By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)

I am not finding the love. I read these books over and over as a kid. I see their value as historical documents. I'm this far in the series and I'm going to stick it out, but when I finish, I suspect the hardcover set that has taken up a fair bit of shelf space in my library is going to be out on its ear.

Pa's a bit less annoying in this book, but Ma steps up the to the plate with her endless shushing and what is up with all of a sudden they are having church services all over the place? Laura's got less backbone every book. And Mary's a saint, Carrie's a whiner and Grace is a cipher.

( )

With each book I read, I hate Mary more and more.

I especially liked the Christmas portion of this book. Likely all the more so because I know what comes in the next book, The Long Winter. (But, oh! How I laughed at Pa and his notion that South Dakota winters were milder!) ( )

It seems that as Laura writes about herself getting older writing becomes more mature, and the language in this one was really beautiful. But this book does have some of the saddest moments in it too. Now, onward to The Long WInter, which my mom and I got stuck in the middle of and never finished.

The Ingalls kids are getting older and are taking on more responsibility as the hardships get more difficult. Laura's becoming a young woman and her reflections and perception is changing to match that transition.

There was one part that really struck a chord with me. It's when the Ingalls are moving from the surveyors' house to the unfinished store building in town at the end of the winter. Laura reflects that she was "alone and happy" on the prairie throughout the winter, but now in town with so many people around, she's lonely. While I'm not certain how I would handle the level of isolation the family experienced during a South Dakota winter hundreds of miles from any other people, I can relate to her sentiment. I'm rarely lonely when I'm alone. It's when I'm surrounded by people I don't know that I feel most isolated.

My feelings about this book are a little more nuanced than they are about the previous books, but I'm still quite enjoying them. We're going back and reading Farmer Boy before moving on the The Long Winter. I figured we ought to get a sense for who Almanzo is before he starts playing a larger role in the stories. And on the positive side, I'm fairly certain that I can now, if necessary, build a railroad, thanks to Wilder's detailed description of the process.

It's still not at all clear to me, though, what the privy situation was. Did they have to trudge through the snow to the outhouse or go in a chamber pot every time they did their business? Was the privy in the lean-to? How far did they have to walk? And if the well was only 6 feet deep, how deep did they need to dig their privy? ( )

It has been several years since we last read of Laura and her family, living on the banks of Plum Creek, and there have been changes: there are now four sisters, with the addition of Grace, and Mary has become blind. The crops have failed again, so when an offer of a job further west comes, Pa eagerly takes it, moving the family to what is now South Dakota. A gem. ( )