This was an interesting book to read...I learned a lot about Laura and her family. That said, at times it was very dry, and there were several places where information from a previous paragraph was repeated entirely--or even contradicted in a few places. I sometimes felt fairly confused.

I finished! Not, IMHO, an inspiring biography of LIW. I decided early on it was/is? a basically Joe Friday kind of bio - just the facts ma'am. Too much of Rose and her ups and downs and conflicts with Laura for me. I understand Rose helped Laura a lot with her books and getting them published only happened because Rose knew who to contact to get a reading, BUT.. she irritated me totally. I think I'll look around for other bios of LIW to see what else has been written that might bring her more alive than this one did for me. Her books brought her more alive in fact. Maybe I should just re-read the Little House books instead.

How true are the Little House on the Prarie books? What was Laura like as an older adult? Read this book to find out.

It was interesting to learn about her life between the "little house" books and when she actually wrote them. Also, learn a great deal about Rose.

I enjoyed this book, although I skipped over parts. I loved the Little House on the Praire book growing up, so I liked learning about her life and what was happening in the world at the same time.

Hmmm. I am not sure what to make of this book. I guess the thing that I would tell potential readers is: be careful when you read a biography about someone you idolized. When you learn of their clay feet, it can be very disappointing.

In addition, after reading the Little House books hundreds of times, this biography seems lackluster at best. The first part of the book basically summarizes LAW's life, but offers very little that is new, particularly if you have read her books or were aware of other biographical details: the big "twists" are that she had a little brother who died very early in life, her childhood was much more nomadic than her books let on, her parents' families intermarried a great deal, and another couple passed the Long Winter with them in their DeSmet town house. Oh yeah, and Nellie Oleson is based on three people that LAW knew in her childhood. The second half of the book is almost more of an account of LAW's tempestuous relationship with her (possibly bipolar) daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. In fact, I would say that the second half of the book is equally a biography of RWL's life. This is the part of the book where facts become increasingly plentiful, much more clear, and better established...however, the ultimate disappointment is that the book does not give information as to the rest of RWL's life after her mother died. And given that the book becomes more and more about RWL in the second half, this is not only disappointing to the reader but shoddy writing and scholarship on the part of the author.

Didn’t finish. The first part of this biography was interesting to me, then it devolved into lists-mostly the clubs Laura was a member of-and whining excerpts from her daughter Rose’s letters to Laura and others. The mentions of Rose got tiring. She seemed to me to be a spoiled, complaining, self centered little person, with no appreciation for her parents and what they went through. She blamed her mother Laura for a lot instead of taking responsibility for her actions and choices to be unhappy. She was so immature I wanted to shake her and the author, both: more insight into Laura, please, and her relationship with Almanzo, and a lot less about her bad tempered complaining daughter.

Being that I'd re-read all of Wilder's books AND gone to her home in Missouri, I got interested in reading about her as a person. This book was pretty good and I learned things about her (and her family) that I did not know. The author did a fine job of describing how Laura came to write in the first place and how she and her daughter Rose collaborated on the Little House Books.

good but a little too much Rose for s book about Laura

This was a well-researched, fairly unbiased account of the life of LIW, focusing on how the fictional Laura became the well-known author. There's a little too much detail on some side issues in a few places, but overall an educational read that helps fill in some gaps. It really helps the reader to understand that here is a woman and her husband who were on the prairie in Dakota from before the time the railroad first crossed it, and watched the first towns being planted, up through when the first space satellite was launched, which is absolutely incredible to think about. I always forget how far into the last century LIW lived (her lifetime crosses over that of my parents, if only by a couple of years) and that this girl who crossed unbroken prairie in a covered wagon grew up to see WWII, including the detonation of the atomic bomb (on the negative side) and the first space satellite (on the positive)! I think the world has changed a lot from when I was a kid and the first microwaves were a thing, before (gasp!) cell phones, and it's true, the world HAS changed a lot; but I can't hold a candle to a life lived before, during, and post Industrial Revolution. Such an amazing thing to consider!

Like many of the books about the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, this starts before she is born. It seemed like it extensively rehashed the information I had read in Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert about how her parents, Charles and Caroline, managed to end up in the same part of the country at the same time and meet up. There was also an extensive retelling of her life story to see how it differed from what she wrote in her novels.

Miller then talks about Laura and Almanzo’s struggle to find their way in the world. The Dakota prairie wasn’t kind to the young couple and they found themselves traveling to various parts of the country looking for a footing. It was when they finally departed the town of DeSmet for Missouri that they found a place they could call home and work the land together. Miller depicts Laura as the stronger of the two spouses, pointing out that even in Laura’s books it is she, not Almanzo, who sets the pace for their courting and he is content with that. It’s an angle I had never thought of before, but it rang true to me.

To read my full review, please go to: https://thoughtsfromthemountaintop.co...

The only reason I'm giving this a 2 star is because the History (non Laura) was interesting but I couldn't finish this book...couldn't even get to the "I'll give any new book at least 5 chapters or 100 pages whichever comes first before I decide to stop reading" It took me several times picking this book up and trying REALLY REALLY hard to get into it and only got to like page 60 something. All he seemed to talk about was the History of the times and the railroad during that time and the things going on during that time. VERY VERY rarely did he mention the Ingallas family and when he did quote Laura or refer to something she had written in the books he would always add "If that is in fact the way it was" or "If the books described their true feelings." (pg 47) What little he did talk about the family he made Caroline out to be very hard and almost 'non touchable' but made Charles out to be very playful and practically the only parent for Laura. Which that in itself upset me, yes, Caroline wasn't as playful as Charles but she wasn't cold hearted either. This book may have gotten better if I just had stayed with it. but I'm a reader and usually can get through 2 or 3 long chapters when I read in the evenings before I go to bed. And this book the more I read (when I did read without falling asleep) the more it made me mad. Don't get this book read some of the other biographies of Laura..you'll be glad you did. This would have been my fourth biography about hers had I finished it. Wasn't worth my time... I'm sorry to rate this so harsh but to question how Laura wrote or felt that just was getting old to me and when I read a book that is suppose to be a biography of a person I expect that not a biography of the world and just a teeny tiny bit of that person. Don't get me wrong you need to understand world situations and what life was like at the time (Civil War going one, George Washington president, the Trail of Tears happening etc) to fully understand your person your reading about but come on the whole book to be that? or at least the first 60+ pages????