shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com March 6, 2018 • Page 11 The Bookworm ‘Flat Broke’ A Rich Tale “Flat Broke with Two Goats: A Memoir of Appalachia” by Jennifer McGaha; © 2018, Sourcebooks; 368 pages ——— BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER It could never happen to you. Other people have problems. They don’t plan, they don’t act, they aren’t paying attention and that leads to issues they can’t deal with. That kind of thing happens to other people. In the new book “Flat Broke with Two Goats” by Jennifer McGaha, it can’t happen to you — until it does. After the mailman bounced his way up a mile-long, rutted mud driveway to hand Jennifer McGaha a registered envelope, she didn’t want to open it. She knew what was inside. It was confirmation for something that had already happened: her beautiful, sun-filled, large-kitchened house in North Carolina was already in the process of being foreclosed upon. The nightmare started with a bad economy: as neighbors and clients lost jobs, they stopped needing McGaha’s husband’s accounting expertise. Because of home repairs and private school tuition for the McGaha’s three children, there was little money for savings. And when McGaha heard her husband crying into his pillow in the middle of one night, things became worse: they were in debt to the IRS for a lot of money — as in, almost-mid-sixfigures. Possible jail-term aside, McGaha was stunned and terrified. She’d grown up never having to worry about money. Now, the worry never left her mind and she considered walking away from it all, but her youngest son was still in high school. With few options left, the family moved to the only place they could afford: a lush valley with a snake-and-mice-infested, half-rotted ramshackle cabin with no Internet, no cable TV, spotty cell phone reception and a boiler for making hot water. Adding insult to injury, McGaha lost three beloved elderly relatives in quick succession. Bereft and grieving, she took a job out-of-state and contemplated staying in Illinois but she couldn’t: home was in North Carolina. So was her heart, a penitent husband, family, chickens, eventually goats and, eventually, a decision: in thinking about her old life and yesterday’s actions, says McGaha: “I choose this.” There but for the grace … You may say that a time or two or 10 as you’re reading “Flat Broke with Two Goats” — and for good reason: statistics say that more than half of our neighbors are uncomfortably close to the first part of its title. For sure, author Jennifer McGaha tells a lip-biting story that starts out bad and grows worse, as tragedy piles on top of hardship stacks on humiliation. If you’re rolling your eyes, though, stop: while McGaha abundantly writes of the pain of loss and the turmoil in her emotions, she takes her share of responsibility here. She also admits how she almost didn’t do even that. The anxiety is almost like putty, it’s so thick. By the time you get to the section of this book that contains both a sense of uneasy relief and droll humor, you’ll be wrung out and ready for it, especially if your imagination follows along. You’ll be alarmed, breathless and ultimately charmed by “Flat Broke with Two Goats” because yes, it could happen to you … Art Forms Young Artists Shine In Current Exhibit At GAR Hall Gallery A new addition to the high school exhibit at G.A.R. Hall is from the cabinetry classes. We have four pieces from Mr. Wagner’s students including two Julie pieces of furniture, a frame and a wall hanging. Overall, it is a stunning exhibit that will take you some time to go through … in fact, feel free to come back more than once to take it in. You may need to! We will honor the students and teachers with a reception this Friday, March 2, from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit will be on display through April 2. All exhibits are free and open to the public. The gallery is open 1-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 1-3 p.m. Saturdays. Continuing our celebration of Youth Art, YAA will hold Kids Studio classes on Saturdays in March! Students in grades 2-5 are invited to spend Saturday mornings (10:30 a.m.-noon with us as we create art! BY JULIE J. AMSBERRY Yankton Area Arts MOODY P Packs Cartons 3 50 $ 27 $ Packs Cartons Advertise with the... In Print and Online! Call 665-5884 H All Natural - Chemical Free Tobacco 3 50 $ 28 ADULT BOOKS • As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner; Fiction • The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard; Fiction • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black; Fiction • Death At Nuremberg by W.E.B. Griffin; Fiction • Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss; Fiction • Forever My Girl by Heidi McLaughlin; Fiction • Into the Black Nowhere by Meg Gardiner; Fiction • Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins; Fiction • The Shadow District by Arnaldur Indridason; Fiction • We Were Strangers Once by Betsy Carter; Fiction • Bravetart: Iconic American Dessert by Stella Parks; Nonfiction • Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials by Malcolm Harris; Nonfiction • The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution