tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post112578485539429771..comments2024-03-14T00:16:32.077-07:00Comments on 50 Books: BOOKS: Little House on the BrainTammyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16613804843380827691noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-37661474688705929052007-03-19T15:29:00.000-07:002007-03-19T15:29:00.000-07:00I feel the same way about (my guilty pleasure) Geo...I feel the same way about (my guilty pleasure) Georgette Heyer Regency romances. I do have my standards though and only love the ones published before the 70's. However often I've read them, I still get the urge every 2 years or so to devour them again. I will allow that it is ridiculous but I don't care....I will never stop laughing at her elegant and hilarious dialogue.<BR/><BR/>And L.M. Montgomery...Jane of Lantern Hill, my most favourite of all favourites.The first Canadian book that I ever read and loved.Lindahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07011926400932331136noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1150913786420269292006-06-21T11:16:00.000-07:002006-06-21T11:16:00.000-07:00I loved your comments about the Little House books...I loved your comments about the Little House books. I'm a Little House fan also.<BR/><BR/>You mention the loss of Laura's second child due to stillbirth. Actually, Laura's child was born alive but died within days of his birth.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1131061836619188542005-11-03T15:50:00.000-08:002005-11-03T15:50:00.000-08:00Well damn. Now I have to go home and find the enti...Well damn. Now I have to go home and find the entire set, lost somewhere in the mists of my basement crawlspace. And Anne of Green Gables/Emily of New Moon I found to have the prosey edge I was missing in some of the Prairie books. Also having been in and around the PEI area for a portion of my life brought the landscape descriptions into sharp focus.Emhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06894215177878536537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127489772749626182005-09-23T08:36:00.000-07:002005-09-23T08:36:00.000-07:00I re-read these this summer for the first time sin...I re-read these this summer for the first time since I was ten, and the descriptions of the gadgets struck home for me in a way that didn't happen when I was a kid. Pa was certainly a man that had a love of "modern" technology.<BR/><BR/>As for Rose Lane, I don't think she ghost wrote the books, but I do know she got caught up in Ayn Rand's little clique and edited out as much of the government help as she possibly could. Historically, the settling of the plains was the most heavily fedeally subsidized undertaking of the 19th century.Veronicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17219976185183048440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127239549978636612005-09-20T11:05:00.000-07:002005-09-20T11:05:00.000-07:00I've never read the Little House books as an adult...I've never read the Little House books as an adult...I was, maybe, 13 the last time I read then, but this makes me want to head on over to my parents' place and dig into them again. I loved them when I was younger, but I'm sure there was much there that I didn't understand.Veronicahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11347668755122258274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127239353386526202005-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:002005-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00I have the Little House books in hardcover, plus a...I have the Little House books in hardcover, plus a bunch of biographies about Laura. (have the boxed set, too, that I got as a 9th grade Christmas present)<BR/><BR/>It's been a while since I read them, but I've always suspected that Cousin Lena was fooling around with some of the railroad men. <BR/><BR/>I've heard the stories, too, that Rose "wrote" the books. However, read Laura's other writings and the voice is the same. Rose's voice, however, is evident in that first chapter of Little Town on the Prairie, which is different than any other book. It is very similar to Rose's books. Did Rose edit the books? Likely. But editing isn't writing, something a couple of researchers ignore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127228448928040892005-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:002005-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00I'm so glad someone else has and loves the LIW box...I'm so glad someone else has and loves the LIW box set. I think I wore mine out when I was growing up. And I *distinctly* remember that passage about the logging camps. <BR/><BR/>One thing that struck me, in addition to what you pointed out, was her being 16 years old and having to teach the school. I guess it's no revelation that kids grew up that much quicker back then, but damn, that seemed like a lot of responsibility. And I must admit that I was rooting for her and Mannie to stop farming and move to the city - that life just seemed so hard.Her Ladyshiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02647458896150396872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127208182977817862005-09-20T02:23:00.000-07:002005-09-20T02:23:00.000-07:00Well, now I'm going to have to buy the Little Hous...Well, now I'm going to have to buy the <I>Little House</I> books. I've never read them, and that's clearly a tragedy.<BR/><BR/><BR/>And meghan's reminded me that it's about time I read the <I>Anne of Green Gables</I> books again.<BR/><BR/>There goes next month's book allowance!Alicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09349066685963927931noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127197602006328862005-09-19T23:26:00.000-07:002005-09-19T23:26:00.000-07:00"What always got to me was how vulnerable they see..."What always got to me was how vulnerable they seemed in Little House on the Prairie. If Pa got killed by a panther, or shot by an Indian, they were pretty much hosed."<BR/><BR/>Exactly! I'd never really realized this before, and this time it was absolutely horrifying. Even though I knew things always turned out okay when Pa disappeared in the blizzard for days (etcetera), I was able to put myself in Ma's shoes more thoroughly and realize how abjectly terrified she must have been.