Stopping to Think

On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894 by Laura Ingalls Wilder My rating: 4 of 5 stars My wife read the Little House books to the kids and I this Spring and Summer, leaving me with a real hunger to learn more about the life of the Ingalls/Wilder clan. This little diary (with introduction and postscript by Rose Wilder Lane) was very enjoyable, just to see what life on the trail from South Dakota to Missouri would be like 120 years ago. View all my reviews

The Little House Collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder My rating: 5 of 5 stars My wife read these books aloud to our family this past Summer, and these will certainly be books we return to. Some people are disappointed to find how much of the books are fictionalized material, but they are absolutely delightful stories. And while obviously not history per se, they do introduce young minds to a world of covered wagons, washboards, and hard survival which might otherwise be hard for iPad toting toddlers to imagine. View all my reviews

Soul Survivor: How Thirteen Unlikely Mentors Helped My Faith Survive the Church by Philip Yancey My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an interesting book. I always enjoy Yancey; his probing, questioning, journalistic style is very reflective in a reflexive age. In this book he walks through the lives and writings of thirteen individuals who've helped him navigate his own life, and the narrative weaves between the various subjects of the chapters and his own story. Very enjoyable. View all my reviews