Book Reviews

I Bottled My Mother
The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime & Growing a Business
Monica R. Nassif
Ideapress Publishing

March 24, 2026

ISBN-13: 978-1646872336

Contact: Joelle Speranza, joelle.speranza@smithpublicity.com

Reviewed by Edith G. Tolchin (edietolchin.com/book-reviews); EGT@edietolchin.com

“I was raised to be a domestic. I was taught to cook, clean, sew, garden, raise babies, and take care of the home.”

Monica R. (Meyer) Nassif was born in small-town Iowa, the oldest girl of nine children, four girls and five boys born to Thelma Meyer in ten years. All of Mrs. Meyer’s children graduated college. Their dad was a “Mr. Fix-It.”

Adds Nassif, “My mother was raised on a dirt-poor Kansas farm with no electricity or running water, and now she proudly sports an iPhone.” Even her grandmother was an entrepreneur, dirt poor, locally selling farm goods in Topeka.

All nine children were raised to take “outside” work early, in addition to education. The author started cleaning a rustic hair salon, moved on to meat lockers, to weeding soybeans, then at fifteen, a truck-stop waitress; at 16, a typist in a hospital ER. All excellent training dealing with people in the real world, it led to Nassif becoming an ICU nurse after college.

Next up for Nassif was a job in communications, then a marriage to David, two children, then a startup businesses. Their younger daughter, Calla, developed cancer; had 13 weeks of chemo. David ran the home while Nassif went back to work.

Entrepreneurial highlights were Nassif’s “Caldrea” and “Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day” businesses, modeled after her mom, Thelma Meyer’s, superior household cleaning products. Nassif sold the company at 53, leaving her wanting more.

At approximately one third into the read, based on her extensive experience, Nassif outlines helpful (and lengthy) advice for budding business owners. The reader should be prepared, however, for the chapters to skip from memoir to sample business plans and meticulous advice for budding entrepreneurs.

Toward the end of the book, Nassif interviews her mother, Thelma Meyer, now in her nineties and the inventor of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products. Expect simple guidance and stories of farm life as the mother of nine children. The icing on the cake was when 87-year-old Mrs. Meyer starred in the company’s float in 2019 at the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California.

Included are Mrs. Meyer’s tips for feeding a family of eleven. “Ninety-nine percent of the food at our house was made from scratch,” says Nassif.

CONCLUSION:

Enjoy quick-witted quips by Thelma Meyer herself such as, “Well, I had a box of forty-eight Kotex in the bathroom and in ten years, I never finished the box.” “We’re not built for resting. To us, it’s a form of punishment.”

Expect frequent words of wisdom and encouragement on running one’s own business such as “Keep a Victory Log,” and “Pay attention to your inner voice.” However, also expect a disjointed read which jumps from personal memoir to life coaching to “Business for Dummies,” then back and forth. Somewhat “ADD-ish.”

I Bottled My Mother, by Monica R. Nassif, is an insightful combo memoir and “how-to” book—with real-life, sweet anecdotes, geared towards aspiring entrepreneurs.