A cookbook that deserves reading. Or at least, that's how I treated it. Have yet to try a recipe--and there were several that I have no interest in trying. But, the amount of detail and general readability is to be commended. I would highly recommend this as an introduction to 19th century food history as well.

This one took a while to grow on me (I got very annoyed with both Barbara and Rosemary at first), but by the end, I was completely and totally charmed. Loved Rosemary's almost split personality--it made me giggle as she refused the traditional and then got totally sucked into it. But real love is at the center, which made it all quite satisfying.

But that first apartment! Yikes!

Any time a book causes you to reaad late into the night, not even looking at the clock to realize how much sleep you're losing, well, you know it's something special.


Highly recommended.

This didn't quite do it for me--I think Boyle was trying too hard to write a Novel about an Artist.
Weird narrative voice (one of his apprentices), never figured out why he chose to move backwards in time, and the random footnotes annoyed me. I started to skip them, but they're footnotes and I'm a historian, so I have to read them. . .
There was some weird overlap between the stories because of the going backwards. I knew very little about Wright's loves after Mamah and his first wife, so that was interesting, but the writing was stiff.
None of the characters are terribly likable, but I knew that going in. I infinitely prefered Loving Frank--I kept trying to decide if I was judging this book too harshly because I liked that one so much. I don't think I did.

Oh Elmer, how I love you. By far, one of my favorite Texas writers and I think I'm just going to have to read all of his books. One of these days. . .
Not an easy tale, which you can probably figure out from the title. The slaughter is of both buffalo and people. Kelton follows both the Commanches, trying to figure out why there are so many fewer buffalo and the buffalo hunters, starting to notice that there aren't quite as many to shoot. Some wonderful character studies of both the hunters and the Commanches.
While the ending wasn't quite as tragic as perhaps it should have been, it's a very powerful book.

One of my favorite bits:
Once the guns began their talking and the skinning knives started their work, this peaceful place would be transformed by destruction and waste, death and decay. Never again would it look as he saw it now. He tarried, staring, wishing he might leave as it was, a secret all his own.

But that was a futile wish, for more hunters followed behind the Cregar and Browder wagons. If his group did not claim this canyon and take these buffalo, others would. Colonel Creager would say they were but the instruments of history, doing whad had to be done for the manifest destiny that dictated the taming of the land, the conversion of the wilderness to the needs of civilized men.

Gazing down upon the contented animals scattered as far as he could see, visualizing the slaughter that awaited them, he did not feel civilized.

This year marks ten years since I graduated from a tiny liberal arts school. Those four years were pivotal, important and fun years--and while reading Tam Lin, I kept thinking of Hendrix and my Hendrix friends and the fact that they should be reading this book with me. We didn't quote poetry on a regular basis, but we certainly had some long, deep conversations. The kinds of conversations I rarely have now.

It bogs in the middle, and I wish she had taken more time with the ending, but. . .it really is a magical book. But she totally captures the small college, liberal arts experience--the goofy traditions, the intense professors and students, the struggle over what to take, the library (Hendrix's old library was underground, so this tidbit gave me a special thrill).

And then it all magically comes together and you just want to stay in that world a little longer.

I have seen these books in antique stores for years, but really knew nothing about them. Until my blog entry on the Statemeyer Syndicate and an e-mail from one of the descendents of the author.

If I had first discovered these books as a kid, they would have been 4 or 5 stars. They're funny, with just enough page-turning adventure. The kids are smart and given the freedom and opportunity to do a few things on their own. The charactesr are all genuinely likable, except for Joey Brill. What is up with that kid?

There are some wonderful scenes--an animal parade! Balloons from the church steeple! And a great old house, complete with secret passageways.

As an adult, the writing doesn't flow as easily as some other middle grade books. But there's just enough period details to give these books their place in the 1950s. And plenty of charm for me to pass these on to little ones that like old-fashioned books.