Weekend Update May 19, 2013

I’m away from home this weekend so I actually wrote this on Thursday. A real update will have to wait until next week.

Since my last update:

I did finish Fever by Mary Beth Keane. It was good and had a lot of potential but parts of it particularly in the second half fell a little flat for me.

I started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. I’m a little wary of this one because I wasn’t much of a fan of a couple of Atkinson’s early books. I’ve heard such good things about this one though, that I decided to give it a try.

I also finished reading On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This means that By the Shores of Silver Lake will be my new treadmill book and I hope to catch up with the Little House Readalong schedule soon.

On audio I have been thoroughly enjoying He Shall Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters. This has a chance of being my favorite book in the Amelia Peabody series so far. After finding Ramses a bit annoying in the earlier books when he was a little child, I’m developing a bit of a literary crush on him now that he’s an adult. I’m not going to finish this until sometime next week but when I do I’m looking forward to chatting with Beth Fish Reads about it since she just finished listening to it recently.

I also started a new graphic novel. I’m reading the fourth book in the Fables series by Bill Willingham. The March of the Wooden Soldiers starts out with a good background piece about some ot the history of the characters in the series and then moves on into an interesting storyline that has me quite curious. Could Red Riding Hood be a spy for the Adversary?

Seriously – If you haven’t started reading the Fables series you really should.

Other than books and reading:
I’m out of town this weekend and have been busy getting ready for that so I’ll just share this video of Abby’s latest obsession. We have a tiny eyelet screw in the top of the door frame that we string a shoelace through. She’ll do this until she can’t jump anymore. She’s developing some excellent jumping skills though.

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

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On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Series: #4 in the Little House series
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: originally 1937, this edition 1971
Pages: 339
Source: library


The Short Version:
The Ingalls family moves to western Minnesota where their troubles include grasshoppers, cows through the roof and prairie fire (again).

Why I Read It:
I’m having both fun and a bit of modern perspective cringing as I revisit this series thanks to Lisa at Books. Lists. Life who organized the Little House Readalong.

The Book:
When we last left the Ingalls family they had packed up and left the Indian territory after Pa’s expectations that it would be retroactively opened up for homesteading fell through.

This book opens with them arriving in Western Minnesota where they make a trade for a dugout style home in a creek bank and some promising land.

Of course, this is the Ingalls family so things don’t quite go as expected. A cow through the roof, grasshoppers, leeches, fires, etc. Plus there’s Nellie Oleson.

My Thoughts:
I am not going to worry about spoilers with this series.

As I started with the last book in the series I’m just going to post a few random thoughts that ran through my head as I read this

This one had fewer cringe inducing references to Indians as in Little House on the Prairie or bullying and violence as in Farmer Boy so that was a good thing.

On the other hand Nellie Oleson arrived on the scene so the Mean Girls thing is on.

There was another prairie fire. Also lots of spinning whirling fire stuff going on. Was Laura a closet pyromaniac?

It’s a good thing for the Ingalls family that easily obtained credit cards were not available at the time.

Yeah – leave for town with a storm on the way and let your parting comment to your kids be a story about children who froze to death in a blizzard. Tell me again why Pa is viewed as a paragon of parenting? Sheesh.

Sarcasm aside, it is enjoyable to experience this series again. Even though I’m reading them from a completely different time, place in my life and general perspective I’m remembering how much I loved these books. The things I loved are still there. Laura was basically a good and happy kid and her family loved each other through thick and thin. They had a hard life and my childhood was so amazingly different. I still love these books but it’s definitely different reading them as an adult.

Rating 4.5/5

The Little House Read-a-long

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Wordless Wednesday #187

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Fever by May Beth Keane

Fever by May Beth Keane

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 306
Source: e-galley provided by publisher through NetGalley



The Short Version:
Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary is the subject of this fictional biography.

Why I Read It:
The setting of early 1900’s New York City is one of my favorites and I was curious after hearing some positive reviews of this one.

The Book:
Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who used her skills as a cook to earn her living. What she didn’t know was that she was also a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever. She was the first person to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of a disease like this. When she was arrested and detained by the New York Department of Health she fought and refused to believe that she could have been the cause of the deaths that occurred in the households where she had worked.

She was put under quarantine and held for years against her will. When she was released she agreed that she would not work as a cook. She later broke that promise and despite her refusal to believe that she could be the cause of the spread of disease, her carrier status continued to cause trouble.

My Thoughts:
The story of Mary Mallon is an interesting one. The idea of an asymptomatic carrier of disease was unheard of at the time of her quarantine. She was a smart woman but she simply could not believe that the deaths that happened in the households where she worked could be anything more than chance.

Even though this is fiction, the author thoroughly researched her topic. Mary’s quarantine on Brother Island in a small cottage on the grounds of a Tuberculosis hospital is told in a way that gives the reader a good sense of the fear, anger and isolation that Mary endured while there.

Her personal live and relationships before, during and after her first quarantine add balance to Mary’s story. What didn’t work so well for me was the extensive exploration of the story of Mary’s lover their relationship over the years. I understand why it was done this way in the book but for me it slowed the story down and I had to push myself a bit to continue with the second half of the book.

It’s an interesting fictional biography but it was a bit unevenly paced and while I’m glad I read it I don’t think it’s one I can heartily recommend.

Rating 3/5

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