by Robert Service; Nonfiction • The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People by Meik Wiking; Nonfiction • Meditation For Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris; Nonfiction • No Time To Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin; Nonfiction • A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial by James Reston, Jr.; Nonfiction • Sewing for Children by Emma Hardy; Nonfiction • That’s Not How We Do It Here: A Story About How Organizations Rise and Fall – and Can Rise Again by John Kotter; Nonfiction • The Turmeric Cookbook by Nicole Pisani; Nonfiction • We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner; Nonfiction ADULT DVDS • Coco • Darkest Hour • The Dead Zone • The Florida Project • The Good Place (Season 1) • Indian Summers (Seasons 1 and 2) • Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost • Jesse Stone: Thin Ice • LBJ • Loving Vincent • Roman J. Israel, Esq. • Served Like a Girl • The Stray • Taboo (Season 1) • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ——— Did you know that you can reserve an item from home? Staff will then notify you as soon as the item is available! Participating Businesses Are… NATURAL TASTES BETTER $ Here’s what’s new at the Yankton Community Library this week: The classes will be $5 per person per Saturday and there is no pre-registration … simply show up and dress to be messy! Come to one or all the classes: March 3 — Yarnworks, March 10 — Printmaking, March 17 — Fun with Painted Paper, and March 24 — Drawing 101. For more information on each week’s class, visit our website: YanktonAreaArts.org/event. Be sure to follow YAA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for all the latest area arts happenings! And check out the event calendar on our website to mark our 2018 exhibits and events in your own calendars. March is Youth Art Month in the USA! Art activities can actually enhance learning across the entire curriculum! Art helps develop a child’s imagination and causes them to become more aware of their environment, taking ownership of their experiences and perspective. Youth artistry is currently what’s on display at G.A.R. Hall Art Gallery. Our annual celebration of youth art is an eclectic exhibit featuring students from Yankton High School’s pottery, sculpture, painting, drawing and cabinetry classes under the tutelage Yankton Area Arts is a non-profit of Mallory Schmidt, Peter Deming and arts organization located at 508 DougBrandon Wagner. las Avenue in Yankton. The G.A.R. The exhibit features projects on Hall Art Gallery is open to the public figure drawing, scratch art, pointilfree of charge from 1-5 p.m. weekdays lism, surrealism and socially conand from 1-3 p.m. Saturdays. For more scious pieces. If you can, make time information, call the YAA office at to read what the students are saying 605-665-9754 or email info@yanktonarabout their artwork ... why they eaarts.org. chose certain colors, images and symbolism. They are making thoughtful and often personal connections to social injustices they see in the world. This exhibit showcasing the voices of these young learners is quite timely given recent events in a Florida high school and the response of students all across the country demanding to be heard. With the addition of art MOTOR classes in the middle school NIOBRARA, NE in recent years, you will see that the abilities have elevated atrick awk to a higher level in the high 251 Spruce Ave • Box 260 school’s artwork including Niobrara, NE 68760 that of pottery and sculpture. www.moodymotor.com Our patrons are familiar pjhawk@hotmail.com (402) 857-3711 with the book sculptures often (800) 745-5650 on display. This year, students Fax (402) 857-3713 are adding color to their creations. One of my favorite assignments of the Notice of Meeting of Local Review Board pottery students is when SDCL 10-11-13 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the governing body, they have to draw inspirasitting as a Review Board of WALSHTOWN Township, Yankton County, tion from a famous work of South Dakota, will meet at the Gerald Keely Residence, 44238 302nd art and create representaSt., Mission Hill, SD 57046, in said taxing jurisdiction on tion of that work in their Monday, March 19th, 2018 sculpture. This year, one of 7:30-9:00 p.m. those pieces, inspired by for the purpose of reviewing and correcting the assessment of said M.C. Escher’s “Relativity,” taxing district for the year 2017. All persons considering themselves encourages the viewer to aggreived by said assessment, are required to notify the clerk of the turn the sculpture, changlocal board in writing no later than Thursday, March 15th, 2018. ing the perspective of the Gerald Keeley, 605-665-5418, Clerk, Dated March 1st, 2018 piece. AMSBERRY New At The Library 3 50 $ 25 $ Packs Cartons 210 W. Harold • Crofton, NE • 402-388-4816 3 50 $ 29 $ J&H Cleaning Services YANKTON WORKS Want your REAL-TIME MESSAGE on the most visited media website in the Yankton area? Packs Join our ‘Friends2Follow’ program! Cartons Contact your Yankton Media Representative today! Mon - Sat: 8am-6pm; Sunday: 11am - 4pm; Closed Daily 1-1:30 for lunch 605-665-7811