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Customer Review
Loving Laura, Living Laura
In this new nonfiction book, Wendy McClure does a great job presenting her adventures "with" Laura Ingalls Wilder. Clever, wise, funny and insightful, her journey on the path of discovery with the Little House on the Prairie books is also an excursion of self-appreciation and understanding.I sometimes come across unusual books that remind me of my own history. The Wilder Life is one of those special treasures. My own mother was reading the Little House series to my three sisters when she was pregnant with me. At 13, 11, and 8, my sisters were still enthralled by the novels penned by Laura Ingalls Wilder. When given a chance to help choose my name, 'Laura' was a resounding favorite. Knowing that backstory, I have always identified with Laura, and been proud of that bond. Ms. McClure takes the path I have often longed to take--an actual trip to the locales mentioned in the books and in other works by or about Laura. In her journey, she realizes some truths about her own...
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April 14, 2011
| Helpful Votes: 18 | Rating: 5
Product Description
Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder—a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family— looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House—exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones—and find that our old love has only deepened.
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Amazon Exclusive: Gretchen Rubin Interviews Wendy McClure 
Gretchen Rubin started her career as a lawyer, and she was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realised she really wanted to be a writer. She lives in New York City with her husband and two young daughters. Rubin is the author of several books, including The Happiness Project.
Gretchen: If you had to pick the one scene from all of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books that makes you the happiest, what would it be? I'd pick the scene where Mr. Edwards brings back the Christmas gifts to Laura and Mary, after he meets Santa Claus in Independence. I cry every time! Or maybe when Laura tells Almanzo that she won't go buggy-riding with Nellie Oleson again.
Wendy: For me it’s when the Ingalls family moves into the “wonderful house” in On the Banks of Plum Creek. The rooms are clean and new, with store-boughten hinges and china knobs on the doors, and everything is in its place. Every time I read it, I swoon over the details, from the calico-edged curtains to the smell of the pine boards. A close second is the scene where Laura gets to see the surveyors’ house for the first time in By the Shores of Silver Lake.
Gretchen: Why do you think the Little House books have meant so much to you for so long?
Wendy: I think it’s because the point of view is at once so subtle and vivid that it feels like I’m in Laura Ingalls’s head, looking with her eyes. I learned so much about how to see from these books, which in turn helped me learn to observe and think like a writer.
Gretchen: Now that you've had all those adventures and written your own book about LIW, do you feel differently about Wilder and the books?
Wendy: In some ways, yes. I’m able to separate the real Laura Ingalls Wilder from her fictional counterpart and see her in ways that my childhood vision of her didn’t allow for. I also now see Laura’s daughter, Rose, as part of the books because she contributed so much to them. At the same time, the world of the books hasn’t changed much in my mind. Even when I’ve seen the actual sites where the books take place, my imagined version of those places is just as real to me as it’s always been.
Gretchen: Having written The Wilder Life, you must be approached constantly by people who are also ardent Laura Ingalls Wilder fans. Do you feel an instant connection to them, or is it a bit hard to relate to everyone's strong emotions about her work?
Wendy: I feel more connected to other fans much more than I ever did when I was younger. As a kid, my relationship to Laura and the books was so solitary—I didn’t really know anyone else who loved the books. So when I started to meet and talk to others about the book, it took a little getting used to at first, because everyone’s fandom is different (some people really love the TV show, others consider it sacrilege); but I’ve since found that one of the best things about writing this book is being able to take part in this shared passion.
Gretchen: How in the world do you come up with those hilarious Twitter comments as @HalfPintIngalls? Brilliant. My favorite so far: "Hey Almanzo, if you liked it then you should’ve built a shanty on it."
Wendy: It takes longer than you’d think! I try to take advantage of the seasons and think, what would Laura be tweeting about this time of year? (Thanks to The Long Winter, it’s never too early or late in the year to complain about twisting hay!) I also go through the Little House books in search of inspiration. It helps that HalfPintIngalls doesn’t tweet too much...after all, she has to walk two miles into town to send her posts from the Twittergraph office!
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Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved
Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder—a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family— looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things
Little House—exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones—and find that our old love has only deepened.
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A thoroughly enjoyable trip down memory Lane-- both McClure's and mine
First Line: I was born in 1867 in a log cabin in Wisconsin and maybe you were, too.Thus begins Wendy McClure's memoir of her attempt to relive her obsession with a series of children's books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. As a child, she loved the Little House books and dreamed of showing Laura the modern world. As an adult, she begins researching online, obtaining books written about the author and her family, and making pilgrimages to many of the Little House sites. Having missed the television series starring Michael Landon as a child, she watches all the episodes and finds other films based on the much-loved books.McClure has a witty turn of phrase, as when describing Laura's arch enemy Nellie Oleson (who was actually a composite of three people) as "some kind of blond Frankenstein assembled from assorted bitch parts," and her list of things she learned from buying a dash churn on eBay is laugh-out-loud funny. She didn't stop with learning how to churn...
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April 14, 2011
(Phoenix, AZ USA) | Helpful Votes: 46 | Rating: 4
A series of disappointing roadtrips
I pre-ordered this book many months ago after reading a little promo on Jezebel and loving the idea of a grown woman making her own Little House journey. I enjoyed the book but I was left with a sense that the author didnt really do enough to make it book-worthy.McClure writes well, she is funny and full of pop-culture references and not too reverent about what some might consider sacred Laura territory. But the writing also seems a bit disjointed, jumping around subjects and full of confusing mini-chapters that dont always break up one train of thought.My main disappointment is that although McClure travels to most of the famous sites and has a crack at butter churning - it probably didnt warrant a book. When I first read the synopsis I imagined a modern woman trying to build a whatnot, taking a fiddle lesson, trying to sew a nine-patch or a dress, buying a Godeys Ladies Book, sticking an apple full of cloves or making pancake men. Something a little more...
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April 28, 2011
| Helpful Votes: 43 | Rating: 3
