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Biography & Autobiography. Nonfiction. HTML: National Bestseller�??New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher's Weekly Also, check out Capital Gaines and No Pain, No Gaines�??two projects by Chip that share his unique perspective on life and work. Are you ready to see your fixer upper? These famous words are now synonymous with the dynamic husband-and-wife team Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV's Fixer Upper. As this question fills the airwaves with anticipation, their legions of fans continue to multiply and ask a different series of questions, like�??Who are these people? What's the secret to their success? And is Chip actually that funny in real life? By renovating homes in Waco, Texas, and changing lives in such a winsome and engaging way, Chip and Joanna have become more than just the stars of Fixer Upper, they have become America's new best friends. The Magnolia Story is the first book from Chip and Joanna, offering their fans a detailed look at their life together. From the very first renovation project they ever tackled together, to the project that nearly cost them everything; from the childhood memories that shaped them, to the twists and turns that led them to the life they share on the farm today. They both attended Baylor University in Waco. However, their paths did not cross until Chip checked his car into the local Firestone tire shop where Joanna worked behind the counter. Even back then Chip was a serial entrepreneur who, among other things, ran a lawn care company, sold fireworks, and flipped houses. Soon they were married and living in their first fixer upper. Four children and countless renovations later, Joanna garners the attention of a television producer who notices her work on a blog one day. In The Magnolia Story fans will finally get to join the Gaines behind the scenes and discover: The time Chip ran to the grocery store and forgot to take their new, sleeping baby Joanna's agonizing decision to close her dream business to focus on raising their children When Chip buys a houseboat, sight-unseen, and it turns out to be a leaky wreck Joanna's breakthrough moment of discovering the secret to creating a beautiful home Harrowing stories of the financial ups and downs as an entrepreneurial couple Memories and photos from Chip and Jo's wedding The significance of the word magnolia and why it permeates everything they do The way the couple pays the popularity of Fixer Upper forward, sharing the success with others, and bolstering the city of Waco along the way And yet there is still one lingering question for fans of the show: Is Chip really that funny? "Oh yeah," says Joanna. "He was, and still is, my first fixer upp… (more)
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Chip and Joanna Gaines, with Mark Dagostino
The Magnolia Story
W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson
Hardcover, 978-0-7180-7918-5 (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 208 pgs., $26.99
October 18, 2016
Risk-averse introvert Joanna met impulsive, outgoing
The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines (with Mark Dagostino, a former writer for People magazine) is written in a skillful mirror of the television show. Joanna is engaging and sincere; Chip is entertaining and goofy; she grounds him, and he energizes her. They inspire each other, and together they’re more than the sum of their parts.
The Magnolia Story is sweet and inspiring, as expected, but it’s also candid and absorbing. The Gainses share their early days together, the milestones, and the successes as well as the setbacks. Joanna’s first-person narration is regularly augmented, and intermittently interrupted, by Chip’s commentary. The two points of view are printed in different fonts, an effective format for keeping things straight when they’re finishing each other’s sentences.
The Gaineses spill on plenty that we don’t know from the show. For example, did y’all know that Joanna, a communications major, worked under Dan Rather, interning for 48 Hours in New York? And there was the time Chip was arrested for unpaid tickets incurred for violations of Waco’s leash laws. It was the principle of the thing.
Joanna writes movingly of the times when she and Chip didn’t balance each other out, and of personal epiphanies that both improved family life and contributed to her design philosophy and unique aesthetic. Chip, the “serial entrepreneur,” writes of his early beginnings in business when, as a child, he sold juice boxes to the kids at tennis camp, and Scantrons at Baylor on exam days. Sitting in business classes at Baylor, Chip stared out the windows and daydreamed of trading places with the lawn crew.
Favorite Chip quotation, riffing on do-it-yourself repairs of times past: “You found this old spare part, you did this other thing, you hooked it up to a donkey, and you tried it out.”
The magnolia serves as a fitting metaphor for this story. “Have you ever looked at the bud of a magnolia flower?” Joanna asks. “It’s a tight little pod that stays closed up for a long time on the end of its branch until one day, out of nowhere, it finally bursts open into this gigantic, gorgeous, fragrant flower that’s ten times bigger than the bud itself.”
Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.
This book is perfect for: Anyone who has an unexplained fascination with Chip and Joanna. That's just about everyone, right?
This charming story about the lives of Chip and Joanna Gaines, the couple behind 'Fixer Upper' shows that their life hasn't been all idyllic. I loved reading about how two people who were so different, have woven their lives into one family with one focus.
It was also
I bought this book a few months ago at a library sale for a buck, thinking my wife would like it. She had not picked it up yet, so I read it, in just a few sittings. Not great literature, obviously, but a pleasurable read about a couple okay young folks who have worked hard and got a big break: that popular TV show. If you like their show, you'll probably like this book.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER