trauma, and one surprisingly aggressive boulder are unexpected, if not wonderfully entertaining, pathways to personal growth and joy. All the Things delivers the irreverent, fearless, and brilliant voice of a woman who laughs in the face of failure and soothes her wounds by splitting wood, often in her skivvies.