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Summary
Summary
After escaping an abusive marriage, Cara Brookins had four children to provide for and no one to turn to but herself. In desperate need of a home but without the means to buy one, she did something incredible. Equipped only with YouTube instructional videos, a small bank loan and a mile-wide stubborn streak, Cara built her own house from the foundation up with a work crew made up of her four children. It would be the hardest thing she had ever done. With no experience nailing together anything bigger than a bookshelf, she and her kids poured concrete, framed the walls and laid bricks for their two story, five bedroom house. She had convinced herself that if they could build a house, they could rebuild their broken family. This must-read memoir traces one family's rise from battered victims to stronger, better versions of themselves, all through one extraordinary do-it-yourself project.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this honest, tough memoir, Brooking documents how building a home for herself and her four children created a pathway out of domestic abuse and into a new life. One of her husbands suffered from schizophrenia; her next husband drank heavily, used drugs, and, within a few months of their wedding, began abusing the author. Brookings, a computer analyst based in Little Rock, Ark., calls herself an optimist, noting she always "believed things would get better." Brookings, as well as her children, lived in fear even after the author's divorce. Selling the family home was a financial necessity. During a family outing over Thanksgiving, Brookings spots her dream home. Though recently ravaged by a tornado, the once "regal and very Southern home" plants a seed in her consciousness. "Why couldn't I build a house?" The narrative alternates between describing the fear her children and the author lived with for years with the complications and rewards of building a home from the ground up with no experience. Brookings finds land, obtains a loan, and sets out with the help of her four children to build their new home in nine months. Brookings deftly narrates the extreme learning curve the family experienced during the construction process, while putting a family back together again. Agent, Jessica Papin; Dystel & Goderich Literary. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A memoir of a mother and her children building a houseand securityfrom the ground up.Throughout her uplifting book, Brookins, a computer analyst, social media marketing expert, and author of middle-grade and young-adult novels (Gadget Geeks, 2015, etc.), consistently displays her relentless optimism. The author begins with the birth of her first child when she was 19. A child of divorce and married at 18, Brookins was confident that she could carry her childsoon to be childrenaway from the romantic problems that plagued her. These relationships were hobbled by various factors, including schizophrenia, drugs, and, finally, abuse. Brookins successfully extricated herself from her partner's abuse, but the trauma and anxiety of his return, along with financial hardship, left Brookins with no choice but to move on. Unsure of what to do next, the author eventually hit on the idea of building a house with her children. "The idea of building our own home was not born out of boredom," she writes, "but rose as the only possible way to rebuild my shattered family while we worked through the shock waves of domestic violence and mental illness. The dangers of our past were more difficult to leave behind than we ever imagined." Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, Brookins and her children waded into battle repeatedly, measuring, ordering, hammering, pouring concrete, and pulling apart finished work to put it back together again only to find the one thing they had counted on going right had gone wrong. The author occasionally characterizes her children in ways that make them seem like caricatures rather than individuals trying to work through the instability and uncertainty. However, when she turns the focus on their work, Brookins draws a compelling picture of overcoming adversity and battling against problems from the past that continued to threaten the new life they built.Not without its flaws but an inspiring memoir of absolute determination. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Brookins' rousing memoir beautifully illustrates how one family can look apprehension dead in the eye and scoff at it. Armed with little more than chutzpah and the Internet, this single mother mustered her only allies her four children, including one toddler to build a house from the ground up. The catalyst? An abusive ex-husband who threatened to show up and terrorize them as long as he could locate them. The plan? To build a home where he wouldn't be able to find them. Perhaps it was her experience with three very bad marriage choices, or maybe it was her childhood in a dysfunctional family. Or it could be that the D in her DNA stood for determination. Wherever her strength of purpose originated, it never failed her throughout the nearly yearlong construction process. Sure, her energy flagged occasionally. There's no way a writer can build a house without a self-doubt or two. But for readers looking for inspiration to accomplish a daunting task, they need look no further than Brookins' highly engaging and encouraging book.--Chavez, Donna Copyright 2016 Booklist
Table of Contents
| 1 Rise A House | p. 1 |
| 2 Fall Bad Habits | p. 3 |
| 3 Rise Sticks and Stones | p. 12 |
| 4 Fall What I Learned in First Grade | p. 33 |
| 5 Rise Truth Tellers | p. 38 |
| 6 Fall Coffee with Cream | p. 52 |
| 7 Rise Plan B Is for Sissies | p. 58 |
| 8 Fall Black, White, and Gray | p. 79 |
| 9 Rise Shop Not Shopping | p. 92 |
| 10 Fall Karma Points | p. 112 |
| 11 Rise Sounds Easy | p. 123 |
| 12 Fall The Art of War | p. 143 |
| 13 Rise A Little to the Left | p. 152 |
| 14 Fall Loyalty Won't Save You | p. 169 |
| 15 Rise One Cookie at a Time | p. 176 |
| 16 Fall Firefighters Have Hoses | p. 194 |
| 17 Rise What Is Down Must Go Up | p. 200 |
| 18 Fall Hear the Words I Mean | p. 218 |
| 19 Rise I Am My Plumber | p. 225 |
| 20 Fall Down by the River | p. 246 |
| 21 Rise Glue Me Back Together | p. 255 |
| 22 Fall Aiming True | p. 273 |
| 23 Rise Scramble to the Finish | p. 285 |
| 24 Fall and Rise: You Built Your Own Damn House | p. 302 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 309 |