Tag Archives: prairie girl

I’ve reached my Goodreads Challenge reading goal for the year!

Actually, I’m one book ahead! I set a goal for 20 books this year, which was fewer than what I hoped to read but which I thought was actually attainable. BUT, we’re less than halfway through the year and I’ve already read 21, which I’m super excited about. My list of things to read is ever-growing, so I’m interested to see what count I get to by the end of the year.

Here are the cover shots from Goodreads of all the books I’ve read. I seem to remember last year it let me make a collage, but maybe that feature is only available at the end of the year? If I’ve written a review, images link back! Looks like I’m behind on my reviews (no surprise there) and like I’m really into romances this year…blame it on pregnancy hormones making me sappy?

Colorado Summer Stars by Jill Haymaker   Little City by the Lake by Celia Wilkins   Stay with Me by Carolyn Astfalk   Wild Things by Bruce Handy   Letting Go and Letting God by Kathleen Atkinson OSB   The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan   Marta's Ride by Gordon L. Rottman   The Hardest Ride by Gordon L. Rottman   The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway   Rejoice and Be Glad by Pope Francis   The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin   Twenty-One Trees by Linda Cousine   Sora's Quest by T.L. Shreffler   When I see your Face by Devika Fernando   The Alcatraz Coup by Patricia Loofbourrow   Sweet Masterpiece by Connie Shelton   The Becomer by David Michael Miller   Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis   F in Exams by Richard Benson   Spaghetti Head by Sarah Tyley   Prairie Girl by William Anderson

Prairie Girl – My first book of 2018

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So my first book of 2018 was a kids book, and I didn’t even read it to one of my kids! My oldest read it on her own and I decided to give it a quick read last night for myself. I’ve been a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books ever since I read them in second grade. I still remember my second-grade teacher taking me to the bookcase in the school library and suggesting I read the series. (I also continue to be irked that she did not recommend them to me in chronological order but rather had me start with Little House on the Prairie.)

So, I went my entire childhood and most of my adult life thus far believing the Little House books were nonfiction. And then. I found them for my daughter in the “JFIC” section of the library. MY WORLD WAS UPENDED. Ok, not really, but I was disappointed. I felt like I had been lied to, which is kind of ridiculous, but I felt unsettled knowing the books were partly/mostly true but not knowing which parts! This was obviously not a pressing priority in my life, but I did kind of have in the back of my mind the desire to read more about Laura’s actual life and about the writing of the books. I happened upon Prairie Girl in the library one day, and so I checked it out — more for me than for my daughter, though she did read it first 🙂

On its own, the book isn’t amazing, but I did enjoy it. It’s nowhere near as engaging as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s own writing, but it is a very simple and approachable biography for a child and a great introduction to her biography for an adult. It very straightforwardly addresses tragic events (like the deaths of Laura’s infant brother and later her infant son), which seemed to go over well for my daughter. It helped put the fiction books into context for me and understand how Laura herself could say the “stories” were “true” without being works of nonfiction, and I learned a lot about her adult life. It seems strange, in a way, to think of adult Laura owing a car — in my mind she’s always the little girl in the covered wagon or the teen in a buggy with Almanzo, her suitor.

In any case, this is a lot of rambling today but I wanted to share my first book of the year! I got an overall positive feeling from the book and now I’m interested in reading a biography of hers written for adults rather than children.

Three stars!