My Family and Other Hazards

“A wonderful, witty account“ of letting go of your childhood home—in this case, a quirky, family-run mini-golf course (The Christian Science Monitor).

When June Melby was ten years old, her parents bought a miniature golf course in a small Wisconsin town. Without any business experience, the family sets out to open Tom Thumb Miniature Golf to the public.

In My Family and Other Hazards, Melby recreates all the squabbling, confusion, and ultimately triumph, of one family’s quest to build something together, and brings to life the joys of one of America’s favorite pastimes. In sharp, funny prose, we get the hazards that taunted players at each hole, and the dedication and hard work that went into each one’s creation. All the familiar delights of summer are here snowcones and popcorn and long days spent with people you love.

Melby’s relationship with the course is love-hate from the beginning, but when her parents decide to sell the course years later, her panicked reaction surprises even her. Now an adult living in Hollywood, she flies home to help run it before the sale goes through, wondering if she should try to stop it. As the clock ticks, she reflects on what the course means to her, the simpler era that it represents, and the particular pains of losing your childhood home, even years after you’ve left it.

“A summer delight . . . Melby's ode to Wisconsin is rich with detail.” -Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Deeply funny and endearing. . . . an evocative story about memory, family, and the perfection of Midwestern summers.” -Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie.