Pioneer Girl
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads:
Pioneer Girl follows the Ingalls family’s journey through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, back to Minnesota, and on to Dakota Territory sixteen years of travels, unforgettable experiences, and the everyday people who became immortal through Wilder’s fiction. Using additional manuscripts, letters, photographs, newspapers, and other sources, award-winning Wilder biographer Pamela Smith Hill adds valuable context and leads readers through Wilder’s growth as a writer. Do you think you know Laura? Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography will re-introduce you to the woman who defined the pioneer experience for millions.

My Review:
This is going to be an unusual review, as I’m going to pretty much just share the status updates I posted on Goodreads, along with the images and thoughts I posted on Facebook as I read through this tome.

So now, as promised, here’s Part 1 of how I documented my read-through of this very special book, covering Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek:

05/04 Pioneer Girl marked as: currently-reading
05/04 on page 59 of Pioneer Girl (14.0%): Will be reading this alongside the novels as I re-read the LHOTP books. So far, I’ve read through the parts featured in LHOTP (which actually came first in real life, when LIW was only 2-3 years old) and LHITBW. It’s great to read the historical perspectives and notes and to see how LIW actually wrote about all of this when she was doing it as a nonfiction memoir.

05/04 Little House in the Big Woods marked as: read

05/05 Little House on the Prairie marked as: currently-reading
05/06 Little House on the Prairie marked as: read

05/06 on page 65 of Pioneer Girl (16.0%): According to the annotations, the house Pa built in Plum Creek was 20×24 feet, only 480 square feet, for a family of five. Or roughly half the size of the small 2-bedroom house I live in by myself and complain about the lack of storage room. According to the assessor, the house he built “has a good roof and floor, and contains five doors and 3 windows, and is a comfortable house for a family to live in.”

05/07 On the Banks of Plum Creek marked as: currently-reading (33%)





05/07 on page 115 of Pioneer Girl (28.0%): It was interesting to read about the family’s time in Burr Oak, Iowa, from Laura’s perspective. I’d read bits and pieces about it in biographies, but those were mostly from public records or the few articles/essays Laura wrote about it for the newspapers or magazines she wrote for as an adult. I knew they were struggling financially, but not to the point that they had to sneak out of town in the middle of the night!

05/07 on page 131 of Pioneer Girl (32.0%): “Mary objected to my playing such rough games outdoors with the boys, but she could not keep me in; and once when she took both hands full of my loose, long hair and tried to hold me, I stiffened my neck and dragged her to the door where she caught some of the snowballs herself before she let me go.” (Laura Ingalls Wilder, approx. 12 years old.)

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05/07 on page 142 of Pioneer Girl (35.0%): “The last thing Mary ever saw was the bright blue of Grace’s eyes as Grace stood holding by her chair, looking up at her.”
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05/07 on page 151 of Pioneer Girl (37.0%): While it’s tempting to keep reading, I’m up to the point at which the Walnut Grove years end. I promised myself I’d read this alongside the corresponding novels, so it’s time to get back to On the Banks of Plum Creek.

05/07 On the Banks of Plum Creek marked as: read

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Happy First Monday of June, everyone.
It’s Reading Report time!

Open Book by Dave Dugdale

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Tell us what you’ve finished over the last month, what you’re currently reading, and what’s on your To Be Read stack/list. And if you’ve reviewed the books you’ve read somewhere, please include links!

To format your text, click here for an HTML cheat-sheet. If you want to embed your links in your text (like my “click here” links) instead of just pasting the link into your comment, click here.
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• What book(s) did you finish reading (or listening to) since the last update?

• What are you currently reading and/or listening to?

• What’s the next book on your To Be Read stack/list?

Here’s my report:

2016 A–Z Reading Challenge Update
Here are the letters (author last names) I haven’t fulfilled yet: E, I, J, L, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, Z (oh, if only I could count the author of the Little House books by her maiden name!).

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My rating matrix:
5 STARS = one of the best I’ve ever read
4 STARS = a great read, highly recommended
3 STARS = it was okay
2 STARS = I didn’t enjoy it all that much, not recommended
1 STAR = DNF (did not finish)

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Little House in the Big Woods
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads:
The first book in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s treasured Little House series—now available as an ebook! This digital version features Garth Williams’s classic illustrations, which appear in vibrant full color on a full-color device and in rich black-and-white on all other devices.

This beloved story of a pioneer girl and her family begins in 1871 in a log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Four-year-old Laura lives in the little house with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their dog, Jack. Pioneer life is sometimes hard for the family, but it is also exciting as they celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town. And every night Laura and her family are safe and warm in their little house, with the happy sound of Pa’s fiddle to send them off to sleep.

The nine Little House books are inspired by Laura’s own childhood and have been cherished by generations of readers as both a unique glimpse into America’s frontier history and as heartwarming, unforgettable stories.

My Review:
As mentioned yesterday, I decided it was high time for me to do a re-read of the Little House on the Prairie books this year. It’s something I used to do every year . . . but recently that tradition has been replaced with re-reading most, if not all, of the Harry Potter books (on audio, usually as I’m going to sleep to give my brain something to focus on instead of being scattered and keeping me awake.) I have the original 1971 set (yes, it’s the same age I am) that we had growing up—the paperbacks with the yellow covers—but they’re so old and brittle that I’m afraid of damaging them further from their well-loved, well-read state. So I decided to go ahead and purchase the series (minus Farmer Boy and The First Four Years—neither of which I enjoy reading) as ebooks.

