Last week, Erin shot me a text with a link to this article, and said “Someday?”
I clicked on the link and read the article and was completely taken in, initially by the mention of Betty MacDonald and the “Mrs. Piggle Wiggle” books.
Oh, how I loved those books when I was a kid.
If you aren’t familiar with them, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle had all these crazy cures for parents who would come to them with problems about their kids.
Like, for the kid who interrupted all the time, she gave the parents a powder to blow in his face that rendered him mute every time he tried to interrupt. Or, if I remember correctly, a kid who refused to bathe suddenly was growing radishes out of the dirt on their arms and legs.
They are books that were written in the 40’s and I had the original hardcovers, (I’m a bookie…that’s a big deal to me), but they were all ruined when my parents moved when I was in college, along with all of my records and albums. (Leak in the moving truck during an overnight rainstorm. Good times.)
Even today, when I am at a garage sale, I try to find the original hardcovers of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, but to no avail. I’ve never been able to find one, and I’m not spending the money on eBay, etc.
Anyway, when I realized that it was a book-lovers pilgrimage to where Betty MacDonald wrote those books, I was intrigued. I told Erin I was a definite yes to the “Someday” (which we both know will never actually happen) but also told her that I was going to see if the library had the book “The Egg and I,” which was discussed in the article.
“The Egg and I” was the book that introduced the popular characters of Ma and Pa Kettle, and was the inspiration for a movie of the same name starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray (which I now also must get from the library).
The library did, indeed, have the book, and from the looks of it, it hadn’t been taken out since 1940.
I started reading it yesterday and it is utterly delightful.
Utterly. Delightful.
It’s not going to be everyone’s taste.
When Monkey Girl was little, I tried to get her to read the original Nancy Drew books (which I also try to find original versions of at garage sales to replace my collection) but she felt that they were too “old timey” for her to relate to and she wasn’t interested.
This is definitely a bit old timey, but at the same time, it’s not.
Her descriptions are absolutely captivating. She personifies almost everything on the Pacific Northwest farm, and it becomes this living breathing entity, and no longer just a setting.
She’s funny and smart as she writes. I giggled at some of her descriptions of the conversations with her neighbors and the situations she got herself into.
I devoured the Little House on the Prairie books as a child, and again, as an adult. Something very much appeals to me about farm life, rural living, and living off the land. Perhaps it comes from my grandmother who grew up on a farm in Orwell, Ohio during the Depression. I love books set in those times or the pioneer days, and this book spoke to that part of me.
It’s not my normal reading fare. I’m actually right in the middle of a series of young adult vampire books, which I’m reading faster than I can get to the library, and when those are done, I have a few Stephen King that are waiting for me. My tastes in books are generally all over the place, but I tend to stay away from the biography.
(Except for Eric Clapton’s biography. That was phenomenal.)
I’m glad I stepped outside of my comfort zone and picked up this book. Turns out she wrote a few other biographical books, as well, and I plan on plowing through those when I finish with this one, as well.
The purpose of this post isn’t necessarily a book review, although I suppose it could serve as one, but it’s more of a reminder to step outside the familiar every now and then. You may be wonderfully surprised.
