Laura Ingalls Wilder Farm Journalist Edited by Stephen W. Hines

I loved all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books.  I grew up on them, actually.  But the farm journalist side of her works did not interest me so much.  It was interesting to hear about life in the 1911-24 time period and see the everyday types of things that were involved in farm and rural life.  It didn't capture my attention as did the Little House books, but of course this was a compilation of her newspaper articles that she wrote.

Th Spiritual Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder. A Prairie Girl's Faith by Stephen W. Hines

As a young Minnesota girl, it was part of school life to read the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  For me, this was definitely not a chore, but an absolute delight.  The love for reading was kindled in me from these and similar type books.

This new book by Stephen W. Hines, looks at the insights of Laura's life and legacy.  The well written book shares not only a bit about prairie life, both the hard, the wonderful and the real, but also some of the things that made Laura "tick", so to speak.  It almost felt as though her life was studied and shared her innermost reasons for being who she was.  Both the good and maybe not-so perfect Laura, was related and explained.

It was wonderful to read this book, having been such a childhood fan, and to see the social and personal feelings of Laura and how trials of our faith  send you in directions you never knew would happen in your life.  There are also several pages of pioneer recipes from Laura's associates.

I found the title of chapter 10 somewhat thought provoking.  It was "What Laura Means to Us".  Laura meant a lot to me as a child and her legacy will outlive that of most of ours.  This book shares the history, the social and family networking of those days and I feel by reading this book I have come to understand them.  And in some ways would love to relive them.  The book depicts some of the cultural shifts which appeared over the passing of time.  It's a  good book to help us appreciate those who came before us and pioneered in this land and what our lives were built on.  Highly recommend this book!

I received an ebook copy of this book from NetGalley.  All thoughts are my own.