Member Reviews

“If I Don’t Laugh, I’ll Cry” by Molly Stillman is a Christian memoir, looking at her childhood and young adulthood. Intended to be humorous, the laughs are somewhat forced and self-conscious, but all-in-all Author Stillman shares the ups and downs of her life with care and grace.

Looking back on her younger years, Molly realizes that she did not have a firm foundation. Popularity, success, love, acceptance, nothing really guided her. Two major events disrupt Molly’s life: her mother (a successful author with her memoir of being an army nurse and serving in Vietnam) dies when Molly is a senior in high school. And shortly after Molly graduates, she spend alls all of a quarter of a million dollar inheritance and goes into debt.

The memoir ends with Molly accepting Jesus as her Lord and Savior. As she says, “It’s my story. It’s God’s story. It’s a muddy story, it’s an honest story, it’s a funny story, it’s a sad story, it’s an unfinished story.”

God Bless you, Molly Stillman. Thanks for sharing your story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Nelson Books for an advance digital copy. This is my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Molly writes so well! Her stories intrigued me, and I liked how she explained her family and backstory. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Wow has Molly been through it! Love her raw honesty of the struggles she experienced, the highs which lead to some lows and how she came out of it. Imagine being in college and getting a certified letter on your birthday for a quarter of a million dollars! We learn that lots can happen when you are not advised properly that is for sure! Loved learning about her family and how they tried to give her mother the best life possible by traveling and caring for her. So many funny stories tied in with some difficult ones. I look forward to reading more from this author!

Was this review helpful?

Funny, and inspirational. Loved it.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy. I will preface this by saying I personally know Molly, most of her story, and am familiar with majority of the stories in the book. With that in mind I read this in less than two day and did not want to put it down. I read her mom's book years ago and one could say this is the follow up story of Lynda's book. How what happened to one person caused a ripple effect on those around them. It really gives the perspective of what she went through because of what happened in Lynda's life.
The book really has two parts, (1) growing up with a sick parent and (2) inheriting a bunch of money unexpectedly and using that to cope with (1) and what happens when there is nothing left from (2).
I loved it and would recommend it! Sorry if reading this gave you some heartburn, Molly!

Was this review helpful?

This was a great memoir! It was a fast and easy read. The formatting for the Kindle is a bit weird in places though. However, greatly enjoyed the book and would read other works by the author.

Was this review helpful?

I knew very little about Molly Stillman before opening up the electronic pages of "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry: How Death, Debt, and Comedy Led to a Life of Faith, Farming, and Forgetting What I Came into This Room for." An acclaimed blogger, podcaster, and speaker, Stillman wasn't on my radar until I read the description of her book and thought "This sounds like it's right up my alley."

It is right up my alley.

A good 50% of "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry" is devoted to Stillman's childhood and the mother who whose death because of Agent Orange would be a near constant shadow throughout her life. In fact, at one point I found myself mumbling "Is this book about Molly or her mother?"

It was a fair question, but I just needed to be patient.

Molly mother, Lynda Van Decanter Buckley, served as an Army nurse during Vietnam and wrote the bestselling memoir "Home Before Morning." When Molly was 17, her mother passed away after an eight-year battle with an autoimmune disorder due to her exposure to Agent Orange. This loss radiates throughout "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry" and the storytelling throughout this section is heartbreaking, poignant and still, yes, a little funny.

Four years later, Molly unexpectedly inherited a quarter of a million dollars from her mother's estranged family's estate. She quickly, amazingly quickly, became a bit of a statistic when she subsequently squandered all of the cash and, in fact, ended up $36,000 in the hole with seemingly little hope of digging her way out.

While consumed by shame and guilt, Molly turned toward her longtime dream of comedy to mask the pain and brokenness. She secretly believed that if she could look happy she would eventually be happy. It was an unlikely desperate call to a compassionate credit counselor who set her on the path to emotional and financial healing. This path would eventually become paved with love when she would meet the spreadsheet-loving man who would eventually become her husband.

"If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry" is a most unusual book centered around faith because faith actually only comes into play toward the final 10% or so of the book when death, debt, and comedy truly did lead Molly down the road to her current life of faith, farming, a husband, two kids, and Selah Farm.

At times quite humorous and also honoring Molly's sense of grief and brokenness, "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry" is a redemption story of sorts devoid of the usual greeting card ending even if Molly does tend to end up traveling down a pretty wonderful path. Molly's story of loss and grief is filled with moments of tenderness and longing. Molly's journey through her mistakes and the subsequent shame and guilt is one likely to sound familiar to anyone who's ever lived a life that's left them wondering "Why would God even want me?"

At times, the tonal shifts feel a tad abrupt. This is especially true as we shift from stories around the death of Molly's mother toward her college years and segue into comedy. Because about half of "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry" is centered around that death that so defined Molly's growing up years, certain pieces of the book's latter half feel a bit rushed and I found myself wanting to spend more time experiencing Molly's relationship with John and her unexpected transformation by faith.

However, these are minor quibbles for an engaging, entertaining book that had me heading to the internet to learn more about Molly not long after I'd finished the final pages and was processing through my emotions with it all.

While very little discussion of faith occurs until toward the end, Molly does begin each chapter with a scriptural reference that provides a meaningful lens through which to view the chapter and Molly's life journey.

You will laugh. You will cry. You will appreciate "If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry."

Was this review helpful?