I don't often do these, but this book and a related site by the author had me laughing untiil I was wiping away tears and she's One of Us, i.e. an obsessed fan.
I was in Chapters and saw a book called 'The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie' by Wendy McClure (on Amazon
here. It caught my attention because it had a picture of Laura on the front and along with Anne Shirley, Laura Ingalls was a childhood friend of mine with whom I've never lost touch. I reread the Little House books often. I've read more than the basic nine, after tracking down some of the extra books like Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose and West From Home plus some non-fiction. I got a bit disconcerted by some of what I found out about the true facts behind the story but every winter when the snow piles high, I think of The Long Winter and indulge in a private Mary-Sue moment when I appear in their house when they're starving with a box of food and vitamin tablets and books and .... okay, forget I said that.
The book was $32 which was too much to spend, but it looked interesting so when I went home and found out that the library didn't have it, I did some price-checking and bought it as a Kindle ebook from Amazon. It is ALL TOO EASY to do that. I'm spending a fortune on ebooks, just because two or three mouse clicks gets me a book RIGHT AWAY. For a woman who once went out fridge shopping because she'd run out of ice cubes, the importance of instant gratification cannot be over-stated.
The book is about the author, who felt like a kindred spirit from word one, and how she rediscovered the books and dragged her partner (he is adorably supportive and pragmatic, remninding me of David patiently driving me all over Vancouver to various Stargate locations) to all the locations in the books, meeting other Laura fans on the way.
The book is funny. No, at times, the book is hilarious. I kept reading bits out to David, my voice choked up I was snickering so hard. Highly recommend it even if you're not a Laura fan simply because she's a fan and that's common ground. She does the things we'd do, buying merchandise, getting obsessed, sometimes feeling overwhelmed, sometimes ecstatic.
I looked to see what else she'd written and found
this site.Wendy found a load of Weight Watchers recipe cards from the 70s in her parents' basement and made them into a book with pithy comments on the recipe and the props used to illustrate them. The site has about twenty of the cards with her comments, just click on the pictures and start the slideshow.
And don't do it when you're drinking or you'll end up spraying your keyboard and screen when you start laughing.
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