I loved it

I didn’t grow up with Little House On The Prairie. In fact I didn’t really start watching it until decades later. This autobiography written by one of its stars Alison Arngrim who played the girl that everyone loved to hate, Nellie Oleson deserves a round of applause. It was so well written and beautifully narrated by Alison herself.
It details her life before during and after little house, but mostly during. Her love for the cast and crew of the series, her fond memories of her best friend on the show Melissa Gilbert, and they still remain great friends to this day. The larger than life and loveable persona of Michael Landon.
The Joys and sorrows of her personal life, from a shy little girl suffering sexual abuse at the hands of a mentally ill drug induced family member when she was only six. To becoming an advocate for aids research and fighting for children’s rights, to her brilliant fight for overturning Californian laws on incest abuse.
Incredibly throughout her life she remained upbeat and positive.
I enjoyed this book so much. I laughed, I sobbed, I cheered. But I was never bored. This is one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read.
I don’t think my review does it justice.

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Loved it

I watched some little house, but wasn’t a die hard fan. But this was an awesome listen, I binged it and really enjoyed. She is so expressive when reading it. I’m glad I took a chance!

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So good

I couldn’t stop listening. I’m so glad I got this one.
Funny, dark, moving and bitchy.. ❤️

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I finished it in one day…

I couldn’t stop it. Honestly, her sprightly turn of phrase was enthralling. I would love to have a beer with this amazing woman.

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Best audible - love Alison!

Very entertaining and makes me appreciate and respect Alison even more! Love her! Thank you very much
!

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A Bitch on a Mission! I Love it! 👏

Who'd have thought it, huh? Not only did one of t.v.'s biggest villains turn out to be one hilarious bitch, but a hero on top of it!

Listening to Alison tell her story is like having her in your kitchen for Latte and chocolate brownies and just letting her talk. And on Latte's and chocolate brownies, you can do a LOT of talking. This girl NEEDS to do more audiobooks! She's brilliant at it! Conversational and genuine. The Little House stories are a riot! I'll be watching those episodes, again, with a fresh perspective. Especially in light of how Nellie helped Alison not only survive a horrendous injustice, but helped to fight it, on behalf of others. Who'd have thought Nellie was capable of such selfless, downright decent behavior?

Thinking back on some of my own anti-fandoms, while I loathed certain soap characters, I don't think I could have brought myself to be as BIZARRE to the actors who played those villains as some of the WEIRDOS poor Alison had to deal with. But, she made it work for her. YAAAY.

Seriously, though, it's sad that her parents didn't believe her about what her brother did, JUST because he was a child star. Now that you think about it, the whole dynamic is lopsided. Stephan played innocent waifs and ended up doing something brutal in real life. On the other side of that coin, the PRAIRIE BITCH turned out to be a friend to those who had, previously, no legal recourse.

And speaking of VILLAINS. What was with the California politicians??
Were none of those people kids?!?!? Did none of those people HAVE kids?! Did the idea that their own children might be the victim of such a crime even bother them?! 🤯 Thank heaven for Larry King and his people who agreed to not only do the interview with Alison, but fast track it for best impact. But really, it should NOT have had to go that far.

I'm going to check out Youtube for that clip where Nellie tells Percival, "I love you!" and one of the kids gets hit in the head with a ball. My favorite Nellie/ Percival moment.

Thanks, Alison for letting us HEAR as well as read your story!

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1 person found this helpful

So much fun!

OMG!! I laughed out loud so many times, if I had been drinking there would have been spit takes!!
I want to give Alison a great big hug, then pour us a couple drinks and see what shinanigans we can get up to!
I have been on a Little House journey this summer thanks to the pod cast Wilder. I have started re-reading the books. rewatching the show, and now listening to all I can on this show that feels like home to me.
Thank you Alison for this emotional ride through your experiences. I have new trivia to share with my family, and overall, a completely new respect for you and Nellie respectively.

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Must Read!

I had been watching re-runs of LHOTP and I wanted to learn more about where the cast was now. I came across this book, Nellie Olsen was so mean on the show that I remember thinking that I wanted to read Laura’s book instead but I decided to give it a try anyway. I loved it!! Alison is an amazing story teller, her voice was so recognizable that I immediately got sucked into her story. She also shared lots of interesting LHOTP behind the scene moments. Highly recommend!

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That was a lot of fun.

This was great fun to listen to. Little House was of course, a massively important part of the television entertainment for anyone who watched TV through the 70's and 80's and it was very insightful to understand what it was like growing up a child star, with all the ups and downs of television life, as well as Alison's interests after Little House. Very entertaining.

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