<BR/><BR/>Nomie, I used to have that cookbook! I never made the ginger beer, either, but believe it or not, fried apples 'n' onions is delicious. <BR/><BR/>I grew up on a farm, and my parents were both eleventeenth-generation farmers, so the meals described in <I>Farmer Boy</I> were a lot like the meals I grew up with. The epic amounts of baking done at Christmas really struck a chord with me. My mom would bake a dozen or so pies, hundreds of cookies, dozens and dozens of doughnuts, fudge... you name it. It was magnificent. We also had a maple sugar bush on our farm, so we'd make our own syrup, as well as making the snow taffy described in <I>Little House in the Big Woods</I>. <BR/><BR/>I think what I like most about the Little House books, particularly <I>Farmer Boy</I>, is that in some ways they remind me of my own childhood, and of a type of farming that doesn't exist in very many places any more. I was probably part of the last generation of kids raised on somewhat traditional family farms, before factory farming took over.Tammyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16613804843380827691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127175925854650952005-09-19T17:25:00.000-07:002005-09-19T17:25:00.000-07:00I just recently was reminded of the Little House b...I just recently was reminded of the Little House books. I must have read them at least ten times when I was growing up. First, I saw a travel show about Canada and there was a lady who had a stand who had maple syrup candy on snow, like they made in "The Big Woods." Then a friend sent me a link to a flapjack mix that reminded me of the flapjacks Almanzo makes. <BR/><BR/>The food descriptions are definitely very vivid because I remember them the most. The only other scene that stands out in my mind as vividly as some of the "food" scenes is the one where she is staying at this weird couple's house to teach at their school and she wakes up in the middle of the night with the wife standing over her with a knife. Yikes!KThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02165100078263150451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127169842725947202005-09-19T15:44:00.000-07:002005-09-19T15:44:00.000-07:00That was just great! I haven't read those books f...That was just great! I haven't read those books for years, and now I think I'm going to get started on them again. I'm also a big fan of Anne of Green Gables!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127166738204476312005-09-19T14:52:00.000-07:002005-09-19T14:52:00.000-07:00I have read these books hundreds of times. In fact...I have read these books hundreds of times. In fact, I'm kind of obsessed with them, to the point where I, um, own a leather-bound set, like to watch TV adaptations and criticize the ways in which they differ from the books, and plan to someday drag my child (and potential future children) on a cross-country road trip to see the actual sites. <BR/><BR/>I may have said too much here. <BR/><BR/>Anyway, I always noticed that The Long Winter was really harsh, and I still cry EVERY SINGLE TIME I read about Jack dying. But I guess I thought Pa was warning the girls to stay away from the camp because of the rough language they would hear. I never thought of them being in danger, which is pretty naive. What always got to me was how vulnerable they seemed in Little House on the Prairie. If Pa got killed by a panther, or shot by an Indian, they were pretty much hosed.Melissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11563829976522188467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127163052865135002005-09-19T13:50:00.000-07:002005-09-19T13:50:00.000-07:00Have you ever read anything about her daughter, Ro...Have you ever read anything about her daughter, Rose? There's a convincing argument to be made that much of the credit for those books goes to her. Some <BR/>early drafts of Laura's text show a very rudimentary, choppy, and inelegant writing style. Rose served as her editor, and theoretically, her ghost writing partner (subject of a wee bit of controversy.)<BR/><BR/>Anyhow, I *think* <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0826210155/qid=1127162871/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4261266-6308166?v=glance&s=books" REL="nofollow">this was the book I read about it</A>.katiedidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13248305568368727274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127159374139078522005-09-19T12:49:00.000-07:002005-09-19T12:49:00.000-07:00oh man. once upon a time, when I was in the fourt...oh man. once upon a time, when I was in the fourth grade, the teacher read Farmer Boy aloud to us, one chapter at a time. It had these fabulous descriptive passages and the teacher encouraged us to draw what was being described. <BR/>Then she had a drawing contest--the passage chosen was a description of a peddler's wagon. I worked so hard on my drawing! And this one girl beat me. hers was just a little more perfect. And that was the beginning of decades of her outdoing me by this much in Every. Aspect. Of. My Life. <BR/>True story. That's what I think of when I think of Farmer Boy.Shirkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828417429531622405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127155223192474962005-09-19T11:40:00.000-07:002005-09-19T11:40:00.000-07:00I, too, have enjoyed re-reading these books as an ...I, too, have enjoyed re-reading these books as an adult, and they really are amazing pieces of literature. Her vivid, detailed descriptions are also in play in <I>West From Home</I> when she travelled to San Francisco in 1915 to visit her daughter during the World's Fair. If you read it, it's exactly like you were there, enjoying the sights and sounds of big city life. Also, I was amazed at all the changes she saw in her lifetime... from covered wagons to World's Fairs. What a life.timbrathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16027401798628675496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9931308.post-1127154762857272342005-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:002005-09-19T11:32:00.000-07:00I also reread these books recently, and what I had...I also reread these books recently, and what I hadn't noticed as a child is that they were absolutely starving to death in <I>The Long Winter</I>.<BR/><BR/>As for Ingalls's attitude towards Native Americans, I always thought she was pointing out how wrong she was, and how her mother was wrong but was wrapped up in fear. And there's other bits, especially the many passages where Laura complains about her corsets, that I think Ingalls was really writing that from a modern standpoint, like, "Thank god I'm done with <I>that</I>."<BR/><BR/>There's some annoying politics in <I>Little Town on the Prairie</I>, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com