‘My Family and Other Hazards’: Charming memoir details life on, off golf course

Writers are always told to 'write what you know,” but let's face it: some writers have more material than others. Thankfully, non-fiction writer and Decorah native June Melby has plenty, as evidenced by her charming - and moving - debut work, 'My Family and Other Hazards.”

Melby spent most of her childhood begrudgingly helping customers and maintaining the aging handmade hazards on her family's mini golf course. After college, Melby moves across the country to map out a new life for herself. However, when she turns 40 and her parents decide to sell the course, Melby is overwhelmed with nostalgia and begins to reconsider the path that took her so far from her family and the Midwest.

'My Family and Other Hazards” opens with Melby as an adult, then moves back in time to Melby's childhood on the course. It's all here: humorous memories of mishaps, adventure, as well as teenage frustrations and sibling rivalries, all told in Melby's amazingly deadpan voice: ('Apparently you need to know how to pour cement to attract a boy in this town.”)

Melby's love of the mini golf course runs deep - sometimes a little too deep - as she goes into painstaking detail of the construction of each hole and includes oddly placed, incredibly-specific sections on how to make popcorn and cotton candy.

While the childhood memories are delightful, where Melby really shines is when she writes from the perspective of an adult. Having sufficiently walked down memory lane, Melby returns to her adult life in the final section of the book and manages to tug at the heartstrings and build suspense as she comes to a number of reconciliations about her past dreams for herself and her place in her family.

The result is a book about much more than mini golf: It's the story of a family taking a risk together, and the humor and heartache that result.

Author readings

' What

: June Melby reads from 'My Family and Other Hazards”

'Iowa City

: 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights Books, 15 S. Dubuque St.

'Cedar Rapids

: 7 p.m. at New Bo Books, 1105 Third St. SE

'Cost

: Free