The Wilder Life (by Wendy McClure)

This is a book that we own in both hardcover and paperback, a book written by a friend that I adore, a book that I kept dipping into but kept procrastinating the actual cover-to-cover reading of. You see, I wasn't a Little House girl. I was a Little Women girl* and an Anne of Green Gables girl** and to a lesser extent a Betsy-Tacy girl and for sure a Babysitters Club girl. But I never read any of the Little House books. None! How is this possible!

(*I toured the Alcott house in Concord, and it was super awesome. We saw the real-life "Meg's" wedding dress and "Amy's" art and learned so many things about Louisa May Alcott. **On my life list or bucket list or whatever dumb name you want to call it is "do an Anne of Green Gables tour of Prince Edward Island." I want to go so bad.)

So my idea was that I was going to read the Little House books before I read all of Wendy's book. And then Wendy came to town and I bought yet another copy of her book (supporting my friend! supporting local bookstores!) and then I opened it and got sucked into the narrative and realized that it really didn't matter that I hadn't read the Little House books, because Wendy is such an awesome writer and her prose just sucked me in and it's funny and smart and a terrific little glimpse into this Little House world.

I mean, I still want to read the Little House books (even more now, since I've been pre-sold on them now). But I can assure you that even if you haven't, you will still love The Wilder Life. Because Wendy McClure is an awesome writer. The end.