The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie . 1933, 1935, Laura Ingalls Wilder   I remember loving Big Woods the most when I read these as a child, but all I could specifically remember about the book was that they made maple sugar candy. It turns out, most of the book is about food; making it, finding it, storing it. What fascinated me as a child about these books was the highly detailed description (the new editions even come with recipes in the back). In Big Woods , I felt like I could go maple sugaring, or smoke meat for the winter. In Prairie , the building of the house is so detailed that I felt like you could take this book with you after the collapse of civilization as a blueprint for a log cabin. The detailed descriptions of food preparation are a vivid reminder of how differently we live now from even just a few generations back. The depiction of Native Americans in Little House on the Prairie is troubling from a modern perspective. I...

I like to read. I like to talk about books. I read so much that if I don't write down what I think about a book, I'll probably forget. Hence, my presence on goodreads.com (see link to right.) One of the reasons I want to try talking about books in a blog setting, is that I like to talk about books in the context of other books. I like to read big chunks of related content, and then switch gears drastically. I usually read whatever's on the sci-fi shelf that catches my eye, but this month I'm playing in a different genre. So, look for posts over the next few weeks regarding my current literary cycle: Historical Girls. Planned subjects: Little Women Little House on the Prairie (and others in the series) Anne of Green Gables Caddie Woodlawn A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Island of the Blue Dolphins (As I am only human, I have taken breaks during the string of 'girls' books... with two military sci-fi novels, and one scholarly book about vampires.) ...