This memoir was very interesting. The stories about the animals living at the Funny Farm were heartwarming. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Funny Farm by Laurie Zaleski
This book made me laugh and cry. The tales of all the animals that were rescued were heartwarming and heartbreaking. It’s hard to think of anyone treating animals so poorly, but it happens. Thank goodness there are people and organizations like the Funny Farm that help to rescue and rehabilitate even the toughest cases. 600 rescue animals seems like such a huge number, yet it’s only a small portion of the animals who need help. The author let’s us in on her emotions through her life which run the gamut of not eating meat ever again to crying on the floor after feeding a puppy every hour on the hour only to have it puke and have to start all over again. She also tells of her family life with abuse. Her Mother is front and center in this book and also front and center in the abuse she had to endure. I feel like I got to know her Mom through the kindness she showed to not only the animals, but the people they met along the way. Being civil even to a husband that not only was abusive, but also didn’t even acknowledge he had children later on. The little sayings from her Mom were hilarious. I think I’ll always remember, ‘The more you cry, the less you’ll pee’. Overall this was a wonderful story. If you love animals you will enjoy reading it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from St Martin’s Press through NetGalley exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Wow, all I can say is wow. Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life With 600 Rescue Animals by Laurie Zaleski is the best book I’ve read this year. I absolutely loved it.

The story is about Laurie growing up in an abusive household, being poor, and her hard working mother refusing to let it get any of them down. By accident, they started taking in animals that were mistreated, strays, and/or not wanted. In taking care of the animals, Laurie learns about life; good and bad. There are moments of tears, laughter, and all around good feelings reading this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone, but especially if your an animal lover and/or a survivor. I’m gonna have book hangover for a while from this one 😊

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are my own.

I was excited to receive an advance copy of Funny Farm from St. Martin’s Press as it’s been a longtime dream of mine to own land and rescue animals. I’m highly interested in the stories of others who are living the farm sanctuary life. Funny Farm did not disappoint, but it was so much more than the tale of an animal sanctuary. It was the page-turning story of Laurie’s mother, an amazing and determined woman who fled an abusive husband with nothing but her kids at a time when women didn’t have the mobility in society that they do today. The writing is superb and I often couldn’t put the book down, wanting to know what happened next. It’s a book that will stay with me for a long time.

As for the Funny Farm, I hope to visit in person someday soon! I appreciated all of Laurie’s anecdotes about what life is really like with 600 rescue animals. It’s certainly not easy and there are hard truths to be considered, but the love and the lasting imprint she is making on the lives of the animals and the people who visit and volunteer make it seem like the effort is well worth the reward. Funny Farm is full of great insight, compassion, and heart and I highly recommend giving it a read. I believe the publishing date has been moved to February 22, 2022, so keep an eye out!

This book was such an unexpected surprise. Based on the cover, I expected a heartwarming, even cute, read about a life in animal rescue. Because it's a memoir, I expected an interesting true story, but didn't necessarily expect great writing. That would have all been fine, but this book is so much more and so much better than that. The writing is excellent, descriptive and engaging. Sure, it's a story about who path to animal rescue, and just that story is conduit to the life of the interesting people that went to the Funny Farm to get help for animals. But it's also the story of a family with a strong mother, an abusive father; of survival and compassion. The author goes back and forth between the story of her life and bits and pieces of stories from the farm and in doing this strikes a great balance in the mood of the narrative. Great, inspiring story that I would love to hear in audio version as well.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully written memoir of triumph over abuse and the mother who grabbed her three children and ran. The author is a daughter of Annie McNulty. Laurie has written a tribute to her mother filled with admiration and respect while describing how the animal rescue sanctuary came to be.

Coming from a privileged background, Laurie learns the depth of her ability to adapt to life in the shack by the pines. It’s a horrendous crash from the life they’d shared to one now of crushing deprivation.

Her mother, a powerhouse of optimism and love, steered the children through those dark years while caring for the desperate animals that seemed to cross their paths.

The author builds the story from the death of her mother, taking us back to the childhood that started the rescue to the Funny Farm that fulfilled her mother’s dream. The stories, both of human and animal, are deeply emotional.

