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Best American Magazine Writing 2008
A good mother, writes Jeanne Marie Laskas in her latest report from Sweetwater Farm, would have bought a house in the suburbs with a cul-de-sac for her kids to ride bikes around instead of a ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere with a rooster. With the wryly observed self-doubt all mothers and mothers-to-be will instantly recognize, Laskas offers a poignant and laugh-out-loud-funny meditation on that greatest–and most impossible–of all life’s journeys: motherhood.
The Exact Same Moon: With a picture-postcard farm, a wonderful marriage, two mules, and a new refrigerator that spits crushed ice, what more can a girl ask for? That's precisely the question Jeanne Marie asks herself as she and Alex settle into their new life at Sweetwater Farm. Two years ago they left the city behind for a life filled with the practical, often comical, lessons of living close to the land—and they never looked back. Yet when her strong-willed mom is hospitalized with a sudden and mysterious paralysis, Jeanne Marie rushes home to Philadelphia and her extended, sometimes chaotic, but always loving family. It's there that she realizes what is still missing from her life: a family of her own. Now it's a matter of bringing up the subject to her husband, Alex, fifteen years older and with adult children of his own, who seems terrified that she's thinking of adopting a Chihuahua. With warmth, wisdom, and unfailing humor, Laskas tells the poignant story of her search for motherhood—and what happens when a woman risks happily-ever-after for something even more precious. The Exact Same Moon is filled with hilarious and heartwarming vignettes of people and a way of life you'll be glad you met. From "borrowing" sheep to help mow the lawn and sitting in on the racy hay jokes at the Agway Equine Clinic, to befriending the notorious old lady who holds the water rights to their future pond, corrupting the neighbors with satellite TV, and learning the fine art of going a-calling, Laskas proves once again that laughter, love, and wisdom are truly homegrown.
Fifty Acres and a Poodle:
Jeanne Marie Laskas had dreams of life on a farm that she couldn't get out of her head. A dream of fleeing her otherwise happy urban life for fresh air and open space. A dream she would discover was about something more profound than that. A dream she never expected to come true. Until a hot summer afternoon led to a drive in the country, where a place that had existed only in her fantasies turned out to be real—and for sale. The place is almost too perfect to be believed, but there it is: a pretty-as-a-postcard farm, with an Amish barn, a chestnut grove, and vistas so beautiful, they take her breath away. And in that moment she knows that this is the spot where her future begins. So she drags her boyfriend Alex, a committed urban dweller with zero agricultural awareness who owns a poodle, into her scheme, hoping that love will somehow conquer all. But buying a postcard—fifty acres of scenery—and living on it are two entirely different matters. In this funny yet tender tale, Laskas shares what happens when you follow your dream—and what happens when it's almost snatched away.
We Remember:
Filled with engrossing portraits of the famous and the little-known, We Remember brings into focus the scope and diversity of lives that spanned two world wars, the Great Depression, the administrations of nineteen presidents, the New Deal, and the industrial and information revolutions. With an introduction by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Balloon Lady and Other People I Know
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The Best American Magazine Writing 2008 is an essential guide to the year's most entertaining, politically charged, and sophisticated essays. With pieces first published in The Nation, National Geographic, Vanity Fair, and the New Yorker, among other leading publications, this anthology illuminates the most compelling issues of the past year and points to the topics that will concern us in the next. Chosen from among the winners and finalists of the 2008 National Magazine Awards, these articles span an eclectic range, from a chilling account of the CIA's secret interrogation program to a humorous look at the absurdities of modern medicine, from a scathing critique of America's activities in Iraq to an acid takedown of snark culture. The anthology also includes 
Award-winning author Jeanne Marie Laskas has charmed and delighted readers with her heartwarming and hilarious tales of life on Sweetwater Farm. Now she offers her most personal and most deeply felt memoir yet as she embarks on her greatest, most terrifying, most rewarding endeavor of all….
In Fifty Acres and a Poodle, Jeanne Marie Laskas described how she survived her first hilariously tumultuous year at Sweetwater Farm. Now she returns with a funny, touching, and personal new memoir of what happens after your dream comes true.
This collection, featuring 16 essays, introduces us to a variety of fascinating characters. As Jeanne Marie Laskas tells us, she enjoys finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Here, she writes about the many personalities she has encountered in the everyday world—the woman who pilots balloons, the man who trains and races pigs, the men who work on barges traveling the Monongahela River, a groundhog, Tom Cruise, Geraldo Rivera, her cats, the people and performers of Branson, Missouri, the woman who makes Slinkys--and through her unique storytelling abilities, she allows us to see what makes these characters truly extraordinary.