The Work and the Glory 7: No Unhallowed Hand by Gerald N. Lund

This book covers the next year and a half after Joseph Smith was killed, and how the Saints decide to leave Nauvoo and move West. It really brings home the feelings of indecision and how terrible the first few weeks after Joseph's murder were for the people of Nauvoo, and how they didn't know who was going to be in charge of the Church. It seems obvious to us now, but of course, that's where the seeds of the RLDS church came from, so it wasn't as obvious to them back then. I had totally forgotten about the big climax at the end of the book, and was taken aback by how sad it all was. I'm not sure how he's going to fill up two more books with the pioneers going across the plains, but I'm crossing my fingers that maybe I can finish both of the last two books before this baby comes. Phew!

The Work and the Glory 6: Praise to the Man by Gerald N. Lund

This book was fun to read and packed with drama and excitement. But of course, nobody wants to spend much time reading about polygamy--and the majority of the discussion about polygamy is how much the characters in the Steed family struggled with it and how terrible they all think it is. This is obviously an incredibly sensitive subject for everyone in the Church, and I think Lund did as well as he could have with it. It does seem like they resolve the issue pretty well and then nobody discusses it again, which seems unlikely, but oh well. I felt like he did a good job showing all of the negative forces at work in Nauvoo at the time, especially John C. Bennett and his cronies. The serious drama for the Steed family continues, with Kathryn getting struck by lightning and the terrible wagon accident at the end... and it ends with Joseph Smith being killed in Carthage Jail. This was an easy book to get sucked into and to read.

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

I am sure that I read this book when I was younger--either at my house or my grandma's house when we were visiting. I didn't really remember anything about the story, though, and I felt like it ended up being kind of a drag to read now. Maybe I'm just not getting along with the unbelievably "good" children in these books, and having a harder time dispensing with my unbelief here, but I felt like none of the characters in this book felt real. This story is about Rose, whose uncle becomes her guardian after her parents have died, and how he uses all of these unusual parenting and childrearing techniques to help her regain her health and happiness. And how she gets to know her seven boy cousins, who she is afraid of at the beginning of the book (come on, really?). I thought the unusual things that Uncle Alec pushes on Rose were the most interesting part of the story, seeing how they really thought about things and what he had to push back on and change in how Rose was being raised. But Rose herself was a cardboard cutout of a person, and it felt a little weird how Uncle Alec talked to her and treated her like a six-year-old instead of a fourteen-year-old, and how she was always sitting on his lap and stuff. It felt a little creepy with a girl that age. I have to say that I liked An Old-Fashioned Girl better than this one, and I don't think I'm going to force myself to read the sequel (although I bought it--hopefully Lucy will get into Louisa May Alcott someday and read it).

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

I read about this book on one of the book blogs I follow and was immediately interested in it because I resent the pressure that is placed on kids and parents to become hyper-specialized in their sports/hobbies/etc. at such a young age. I want my kids to be generalists and to be well-rounded (that's what my mom always talked about--being well-rounded) and we are never, ever going to invest the time and energy and money required to make our kids world-class athletes in any one sport, so I don't want them to be punished by not making it on a team because they don't practice it all day long. And this book gives some good thoughts about why being a generalist is more important and beneficial than being a specialist. I think the first chapter/the introduction about Tiger Woods vs. Roger Federer was a perfect introduction to this topic, but I think it was probably the most interesting part of the book. The rest of the book kind of felt like a slog. He talks about the important connections that generalists can make in research when they know more about the world than just their one subject, and how generalists are better at using analogies to understand things. I felt like there had to be better stories and more information about why generalizing was better though, and I felt like there had to be better takeaways than what he offered at the end of the book. This was definitely interesting, but it took a lot of energy to read.

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I was tempted to skip this book in our reading aloud of the Little House books, because it's always seemed kind of forgettable to me. No iconic scenes like the grasshoppers eating everything or Pa building a house from scratch. But we decided to read it and I'm glad we did. The boys really enjoyed the details about the railroad and how the railroad was being built. They just really enjoy everything about these books. We had five chapters left in it this morning, and I read them while they played with Legos, and as soon as we finished they yelled, "LET'S START THE NEXT ONE!" They really loved it and I am super glad we read it. But I am really looking forward to The Long Winter because that one has always stuck in my memory.

An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

I used to have a big collection of Louisa May Alcott's books when I was younger--not JUST Little Women and Little Men, but a lot of the other books she wrote as well. After reading Little Women in the fall, I had this desire to revisit some of her other books, and I bought a few that I vaguely remembered based on their titles and brief summaries that I could find online. I finally just re-read this one, An Old-Fashioned Girl, and it felt just like I remembered. It goes right along with Little Women, and The Five Little Peppers, and All-of-a-Kind Family--all of these stories that are about normal life back then, but with an extra dose of sermonizing about how hard work and humility are the best thing that anyone can have. As a kid, I didn't notice or mind those things; as an adult, they stand out a little more (and plus, the characters become more obviously un-real the older I get, because no one is cheerful and happy dealing with their poverty their entire lives). I still love these stories and I happen to agree with Alcott's preaching, even if it doesn't strike me as believable all the time. I do think the principles her characters are embodying are right, even if it's much harder to live them than she makes it seem like (which I think she knew herself, if Jo is any indication). I liked Polly and her sweet romance with Tom in this book, and I liked how Alcott paints the fashionable society as being filled with ennui and boredom. (It always seemed like it would be that way to me.) I really enjoyed this and read it in just over a day.

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

After just re-reading The War That Saved My Life for our book club, I couldn't help myself but to read The War I Finally Won again. I did read it two years ago when I first encountered them, but I loved the first one so much that I wanted to finish off Ada's story. I don't have much more to add to my previous review of this book, but I just think this book holds up and it did such a good job giving a great perspective on the war in Britain, plus gave such a good story about Ada overcoming these challenges in her life--particularly her emotional struggles overcoming her traumatic childhood. I love how real Bradley is and how Ada doesn't overcome everything at once.