Showing posts with label german settlement in missouri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label german settlement in missouri. Show all posts

Monday, February 21, 2011

Book #8: The Mysteries of St. Louis


The next book I've decided to read is The Mysteries of St. Louis by Henry Boernstein. One of my reenacting friends recommended this to me while I was reading book #4 (German Settlements in Missouri) and I thought I would give it a go. The St. Louis Public Library had a few copies available, so I put in my request (yay, library!) and picked it up the other day. I think this book is going to be a big challenge for me. To begin with, the book was written in 1851. In German. An English version of the novel was then published in 1852. I hope that the vernacular is not too difficult to understand. The particular version I'm reading was published in 1990, not sure if that has made a difference (like how all of the different versions of the Bible are so very different). Second, this edition is only 303 pages, but the publisher uses as much of each page as they can. The words are very small and they completely fill each page. All that said, I still plan to soldier on...I'm hoping it will be so fascinating that none of that makes a difference!


Today I finished Book #7, Friendship Bread by Darien Gee. This is the book I won on the Goodreads website. I loved it! It was a super easy, feel-good read. I highly recommend it! The title could use a little work (it doesn't exactly scream READ ME, does it?) but the book itself is great. It follows the story of one little anonymous bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter left on a grieving mother's doorstep and goes on to tell how it effects the whole town and brings the community together. I'd be happy to lend it to anyone that's interested!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Book #5: Alice I Have Been


I went into Book 5 thinking I was going to read an Iris Johansen mystery, but at around page 60 I realized that, dur, I've already read it. I could read it again (and quickly), but according to the rules I set for myself at the beginning of the year, it wouldn't count towards my 50. This was a little bit disheartening but after much deliberation I've decided to read Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin instead. My friend Stephanie has highly recommended this book and even started a bit of a book club on facebook with it as the gateway book. Since I'm a member, I figured I should read it! Unfortunately I have heard that it has a bit of a sad/bittersweet ending, so we'll see...




Two thumbs up to Book 4, German Settlement in Missouri by Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering. It was a SUPER easy read...I think I finished it in about an hour and a half. I HIGHLY recommend it to all of my Missouri friends that have German roots. It's not really intense textbook or anything, but it gives a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes that I never realized I needed to know. It also really got me thinking about my people...




On a side note: PLEASE let the weather people be wrong about this storm we're about to get...I mean, really? Freezing rain thunderstorms? Thundersnow? These are not fun things.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Book #4: German Settlement in Missouri

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." ~P.J. O'Rourke



Next up is German Settlement in Missouri: New Land, Old Ways by Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering. This one I inherited from my mom. It looks interesting and is only 116 pgs, so it should go pretty fast. Also, I've heard of Ken Luebbering before...I'm not sure where, but I'm determined to figure it out.


Book #3 was a SUPERfast read. Wanderlust, by Chris Dyer. I expected it to be a fluff read and it certainly was. I got through the entire book in 2 days. I don't have a lot to say about this one. The story was told through emails, which turned a relatively short easy read into an even shorter read. Rather a waste of paper. In an effort to not split emails onto two pages, they left half pages entirely blank. And the story itself was pretty predictable. So I think I'll go with this: it was a pretty good lightweight story. Bleh.


I suppose that book #5 is going to have to be a deeper read after these featherweights...sigh.