The overwhelming theme of the novel is not of abuse but love. This is a story that feeds the need to read. Sweet, inspiring, humbling, mixed with shots of humor, this is truly a must read—and one most heartily recommended.

I read a few memoirs in a given year, and I was really looking forward to Funny Farm. While I wasn't familiar with Laurie Zaleski prior to this, I was super intrigued by the synopsis and cover.

From a young age, Laurie learned to care for animals. Escaping trauma and growing from hardship, Funny Farm explores Zaleski's life from troubled childhood to successful owner/operator of a large animal rescue.

I really liked this book. There never seems to be a dull moment when you're surrounded by six hundred animals, and Zaleski does a wonderful job balancing depictions of the chaotic moments with insightful commentary on the daily effort and struggles it takes to run such an expansive operation. My favorite moments were the animal anecdotes, as they served multiple purposes: comedic breaks from emotionally-taxing chapters, symbols for a larger issue explored in an upcoming chapter, or moments of beautiful simplicity, highlighting the power of love and determination.

Zaleski's writing is clear, sharp, and accessible, and I think many readers will be enthralled by her story. While I wish some of the elements of her flashbacks were developed in more detail, I especially appreciated the focus on her relationship with her mother, a building stone for her personal and professional endeavors. Many social issues are also addressed through Zaleski's journey, including abuse, gender discrimination, socioeconomic status, and power dynamics.

Both resilient and heartbreaking, Funny Farm is sure to be a winner with all audiences.

Big thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Review of uncorrected digital galley

Deep in the Pinelands of Southern New Jersey lies a fifteen-acre farm called Funny Farm. Here rescued and neglected animals can live out their lives in peace. The dream of an animal rescue originally belonged to Laurie Zaleski’s mother, Annie McNulty; now, with Annie’s passing, it is Laurie’s dream-turned-reality.

But animals are not the only focus of this story. Laurie recounts her mother’s life, including her horrific marriage to Richard Zaleski and her efforts to keep herself and her three children safe. It is, by turns, inspiring, courageous, humorous, and fearfully appalling. The dysfunctional, abuse-laden life in the Zaleski home is a stark contrast to the home Annie created for her family after taking her children and leaving her husband, driven away by Richard’s abhorrent behavior.

Readers may find the account of abusive and horrific actions difficult to read, but inexhaustible love and devotion shine through the agonies, the poverty, the dogs and cats and pigs and chickens and horses and goats. Impossible to set aside, this incredible tale is honest, heartwarming, and extraordinary. Don’t miss it.

Highly recommended

I received a free copy of this eBook from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley
#FunnyFarm #NetGalley

This us a truly heartwarming book with all the feels. I hands diwn recommend this book for anyone wanting an uplifting story about the love and comfort animals can bring to our soul. Honestly and truly an amazing story thank you Laurie for sharing your passion and life's work with us.

This is a beautiful, heartwarming and endearing book that will touch your heart and soul. The author has written the most amazing account of her life and how she began to rescue a animals …..her Mum. You will learn how strong her Mum was and how she ensured her children learned right from wrong. She taught them to work for what they want and how to love animals as they should be loved.

This book made me smile time after time. I felt wonderful reading about the animals she rescued and learning about their unique personalities. I have three rescue dogs and they have changed my life. I hope that others will read this book and learn to view animals as sentient beings. A must read for all.

When I began to read this, I was expecting to be bored and to force myself to endure “cute” stories of rescued animals. Boy was I ever wrong. Laurie Zaleski and her siblings were the children of Anne McNulty. Anne was an abused wife living an upper middle class life in suburban New Jersey with her family. When she finally decided to walk away (for her protection and the children’s), she rented a shack in the woods nearby so the children could continue at their schools. She turned the shack into a home and the accompanying farmland and forest into the Funny Farm. Laurie was five when they moved there. The book is her memories of that life and her continuing life at the farm she (with her sister’s help) bought for her mother when Laurie was 30. It is a compelling tale made more so by the honesty with which it is told. The Funny Farm continues to be a home for some 600 animals. Thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC for an honest review.

