Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
JELL-O Girls
JELL-O Girls: A Family History | Allie Rowbottom
A memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its faade - told by the inheritor of their stories. In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history, and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism, and mysterious ailments. More than 100 years after that deal was struck, Allie's mother Mary was diagnosed with the same incurable cancer, a disease that had also claimed her own mother's life. Determined to combat what she had come to consider the "Jell-O curse" and her looming mortality, Mary began obsessively researching her family's past, determined to understand the origins of her illness and the impact on her life of Jell-O and the traditional American values the company championed. Before she died in 2015, Mary began to send Allie boxes of her research and notes, in the hope that her daughter might write what she could not. JELL-O GIRLS is the liberation of that story. A gripping examination of the dark side of an iconic American product and a moving portrait of the women who lived in the shadow of its fractured fortune, JELL-O GIRLS is a family history, a feminist history, and a story of motherhood, love and loss. In crystalline prose Rowbottom considers the roots of trauma not only in her own family, but in the American psyche as well, ultimately weaving a story that is deeply personal, as well as deeply connected to the collective female experience.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
blurb
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
post image

#DessertDay

#JulyJam

#TBR 🍨 📚❤️

Eggs This was an interesting story ! 2y
57 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
post image

#Treats
#Haunted

Are you trick or treating tonight?! 🧡🖤🧡🖤

Eggs Cute❤️🤎 BTW, this was a great book 📖 2y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Thank you! It looks good! ❤️ 2y
64 likes2 comments
review
Eggs
post image
Pickpick

Love this cover! 🎶j-e-l-l-o🎶

A memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its facade - told by the inheritor of their stories.

#bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 4y
Eggs Thanks Sarah @TheAromaofBooks 4y
69 likes2 comments
blurb
LA_Mead
post image

Oh no! Just realized that I only have 3 days to read Jell-O Girls! Worth it to plough through???

janeycanuck Did you make it through in time? 5y
42 likes1 comment
review
shaynarae
post image
Pickpick

I thought this would be a dry family memoir, but it‘s so richly written that it reads like a novel. I love the bits about the history of Jell-O itself in its larger cultural context and the idea of its role in enforcing a patriarchal structure (even if it‘s a bit of a stretch, I loved it nonetheless). Be forewarned: there is medically/anatomically graphic sections that made my skin crawl. Pro-tip: skip the audio, read the book.

review
Amie
post image
Bailedbailed

I very much disliked how the author invented conversations, experiences, and inner thoughts for other people that she couldn't have possibly known, unless the person kept a detailed journal, but there was no mention of such sources. This is fairly common in memoirs and creative nonfiction and is one of the reasons I stay away from most memoirs. I want "Just the facts, ma'am" in the nonfiction that I read.

Sills @amie hmmmmI thought the author referred to the diaries and journals from her ailing mother and grandmother as well as the oral history passed to her by her mother. I need to check that out again🤔 5y
Amie @Sills in the intro she said she relied on her memories and her mother's memories. If there were diaries, they were not mentioned until beyond the point where I read. Even so, it sounded more like a novel then nonfiction to me. 5y
Sills Good to know thx👍 5y
47 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Kappadeemom
post image

I‘m off work but no one else is in my family so they keep asking me to do things. I left and I‘m hiding out in the library 😂😂

Bradleygirl ✊✊ 5y
43 likes1 comment
blurb
Kappadeemom
post image

Reading this book and going down the Google rabbit hole 😂😂

readingjedi What the...? 🤮🤮🤮 5y
Brenda I remember these culinary delights from my childhood in the late 50s and early 60s. I don‘t miss them one bit 😂🤢 5y
LA_Mead Aaah that book looks awesome! Another one for my TBR... 5y
CoverToCoverGirl 🤢🤮 5y
40 likes5 comments
review
Wife
post image
Mehso-so

Well there are chapters about the family that financially benefited from the Jell-O patent and their troubles. And then there are chapters about the history of Jell-O and how it has been marketed over the decades. Would it be horrible for me to say that Jell-O was more interesting?🤔 And then, the author blends in an episode of Mass Psychogenic Illness that she tries to relate to her and her mother‘s experiences. 2⭐️s (Jell-O saved it from a pan)

ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled Bummer. Sounds like such an interesting read. 5y
OrangeMooseReads That stinks. It did seem like an interesting book. 5y
60 likes2 comments
review
AshleyC816
post image
Pickpick

I was expecting the long history of a family for multiple generations, but instead it was the memoir of one woman‘s battle with mental health and cancer. it was a much sadder story than I was expecting. Oh, and there‘s some history of Jell-O too.

13 likes1 stack add
blurb
LouLouLane
post image

Starting this week with Jell-O Girls👯‍♀️

RaimeyGallant What a great title! 6y
6 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
ElizabethAndino
post image
Pickpick

I was very engrossed by this story. Since I live 30 minutes from Leroy, it held extra interest for me.

blurb
TheNerdyProfessor
post image

I'm traveling for a conference. I have ZERO room in my bag. But I could not resist stopping into the bookstore this afternoon. #supportlocal #independentbookstore #littlebiglove #themasterpiece #jellogirls

quote
CotziasReads
post image
blurb
CotziasReads
post image


1/2 way through and has me disliking JELL-O even more then I did before. Alwsys found Jell-O creepily disturbing now I know why?
Jell-O's early misogynistic racist ads are cringy. 🤦‍♀️

1 like1 stack add
blurb
Liberty
post image

Halfway through the @24in48 #readathon! “WHOAAAAAAAA WE‘RE HALFWAY THERE. WHOA-OH, READIN‘ ON A CHAIR. Take my hand, we‘ll make it, I swear.” 🎶📚

Bklover 😂😂😂 6y
kamoorephoto And you just won an Hour 27 prize (but I bet you‘re not awake!) 😹😹😹 6y
DragonAuthors Roflmao! 😂🤣😂 6y
huntersmom1977 🤣🤣 6y
Liberty @kamoorephoto Yay! I did indeed fall asleep shortly after hour 27. Thanks for the heads up! 6y
133 likes8 stack adds5 comments
blurb
Liberty
post image

Halfway through Hour 22 of the @24in48 #readathon! Going to read more of this and then nap. ☺️♥️📚

121 likes2 stack adds
blurb
Beckys_Books
post image

The opening paragraph of the NYT review makes me want to read this book! And, I hate jello.

CotziasReads I hate Jell-O too. 1/2 through the book, it is a fascinating reading. Also, you will love main character but despise all that Jell-O stands for.. Misogyny and racism (early Jell-O ads were cringy) 6y
51 likes1 stack add1 comment