Publisher's Weekly Review
In this touching memoir, designer and Magnolia Network cofounder Gaines (Magnolia Table, Vol. 2: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering) details how she learned self-acceptance. Growing up in 1980s small-town Kansas as the daughter of a white Vietnam War veteran father and a Korean mother, Gaines was a shy girl who didn't see many other mixed-race families. In high school, Gaines and her family moved to Texas, and in the summer of 2000, 21-year-old Gaines interned at CBS News in New York City, where the city's diversity encouraged her to embrace "the beauty of being different and the thrill of being unique." The narrative foregrounds Gaines's commitment to uplifting people ("I've come to see that a huge piece of my place in this world is to highlight passionate people who are doing beautiful things"), and she advocates for the power of empathy, or the ability to recognize "the burden someone is bearing." As well, Gaines's love for her husband and five kids is a throughline, as is her belief in moving forward through trying times ("There's no space anymore for anchors that threaten healing"). Readers will be inspired by Gaines's desire to find strength in self-discovery. Agent: Byrd Leavell, United Talent Agency. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
The home-improvement TV star shares her story. Co-founder of the construction and home-renovation company Magnolia and co-host of Fixer Upper, Gaines writes that she was motivated to write a memoir out of "a yearning for healing, for clarity, for steadiness." At 44, feeling as if "the crescendo" of her life had passed, she felt a need to think about her identity and reassess her goals--a project she recommends to her readers, as well. "Getting your story down," she advises, "needn't be in pursuit of happiness but rather wholeness." Her narrative is light on anecdotes; instead, the author imparts lessons and epiphanies that she gleaned from examining her experiences. "Fear, vulnerability, intentionality, perfectionism" are recurring themes. Half Korean, as a child, Gaines was mocked by kids "who made fun of the slant of my eyes," inciting feelings of insecurity and shame that dogged her for much of her life. Through writing, she confronted that trauma and recognized how it led to self-limiting behavior, such as micromanaging. Motherhood features prominently in her story. Gaines had four children in five years, a period she recalls as "all a bit of a blur." Pregnant again eight years later, she was able to spend more time mothering; her son's rapt attentiveness to the world taught her something valuable: "I've let perfectionism win scenarios and busyness steal seconds of true joy. I've kept my head down when I should have looked up." Perhaps that busyness is one of the "myriad" causes of the guilt she admits to carrying. She urges readers to pay attention "to the moments you've kept close," to listen to their own story, and to be open to "a way of living that grows toward change rather than against it." As she writes near the beginning, "our story may crack us open, but it also pieces us back together." An earnest testament to the healing power of writing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This book is "an invitation to a kind of life where you know how to hold what you believe--about yourself and the quiet worlds of the people you pass--with gracious and open hands," writes Gaines, a designer, best-selling author, and media mogul behind Magnolia, the company she founded with her husband, Chip. Similar pronouncements fill its pages, on topics like meeting fear, finding empathy, being vulnerable, and reimagining your story. Sharing an image of herself journaling this book into existence in her family's cozy laundry room, Gaines invites readers, like she said she would, to find a similar space for themselves and offers some of her own painful memories in the process, like being othered and teased as a child, subjecting herself to unreal standards of "performance and perfection," and working so hard that some years of her family life have become a blur. She isn't offering a tell-all of her life and career nor really anything groundbreaking for this genre of book, but she isn't claiming to. Millions of Magnolia fans, though, will appreciate hearing about Gaines' experiences and what she's learned from them directly from her.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Gaines has an enormous reach, across a network, magazines, and other media (13-million followers on Instagram alone).
