Customer Reviews

"I Remember Laura": Laura Ingalls Wilder

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a longtime fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have read many books about her life and visited most of her homesites. But I have always wanted to read a biography about who she really was, what her personality was like, her relationship with her husband Manly and her daughter Rose. It is difficult to imagine what a person is like when all you have to go by are a few books and pictures. I was thrilled by the detailed accounts in this book, it really gave an in depth peek into her likes and dislikes, her dogged determination, stubborness and unfailing love in the face of much adversity. I felt like I knew her, all of the friends and neighbors who shared thoughts of Laura and Manly paint a picture of a homey, loving atmosphere, that Laura truly lived what she wrote about. The stories made her seem more real, something tangible outside of the juvenile stories I had read (the Little House books) and several other journals and biographies. These are people who actually lived and breathed with her, amazing. I applaud the efforts made by the author, this book is truly a detailed and fascinating account of this beloved lady who has come to represent so much to so many people.

This book reads as a companion book to the Little House series while including information on Laura's life. It isn't a biography as I was hoping - though the author thinks that a complete biography is called for.

What this book was for me, was a farther glimpse into Laura's life. It touched briefly on the time during the books but seemed to focus mostly on the Ozarks. This was mainly because the author was striving to record recollections from people still living who knew Laura. I agree with the author, in the wish that someone had done that right after Laura's death or even before. There are also a couple chapters of Laura's writings, one on her thoughts of war. The pictures were nicely added as well. I also enjoyed the recipe section and appreciate the updates on the measurements and the ingredients.

The most unsatisfying chapter was the mysteries. I had more questions that I wanted answers to, and hardly any of them were asked in this chapter. It made me want to know more. In fact, the whole book seemed to be asking more questions than it was answering. In a way that is a good thing and perhaps soon, there will be other books on Laura that addresses more of her life.

You can easily pick this book up and read chapters out of order, gleaning the information you want at the time. It also reads well cover to cover, though I did do some skimming on the war articles. A valuable book if you're looking for another glimpse into Laura's life.

My husband first purchased this book for me quite a few years ago, knowing my fondness for Laura Ingalls and also because I am named for her. It is a wonderful compilation of letters, recipes & pictures from Laura's personal collections. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for history and those whom have lived it.

I guess, fifty years after her death, that it would be pretty hard to get a lot of information to fill a book where the goal is to tell all about the personality of Laura IngallS Wilder.

The author definitely gets some things right...the remembrances by a few friends, and especially the two boys down the street, are adorable and worth owning this book, alone.

The author obviously adores Laura the way many of us readers do and that adds a definte air of charm to this book as well. However, this book is high on the filler content and the chapters are random and not at all coherent. A lot of the items included are random as well...rembembrances (which I thought the book was to be completely made up of, my error), old receipes from the townspeople of DeSmet, some of Laura's writings on WWI from her early jounalism days, etc.

A lot of questions were brought up and instead of answering them, they are just made even more glaring and it really bothered me to know that we may NEVER know the answers to these questions.

Overall this book is a keeper, for the little gems inside, but not anything that shouldn't have been able to be condensed down to one of those little booklets, similar to those that are available on the Ingalls and Wilder familys from William Anderson.

This is not a bad book, and if you're a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan you'll probably love it. I'm really neither here nor there on the Little House books; they're nice and all but not at the top of my list. Therefore, before I was even halfway through the book I was sick and tired of it. The problem for me was that the same story was repeated over, and over, and over, and OVER AGAIN. It seems as if everyone wanted to express their opinion of Laura, but everyone's opinion was the same. Like I said, if you're a big Laura fan you'll probably enjoy hearing about her life, but if you're not, then this book just might be torture!

I realize it has been hard to come up with enough material to write a first-class biography of this cultural icon. This book is a teaser. There are some interesting bits in it, and Laura's unique writings are part of it. Needs a bit more illustration, but to all Laura fans it will scratch an itch to learn more about her.