The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan

From Goodreads: Evelyn Ryan is an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s. Evelyn's winning ways defied the church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to raising her six sons and four daughters. The story of this irrepressible woman is told by her daughter Terry.

Another memoir to feed my addiction. The mind blowing part of this one is supposed to be how the mother lifts her family up with her incredible jingle writing, contest winning skills but instead the part that blows me away is how bad women's situations could be at this time without the community being in an uproar. The husband is such a loser - an alcoholic who drinks his paycheck away and yet, he still has respect simply because he is the "man of the house". You just want to reach through the pages and slap him and everyone else who turns their head away and doesn't help. Despite my irritation with all that, I did enjoy the book and am adding it to my list of movies I need to rent and watch.

This works for these challenges..