It is interesting to see where the person behind the animal rescue came from and how they ended with hundreds of abused and neglected animals that no one else wants. Laurie Zaleski's story is tragic with trauma but heartwarming with her mother's love and all the animals that ended up surrounding them. She learned to work hard and break through the poverty she was plunged into when her abusive father became too much for her mother to bear. Laurie's story is one of love and determination triumphing over everything else and definitely worth the read. I really enjoyed learning about her and her many, many animals. Highly recommend!

An amazing true story of escape from an abusive Father and how a family learns to survive with very little financial resources. Despite being dirt poor they manage to find a way to rescue all sorts of animals that have been mistreated and abandoned. They also find away to succeed in life and help others along the way.

I am in love with the cover of this book. I am also an animal lover and stories about animals have always been a big draw for me. I did find the animal stories to be often funny, mostly cute, and sometimes pulling on your heartstrings. This book also has Laurie Zaleski's childhood story. Laurie grew up with a very disturbing father. Her mother Anne is the real reason that Laurie Zaleski is who she is today and I loved how not the disturbing father but the loving mother comes through over and over again in this book. I was asked by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley to read an ARC of the Funny Farm I can honestly say this is not what I was expecting but I am so glad I got to read it. At times I found the childhood storyline hard to read but getting to see how Laurie was able to rise above and accomplish so much it is inspiring and worth my discomfort. Be ready to laugh, smile, cheer, cry and well just about want to kill because this book takes you on one crazy ride.

I received an advance copy of, Funny Farm, by Laurie Zaleski. Laurie loves animals all animals, and she names them to. This is a great story about Lauries childhood and her love of animals.

I am not good at writing reviews, but if you love animals this book is a must read. The story follows a divorced mother of 3 children, as they live through abuse, poverty and Triumphs. I cried barrels but the book was so compelling I finished reading in one day. Good out and buy a copy of this book you won’t be sorry.

I wasn’t expecting such a moving memoir with some heartbreaking circumstances of domestic abuse and animal cruelty (especially with such a cute cover), but I was driven to continue because the writing was so great. It wasn’t an easy read, but I’m glad I got the privilege of being able to see the story behind the farm, and the little snippets of animal tales at the end of each chapter were appreciated breaks. I feel like this is a hidden gem, one of the best memoirs I’ve read.

Laurie Zaleski’s Amazing Life

An inspiring memoir of a life and a dream come true. Laurie was born into wealth, thrust into poverty, and in the end succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. Her mother, Annie McNulty, taught her to love life, love animals, and make the best of whatever situation she found herself in from day to day. After leaving her philandering and abusive husband, Annie made a new home for them in a ramshackle house set back from the highway. Almost from the beginning stray animals seemed to find them, and they were always welcomed and cared for. Soon known as the Funny Farm, people from all over the area would bring stray, unwanted, or wounded animals to them asking for help. Laurie and her siblings worked hard to earn the education they wanted, and siblings moved away to their own successful lives, while Laurie and her mom continued to take in any kind of animal in need.

This heartwarming and memorable story follows a timeline, telling the stories of animals rescued, interspersed with family stories and friends being happily welcomed into their humble home. There were sad times, too, whenever an animal they cared for met an untimely death. Funny Farm is a story you won’t want to miss, there is so much love in this book that needs to be shared.

I received an advance copy of Funny Farm from NetGalley, this is my honest review.

I requested and received an early readers copy of this book from Netgalley. I am a sucker for charming animal tales.

This book turned out to have more layers than I had expected. Laurie Zaleski was raised by a mother who rescued herself and her three children from an abusive spouse. She dreamed of an animal sanctuary, and her daughter, (the author), fulfilled this dream in her own adulthood.

The writing is authentic, pleasing, and heartbreaking. There is a lot of emotion wrapped up in this book. Highly recommended.

5 stars
Funny Farm
My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals
By Laurie Zaleski
Ms. Zaleski has written a heartbreaking, heartwarming and utterly unputdownable book. What a fascinating memoir on her very unusual childhood and her mother's start of the Funny Farm as she scrapped to get by and raise her kids after fleeing from an abusive husband.
Zaleski shares how it all began to where she is today with 600 rescue animals, countless volunteers and daily miracles saving many animals. I highly recommend this book, while it is disturbing at times, it is so heartwarming and an absolute must-read.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.