Reading This Week | 10 of 2021

Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
File this one under Books That I Wouldn’t Have Been Able to Finish in Print Yet Adored On Audio. This is a collection of nature essays that show how much we can learn about our fellow humans by studying the wildlife around us. Macdonald seems to have a particular interest in immigration and she beautifully wove in stories about the immigration patterns of many species, including homo sapiens. Some essays were tear jerkers and others had me laughing out loud. My favorite was the one about animal blinds and how some observers have been known to leave the blind after hearing a fellow observer misidentify animals (the one in which she scared the cows is a very close second place). It makes me hopeful to know that there are still so many naturalists out in the world!

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
This was the first time I’ve read this book and I think it might be my favorite one of the series (do I say that every time?). I had a big, goofy grin on my face nearly the whole time I listened to it. This book details the last few years of Laura’s schooling, the three summers that she taught school in little towns nearby, and her courtship with Almanzo Wilder. Friends, I swooned every time Almanzo’s horses flew into town to take her home on weekends while she was away teaching or when he’d arrive at their homestead to take her on Sunday rides. The next book in the series is the last and I’m nervous – I always bawl at the ends of things (which is why I still haven’t watched the last season of Parks and Rec) and know that I’ll be overcome with something when it ends. I still have a couple of weeks until my library hold is up so I have time to prepare myself.