The Long Winter and A Thousand Acres

Day Two of my personal tokidoki purse challenge, I kept the yellow cardigan and belt, and swapped out the rest.

Yellow cardigan - Gap Outlet, Polka dotted dress - Primark, Yellow belt (from skirt) - Primark, Purse - tokidoki for LeSportsac, Boots - Miz Mooz

This is one of my favorite dresses, and I love pairing it with these boots for a bit of a old-timey, lady feeling.

It's the polka dots on the dress and the buttons on the boots that gives me that feeling.

But, hey, I didn't just think about my purse for this outfit, I also thought about some books!

Purses and books, you say?

While traveling to and from Minneapolis, I zipped through The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.

Please note the girl in a green coat and yellow scarf on cover one, and the second cover being green with yellow lettering.

I gave them both 3/5 stars.

My review for The Long Winter: Okay, I'm pretty much back to feeling okay about Pa. When times were tough (and seven months of blizzards with no train in sight is tough), he really stepped it up, keeping the family in good spirits, finding food when nobody else could (those Wilder boys were hiding it in their house o' pancakes), and being innovative about keeping the family warm. But how much more do we love Almanzo? I can't wait to see him courting Laura. 


My review for A Thousand Acres: Guys, A Thousand Acres is totally a gothic novel set on a farm! And I love gothic novels. This one had it all--affairs, incest (I know, it's in every book I read lately), some sort of craziness or depression?, backstabbing, family drama and courtroom drama, attempted murder, suicide(?), grave illnesses....

Probably my favorite part of the book were the unexpected turns all of the characters took, but each showed a very true and human thing--when people are only out for themselves, they will all fall. And it usually only takes one person to start this terrible pattern, then they're all ganging up, choosing sides, until eventually it's just a bunch of hateful individuals.

Overall, I liked Jane Smiley's style. A few times I got stuck when the main character Ginny would just blahblahblah for a few paragraphs, but mainly I sped through the book. Do you think Shakespeare makes it this entertaining? It's my goal to get through a Shakespeare play a year, so I think I'll tackle King Lear first so I can compare the stories.