Adventures in Contentment

This book was published in 1907 by Ray Stannard Baker, who also used the pen name of David Grayson.  Interesting!  I am starting it right away, and can't wait to share more.

It has taken me a while to finish this, but I am finally done! I could identify with the character's move to the country, so I understood much of what he was saying about the peace of such a life style change.  How just the simple pleasures of owning land can bring contentment that couldn't be found in the city.  It was surprisingly funny at times, which I greatly enjoyed.  As I enjoyed this book, I also found myself at times wanting desperately to read it aloud to somebody.  To me it was almost poetic in nature how it was written, and I would picture myself outside on my own land, sitting by my own tree, reading to someone I loved. I didn't find I wanted to read much of it at one time, so it took me longer than usual to finish, but overall I did enjoy this read.

Quattrocentisteria

I have discovered that this is another book that I cannot get on my kindle.  I will request and wait to see, but must read at a later date.

The King's Highway by Madeline Willard

This book is not available for my Kindle, so I have requested it to be.  I will wait on reading it for now.  I did find out that it was published in 1912, so it would have been a new book when Elsie read it.  Given how far away she was from any kind of civilization, I wonder how she kept abreast of new and interesting things to read.

Hansel and Gretel

To begin with this title, I find there are lots of these books and I must do some research to find which one Elsie might have been reading.

I am guessing the original Grimm brothers publication of this book is what Elsie was reading.  Everyone has heard of this story from one source or another, but I guess I cannot say I have ever read the actual book.  It was shorter than I expected, I thought it might be more involved.  One aspect I didn't know was the reason the children were in the forest to begin with.  Maybe so that it is not such a terrible story, it has been changed so that the children were lost, no explanation.  But here it is because the step mother hates them (what is with the Grimms and evil step mothers??) and nags the father to abandon them in the forest.   That is so terrible! I can't imagine reading this to my kids. I wonder how old the kids Elsie read it to were.. it would have been very scary to me as a child!