Peggy Rowe Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Peggy Rowe
Peggy Rowe used to have a hobby, writing stories and articles that appeared in magazines and newspapers, which started in the year 2002. Thanks to her husband, John, her three sons, and two parents that lived across the lawn for forty years, there was no scarcity of material for her.

After she wrote her first book, “About My Mother”, at the age of eighty (which became a New York Times bestseller) as well as another two years later, Peggy’s hobby has become her full time job. It took her eighty years to find her voice, and now she cannot shut it up.

Peggy’s first horse was the grapevines in her backyard. They were wrapped around this sturdy pole, and her mom made a saddle for her out of this old cushion and reins out of clothesline rope. And her mom blessed her, put her on the horse, and told her to go riding around the prairie. Which is exactly what Peggy did. Her mom eventually embraced her passion and even did what she could in order to make sure she had access to a horse, and led to her having one of her own.

Before having a horse, Peggy would just gallop around the entire neighborhood as though she was actually a horse, leaping over bird baths and hedges. Peggy’s passion for horses is one that she was born with.

She was born in 1939 in Long Beach, California. She is a former school teacher. She married John Rowe (who Peggy calls “Prince Charming”), also a teacher and they had three sons together (Mike, Scott, and Phil). Most notable of their sons is, Mike, their eldest. He is a host and narrator best known for his work on Dirty Jobs and Somebody’s Gotta Do It. Together they live in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mike started sharing her emails and texts on his social media over the last few years which made her rise in popularity as well. An especially major hit was a video of Mike where he read the story about Peggy losing her blue purse in Walmart, which got almost a hundred million views.

Peggy was encouraged by her “little Facebook friends” and Mike, and wrote her book about her mom as a collection of essays which Mike published. It sold out rather quickly, and lead to a bidding war by the major publishers that wanted the rights to its second edition.

“About My Mother” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2018. There is a Thelma Knobel in everybody’s life. She is the person that takes charge, the one that knows instinctively how things should be. Today, she would be described as an alpha personality. However while growing up, Peggy (her daughter) saw her as the dictator, albeit a loving, benevolent one. They clashed right from the start: Peggy, a horse-crazy tomboy, and Thelma, a controlling genteel mom, committed to raising two ladylike and refined daughters.

When major league baseball came to town during the early fifties and turned sophisticated Thelma into a crazed Baltimore Orioles fanatic, nobody was more embarrassed and surprised than Peggy. As this was a complete about face for her sophisticated and refine mom who like ballet and opera. Life became a series of compromises, with Thelma tolerating a daughter that pitched manure and galloped through the countryside. Just as Peggy learned to tolerate the whacky Orioles fan that shouted insults at umpires, threw her underwear at the television, and lived by the black and orange schedule that was taped to the door of the fridge.

This is an entertaining and funny read, and by the end of the book readers had fallen heavily for both Peggy and her mom. Peggy is an engaging storyteller that hooks you right from the first page. Such a joy to read about their life in Baltimore.

“About Your Father and Other Celebrities I Have Known” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2020. Peggy Rowe is back at it yet again, this time giving a hilarious inside look at growing up Rowe, both before and after her son Mike’s rise to fame.

Peggy’s previous “doting” lifestyle met with her husband John’s minimalist ways, since they said “I do,” became the backdrop for years of adventure and a quirky sense of humor because of their differences. From squeezing the last bit of toothpaste out with a workbench vise, to thoughts about wearing headlamps in the house to save on energy, not to mention the lengths she has to go to in order to throw out old rags (or perfectly good shirts as her husband calls them). Peggy has just learned to pick her battles and celebrate the hilarity in each situation.

Once their sons were born, garbage dumping stories and wood stove mishaps were the seed for Mike’s obsession with doing dirty jobs and the comical presence that he is known for today.

While Mike rose to fame, Peggy was his number one fan, who gave motherly advice and constructive criticism, obviously. She baked cookies for him to take to Joan Rivers for a Christmas party hostess gift, and she even penned fan letters under pen names and mailed to Mike’s producer from various cities.

By the time Mike actually hits it big, John and Peggy retire to face even more adventures, with an elderly friend that ate marijuana leaves, a lightning strike in their condo, and entering into celebrity status by making commercials for Lee jeans and Viva paper towels and so much more.

These stories relive the details which entertain and intrigue new and old fans alike. So for those looking for a bigger, and even funnier take on the Rowe family, this book delivers the goods.

This is a fantastic collection of essays about her marriage, life, raising kids, and getting older that is equal parts poignant and humorous. Peggy is witty, clever, and talented and knows how to tell a story that entertains and delights her readers. This book is quite a treat of laughter and love that everybody should check out.