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We live in a tiny town with a tiny library, so I always thank my lucky stars when I find books from my “want to read” list there. It doesn’t happen super often. But it did this week! Hooray! Here’s what I read:
Caroline: Little House Revisited, by Sarah Miller
I was thrilled to see this book on the library shelf. THRILLED!! Alas, upon reading it this week, I had really mixed feelings about it. I read the Little House books as a kid, and am now re-reading them with my kids. I have this image of Ma in my head: she’s strong but tender toward her family, serious (because honestly, the pioneer life is no joke), but still quietly calm and content. The image I developed of Ma in Caroline: Revisited was NOT at all like that. Honestly, Ma came off like a crank. (I can’t believe I just called Ma Ingalls a crank. That feels completely sacrilegious somehow.)
I get that life on the prairie was the polar opposite of the romantic picture I often have in my mind – it was filthy, lonely, worrisome, back-breaking, heart-breaking, terrifying. I know I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. And goodness knows parenting and home-making is exhausting work under normal circumstances, never mind how it would have been while traveling hundreds of miles in a covered wagon and homesteading in the middle of nowhere.
But seriously. Ma, in this book, was a big downer. Sometime around the last third of the book my feelings warmed to her a bit, as she seemed to pull out of her “poor me, my life is such a drudgery” attitude. I really enjoyed a few of the later scenes in the book and cried MAJOR tears as I felt all the feels during the Christmas scene with Mr. Edwards. But in the end, I just didn’t love Ma. It was hard for me to see why Pa was so enamored with her. She didn’t win me over. Overall, I’m giving this one 3.5 out of 5 stars, mostly because I love a good, historically accurate pioneer story, and it was that, at least.
Using the Enneagram in Prayer, by Suzanne Zuercher
Short little book on the Enneagram, my newest obsession. It was a pretty quick read, though I did get bogged down in her writing at times (I felt like it was kind of wordy). I like that she breaks down the nine enneagram types into triads (8/9/1’s, 2/3/4’s, 5/6/7’s); I only read the information about my triad. I could definitely relate to the information she presented; it seemed very accurate. I underlined a ton in the book. A solid read, I just didn’t love her writing style. Since I underlined so much, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.
What did you read this week?
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