Little House in the Big Woods is set in 1871–2, opening when LIW was four, about to turn five, years old. As such, it’s much more of a conglomeration of disjointed memories rather than a narrative with a storyline, as we get in the more mature, subsequent books.

And that works fine. This was originally written with young children in mind; and, much like J. K. Rowling did many decades later, the books and their tone and subject matter mature right along with the main character as she ages through the series.

I was happy to discover Garth Williams’s wonderful illustrations included in the Kindle edition.

That said, I did find myself skimming quite a bit of this book—the lyrics to all the songs, Pa’s stories that didn’t really go anywhere, the descriptions of all of the settings/food. While on a first or second reading these things might be fascinating (and especially to young readers/listeners who’ve never been exposed to descriptions of this way of life), in a book I’ve read umpteen times in my life, it was more of a matter of wanting to get through this one, which is not a favorite, so that I can move on to the other books in the series. (These Happy Golden Years is my favorite, so it will take me a while to get to that one.)

Still, this is a classic providing a glimpse into a bygone era which, yes, is romanticized both in this book and now, but which still holds both fascination and lessons for us in the 21st century.

If I had to pick a favorite anecdote from the book (and this will sound odd), it’s when Laura and Mary are picking up wood chips after their aunt’s visit and Mary tells Laura that everyone knows golden hair is prettier than brown hair—and Laura slaps her. Yes, she gets in trouble/disciplined for it, but then Pa takes her on his knee afterward. And when Laura asks him if he prefers golden curls to brown, he points out that he, too, has brown hair.

As a younger child with an older sister (whose hair was also “golden” as a child, and who was also very much like Mary) to whom I felt like I was compared all my life, I think this is where, even as a small child before I could really remember or figure out the reason why, I immediately identified and became lifelong “friends” with Laura “Half-Pint” Ingalls.

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View all my reviews on Goodreads

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels
by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads:
We do it in the dark. Under the sheets. With a penlight. We wear sunglasses and a baseball hat at the bookstore. We have a “special place” where we store them. Let’s face it: Not many folks are willing to publicly admit they love romance novels. Meanwhile, romance continues to be the bestselling fiction genre. Ever. So what’s with all the shame?

Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan — the creators of the wildly popular blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books — have no shame! They look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in the world of romance novels and tackle the hard issues and questions:

— The heroine’s irresistible Magic Hoo Hoo and the hero’s untamable Wang of Mighty Lovin’

— Sexual trends. Simultaneous orgasms. Hymens. And is anal really the new oral?

— Romance novel cover requirements: man titty, camel toe, flowers, long hair, animals, and the O-face

— Are romance novels really candy-coated porn or vehicles by which we understand our sexual and gender politics?

With insider advice for writing romances, fun games to discover your inner Viking warrior, and interviews with famous romance authors, Beyond Heaving Bosoms shows that while some romance novels are silly — maybe even tawdry — they can also be intelligent, savvy, feminist, and fabulous, just like their readers!

My Review:
Even though I didn’t actually finish reading this, I’m still giving it a three-star rating because it does have good information in it. I just got tired of reading stuff about the genre that I already know (I had to read several books full of critical essays by academics and authors who are experts in the romance genre in grad school, and then write a thesis of my own about it)—and I got tired of the overuse of foul language.

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View all my reviews on Goodreads

The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
Audiobook read by Philip Battley
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads:
It all began with a ruined elixir and a bolt of lightning.

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she’s been told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a reluctant sixteen-year-old girl with no training.

Guided by his mother’s visions and committed to avenging his family, Prince Titus has sworn to protect Iolanthe even as he prepares her for their battle with the Bane. But he makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the tyrant closing in, Titus must choose between his mission—and her life.

The Burning Sky—the first book in the Elemental Trilogy—is an electrifying and unforgettable novel of intrigue and adventure.

I, personally, think that the book’s prologue makes for a better back-cover/marketing blurb than the summary above:

This is the first book in a series, so of course not all of the storylines are wrapped up neatly at the end. But it was so well done (especially hinging on the question of whether or not Titus will have to sacrifice his life to help Iolanthe fulfill her destiny) that I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books. (Plus as an experienced romance author, Thomas was able to craft the developing relationship between Iolanthe and Titus quite well throughout the story.)

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher
Audiobook performed by Ian Doescher, Daniel Davis, Jonathan Davis, January LaVoy, and Marc Thompson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Summary from Goodreads:
Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive, and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. ‘Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearsome Stormtroopers, signifying…pretty much everything.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars will astound and edify Rebels and Imperials alike. Zounds! This is the audiobook you’re looking for.

My Review:
I’ve had this book on my wishlist ever since it came out. I finally decided that getting the audiobook version would probably be better than trying to read it in text . . . and that was a GREAT decision! Ian Doescher and the others who lent their voice talents to this performance (and it’s definitely a performance, not a “reading”) kept me entertained from beginning to end. And at under four hours, it was perfect for my trip home from visiting my parents in Arkansas for spring break, since I had a couple hours of another book to finish before I started it.

Han: Pray, goodly sir, forgive me for the mess. And whether I shot first, I’ll ne’er confess.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

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My rating matrix:
5 STARS = one of the best I’ve ever read
4 STARS = a great read, highly recommended
3 STARS = it was okay
2 STARS = I didn’t enjoy it all that much, not recommended
1 STAR = DNF (did not finish)