Book Review Of "The Wide Horizon" By Loula Grace Erdman

The Wide Horizon, the second book in the Texas Panhandle Series by Loula Grace Erdman is about Melinda's younger sister, Katie.
Unlike her older sister, Katie Pierce is more art like. When her mother's mother gets sick and needs help, Katie offers to take care of the household while her mother is away. Having to cook for her father, two brothers, and younger sister, Katie has her hands full. Can she take care of the household, or will it be too much?

My Review: This was my second favorite of the books in this series, and like the book The Wind Blows Free , before this book, there was nothing that I remember that is very objectional in it.

Review of O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

"I decided not to 'write' at all, - simply to give myself up to the pleasure of recapturing in memory people and places I'd forgotten." This is what Miss Cather said about her novel, O Pioneers!, another member of the Prairie Trilogy (for a review of My Antonia, click here). And it truly is a pleasure reading this story. In O Pioneers! she captures the heart of the prairie and the brave immigrants who had the grit and determination to tame it.

O Pioneers! is a tale of hardship, devotion, death, greed, love, and triumph, and reads like a eulogy for the old Nebraska and the people who cultivated it. Our main character is Alexandra Bergson, who is the eldest in the family and must manage their small farm once their Swedish immigrant father passes away. Eventually, through much hard labor and trials, she becomes prosperous and successful. Alexandra is like a rock, holding on to the land when all the other settlers find it too rough and leave. She is wise and determined, knowing that she can tame the land is succeed.

The book also contains the story of two young lovers, Alexandra's youngest brother Emil, and a lovely Bohemian girl, Marie Shabata, whose romance must result in tragedy, because she is bound to the jealous Frank Shabata in a loveless marriage. Another quieter love story lives in Alexandra and a discontented, restless Carl Linstrum, who leaves the prairie to find richer soil, but is disappointed when his wandering life offers him no prospects, which smacks of The Magnificent Seven.

"Freedom so often means that one is n't needed anywhere. Here you are an individual, you have a background of your own, you would be missed. But off there in the cities there are thousands of rolling stones like me. We are all alike; we have no ties, we know nobody, we own nothing. When one of us dies, they scarcely know where to bury him. Our landlady and the delicatessen man are our mourners, and we leave nothing behind us but a frock-coat and a fiddle, or an easel, or a typewriter, or whatever tool we got our living by. All we have ever managed to do is to pay our rent, the exorbitant rent that one has to pay for a few square feet near the heart of things. We have no house, no place, no people of our own. We live in the streets, in the parks, in the theatres. We sit in restaurants and concert halls and look about at the hundreds of our own kind and shudder."

As in My Antonia, there is a great cultural diversity as Miss Cather describes the everyday lives of Swedish, French, and Bohemian immigrants, and has a somewhat mournful nostalgic tone about it. O Pioneers! is a strikingly beautiful work, embodying the rugged grandeur of the prairie.

"Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!"

Review of "Before Green Gables" by Budge Wilson

Before Green Gables
The Prequel to Anne of Green Gables

written by Budge Wilson

390 pages
published in 2008

As soon as I heard about this book, I was immediately intrigued about the idea that a prequel had actually been written to the Anne of Green Gables series. And I was not let down. It took Anne Shirley eleven long years to arrive at her final destination… and now it's fantastic to have an idea of how those eleven years were spent.

The story begins before Anne is even born, so you will get to know her parents first, and discover where she came from. You’ll be taken through the entire journey Anne experiences… through all her difficult work, her playful dreams that leave a smile on your face, and through both the dazzling and the tough times of her young childhood. Most of all, you'll meet the people that improved Anne's life by inspiring her, and also the ones who left negative emotional scars... thus mixing together the combination that creates the red-headed girl that we cherish.

In reading this book, you’ll discover what one writer’s thoughts of who Anne Shirley was before she arrived at Green Gables. I think Budge Wilson did a superb job in writing a sound & wholesome story. She included many details that linked to the Anne of Green Gables books. Alert readers will catch on, and have appreciation for what those fine points mean. Of course, the deeply descriptive style of the original L.M. Montgomery has been neglected, but for the sake of the book, it was well worth it. Anne’s spunky, hopeful, dramatic, and in-the-depths-of-despair character is still there.

I would recommend this book to any other readers who have a substantial understanding of Anne’s charming ways. I have to say that you cannot fully enjoy this story unless you know who the real Anne Shirley is.

Note: There is some extra women's gossiping in the book (I didn't really think that this had to be included in the story). Also, the men sometimes have been drinking and do not treat their families well. Please keep in mind this is an adult book, and cannot be compared to the age range that the true Anne of Green Gables books might entertain.

Now, to leave you with a quote from the book!
"But sometime I hope I get a chance to be young before I get too old to enjoy it." ~ quote by Anne Shirley, in Before Green Gables

Book Review OF "Mercy Clifton: Pilgrim Girl"

Mercy Clifton, Pilgrim Girl, written by Peter Marshall, David Manuel, and Shelldon Maxwell, is one of the books in the Crimson Cross series. It tells the story of Mercy Clifton, a sixteen year old pilgrim who travels on the Mayflower to the New World. Mercy struggles through problems such as death, disease, hunger, and feelings for a young man. Mercy never blames GOD for her problems that I remember. In the story she makes friends with a chief's daughter, Amie, and the two of them later come to a point in life where they must try and prevent war. Will they be able to? What is the beautiful silver cross with five red gems William Bradford has?

My Review: This book was a nice read. I only remember one objectionable thing, and that is when Mercy lies, though she does admit, if I remember correctly, that she ought not have. I do not know the age range for this book, but I believe I will recommend it for ages thriteen and up.

Review of My Antonia by Willa Cather

Hello, readers! I am excited, as this is my first post on The Ladies Library. I am Hailey Renée, and I will be posting reviews of classic literature. Well, for part of my literature studies this year, I had to read My Ántonia by Willa Cather.

My Ántonia is a beautiful work of craftsmanship, written by Cather in 1918, but set in a bit earlier times in rural Nebraska. The story is about a boy named Jim Quayle, who is orphaned in Virginia and is sent to live with his grandparents on the prairie. There he meets a beautiful Bohemian girl named Ántonia (pronounced AN-toh-nee-ah). The first part of the story follows Jim's idyllic childhood and friendship with Ántonia. In the second part, Jim, his grandparents, and Ántonia's family move to a town called Black Hawk. Here, Jim begins to mature, and so does Ántonia. He makes friends with many other immigrants at this time, and it ends with him graduating and ready to go to college. The third book picks up with Jim at school, where he is re-acquainted with his old friend, Lena Lingard. I don't think I ought to tell more of what the story goes like, for fear of giving away anything I ought not.

In this book, Miss Cather has captured the very heart of the prairie. It is sweetly nostalgic, sometimes melancholy, but always simple and lovely. This is some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and Cather has a knack for creating very diverse characters.

But, with this diversity of characters, there are some rather violent ones. There is a side story in this novel of a husband and wife who hate each other, and it ends messily. Also, there is one suicide, and another girl commits a sexual sin that results in pregnancy. However, most of the violence is really in stories within the story.

All in all, I loved this book. You can feel Cather's love of the prairie and the people who live there, and the storytelling is superb. I highly recommend this for ages 13 or up.