Friday Reads: Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder!!

Hello guys!

I'm starting this week's Friday Reads with another wonderful MG & YA classic from the Midnight Garden's challenge and readalong!

This year I joined late, because I think I only started reading in June or July, but I do hope they will do the Classic MG &YA readalong challenge next year again, because I'm loving discovering some lovely books that I never read when I was younger!

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is both a very sweet book and a lesson of history on the everyday work that pioneers in America did. And of course it's full of the most amazing descriptions of food ever!

I had never read any of the Little House On The Prairie books before but now after reading Farmer Boy, I feel like I really need to read them all! The writing is lovely, apt for both younger and older readers and the descriptions of the family life and the characters are absolutely charming!

Almanzo lives with his family in a farm and he's a little boy that is about to turn 9, and doesn't like much going to school. He prefers staying home and helping with the chores, wants to grow up and have his own colt to tame.

Reading this book kept making me hungry with all the wonderful descriptions of food, pancakes, pies, marmalades, jams, and anything and everything, and alternatively made feel like I wouldn't last a day working in a farm like the Wilder's, because chores start at 5 am and there was so much hard work! Still, it was done with some love, dedication and pride in their job, and Almanzo was so willing to prove his worth that it was never made feel like grueling and terrible work.

I was expecting the books to be a bit more preachy for some reason, but they never felt so. The kids misbehaved on occasion and they were never perfect and they simply sounded so genuine when they were a lil naughty and then repented. The time when they were left alone in the house and used up all the sugar making ice cream and almost ruined the parlor's wallpaper is the best example!

With plenty of details about genuine frontier living for the pioneers and a lot of love for that way of living in the way it's written this was a great book for me to read as an adult, and one that I'd recommend for kids nowadays to read for sure. Just a word of warning, you'll want to eat everything mentioned in the book for sure!

Well deserved 4 stars for this lil gem!



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Friday Reads: Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinnis!!!

For starters in this week's Friday Reads I have one of my most anticipated books of this year and quite a brilliant debut!


Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Not A Drop To Drink has been one of my most anticipated books of this year and I'm extremely pleased to say that it has not only not dissapointed me but has exceeded my expectations!

This not a dystopian or postapocalytpic book per se, maybe a bit postapocalytpic, but not the big-crash-happened sort, mostly is a very disturbingly-probable-scenario-in-the-future.

I'm gonna be trying my best to not spoil the story in any way, even if I'd love to discuss and dissect the book and share all its wonders, but I still think this is a book better enjoyed with just enough information.

Water is scarce, a very precious resource that must be protected at all costs, that is what Lynn's mother always taught her and that's the only reality that Lynn ever had. Life is harsh, surviving is not easy even less for two women living alone, not even if they are alert, aware and armed.

The world the author builds in here feels so realistic, so possible that it's actually scary. It's a world were people are trying to survive and that doesn't always bring out the best in humanity and Mindy doesn't pull any punches on her story, so be ready to deal with very ugly sides of humanity and very emotional scenes.

The main character, Lynn, has always learnt hard lessons from her mother and she taught her how to survive, how to keep her pond safe and how not to trust anyone coming to the pond. She raised Lynn has a hard character, with very little empathy for other people hardships or situations, focused only on her tasks and the lessons from her mother. After her mother is gone she learns many other lessons, not less hard but that make her character grow and change without changing who she is really. She learns to look further than her pond and her world, learns that there is more to life than just surviving and that other people can help her to learn to live. It is quite a journey and one you totally ride with Lynn, even if you can see what she might be missing even if she isn't.

There's a bit of romance in this book, very understated, very important, very believable and very heartbreaking. I said it before, this is not an easy or fluffy book and they way the story progresses continues to show that.

Harsh but beautiful, this is a book I'd highly recommend to anyone. Highly deserved 5 stars!



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