It has been a while since I did a book review, sorry literary lovers! Mostly I've been reading text books and writing education papers. Any way, over holiday break I finally got to listen to Diane Guerrero's story. I almost bought this book when I saw it's pretty cover at B&N, but listening to Guerrero read the words that Michelle Burford helped her get published was a captivating experience. Some books are just better read aloud by the author. Hearing her emotions come through helped me connect, her experiences are gripping and the kind of sad that is easier to avoid - so having this voice that I know from ORANGE really pulled me all the way in. Oh right and for those of you who haven't read or watched ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (you can read more about what I think about it HERE) or maybe you possibly know Guerrero from the other hit show she is on - JANE THE VIRGIN. I won't get into details about how a girl basically orphaned by the government of 'this country we love' went from parentless in the US to being a famous TV star, that is what the book is for. 

Guerrero was smart in that she steers clear of all statistics or political discourse until the very end of the book. So don't worry this is definitely a 'story, story' - full of emotion that will hook you in before anything remotely dense is thrown at you. The writting leaves a bit to be desired, but the performance (Guerrero narrates the book herself on Audible) is tremendous, she uses voices, lots of personality and a tone that immediately makes your aware of her vulnerability. 

I was a fan of ORANGE but I didn't really take notice of Guerrero until I saw her on the Chelsea Show...

Watching this interview again after finishing the book made me cry. Guerrero nervously laughed through the interview, probably hoping she wouldn't cry. I definitely also cried a few times during the book but it's hard to watch her smile through it and I applaud Chelsea for forcing a serious conversation and for Guerrero who found her stride and finished the short interview with strength and poise. 

​The book ends on a call to action, with several levels. Hearing Guerrero urge people to vote on November 8th, again, made me cry. Because of course, I know what happened on that day. Voting remains to be one of the most influential things that each individual citizen can do each and every time that an election is help, there is no election too small - so Diane, thanks for becoming my friend through this book and for taking action on issues that make my heart sing with their values and hope. 

Immigration is a topic that a lot of people take an inhumane approach to, people take the child and family factors out of the equation in order to maintain an 'what's our's is our's' mentality. I think that stories like this, honesty and understanding will undoubtly be built upon. Please check this book out, gift it to a friend, read, listen and educate yourself about the plights of people who dream of being a citizens in 'The Country We Love,' I believe that together with empathy and intelligence we can find a pathway to get them there. 

​xox, kp

So when I was a child I had the life changing advantage of having parents who read with me every night until I was well into middle school. Some reading this may think that's crazy, why would a super cool 12 year old girl want to get cozy with her mom or dad for thirty minutes every night, taking turns reading aloud and flipping pages while discussing plot lines and character development?! Well I was that super cool girl who did, because it was time to relax, I didn't have a cell phone until high school (also it was the 90s) tech style distraction was still something of the future. And DAMN, am I glad that I had that time, those evenings filled with stories and bonding, it drove my love of reading and learning. 

Yo KP, how obsessed were you exactly?
Well it was a book series about a pioneer family from the late 1800s and I read them with my mother in the mid-1990s so there were no figurines or posters or modern style merchandise to collect - so it wasn't like that. (But truth be told had there been a Laura Ingalls Barbie, I would have wished for it for xmas.) What it was like, family summer trips were dedicated to tracing the paths that Laura and her family took in the covered wagon but I went with my parents, kid brother in a Chevy SUV. I've been to every house that Laura ever lived in, almost all plots of land that were major scenes in the books are places I dragged my family. When we went to my cabin I would pretend that I was Laura and my family were rugged out doorsy people who hunted their food and twisted hay into tight bundles for the fire in order to stay warm and alive. 

Woodside might be one of the only people who loves Laura and the Little House series more than I do. Because she basically spent her life reading and researching the manuscripts and drafts that are scattered about the country in order to put together a more complete picture of how the series actually came to be. I won't devulge too much about the book for people who are marvelously nerdy and actually want to read this amazing peice of non-fiction! But I highly recomment this book to anyone who enjoys history, literary intell, political themes, etc. There is so much in here that I didn't ever imagine I would connect with one of my childhood "best friends." Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this book about my childhood hero and her daughter would have several paragraphs discuss a connection to the infamous Koch brothers but alas it did. And I read all about it.

Laura was all about hard work, family, simple pleasures and to me she was stories that took me away from modern mayhem. So when I was partaking in one of my favorite holiday traditions (a solo splurge of book buying through Barnes and Noble) I saw this book and immediately knew it was coming home with me. 

I've known Laura basically my whole life, everything I come back to her, to the Little House books, I feel calm, safe, powerful and grounded. The feelings I felt reading those books were feelings that wash over me every time I think about her, every time I think about the books, about reading the series with my mother and traveling through those physical places that I'd imagined. Everything I've ever read, online or at the historic sites made it seem like Laura was the star, the her writting and her driving force was what brough these stories and the idea of pioneer power into my life. Reading about Rose and learning about her role, who she was and realizing that she was the real master mind was sort of a blow to a friendship that had never been altered in my life. Laura and I's friendship had been based on it's one sidedness, she was there for me when I needed her, it had only ever been cemented by time and loyalty. And now, a whole book contriducted things I thought I knew about this metaphorical best friend. 

The daughter behind the Little House series, Rose. A girl I knew only from the brief appearance she makes being born during 'The First Four Years,' a book that is not even officially part of the series. A book Laura might have wanted to publish but never got fully edited by Rose and which Rose never wanted to work on but that MacBride published after Rose's death! Ugh. This girl actually guided and aided her mother in the writing of this iconic series, more than the two women wanted anyone to know the series was a collaboration. They were in the midst of dealing with the same depression that was effecting the whole country but they turned their dire circumstances into a money maker like no other, the value of which continues to grow, and not to mention they gave the country a story to hold on to, to admire. 

There is so much to unpack about this whole thing but I will make it quite clear that I grew up LOVING, being obsessed about Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wore a bonnet with braids while I ran around my cabin. I insisted that my mother plan family vacations around visiting the places where the Ingalls lived and traveled. I read the series over and over and have even seen most of the series even though I'm a child of the 90s and that 70s style kind of freaked me out. Pioneer life was all the adventure that my first ring suburb life lacked. I wanted to be Laura, to overcome hardship, to standby my family as we triumphed through the struggles of living off the land. It was a romantic life in my eyes and I thought Laura was everything. Little did I know that the series was a sort of collaborative plot between a mother daughter duo to make money during the depression that our country went through in the 30s. And little did I know that I would like Rose, Laura's daughter a lot in the end. Rose was cool, she was political in the end. She was a founding member of a political party that I find a little wacky and don't agree on about hardly anything but a political party none the less and with that I'm impressed. Libertarians believe in limited government and all sorts of other things that came from noble ideas but that I believe don't take into consideration reality. That said I see the foundation that arose was building from and I admire it, I even agree with parts. Rose hung with the likes of Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford, Jack London, Dorothy Thompson, Sinclair Lewis, etc. She traveled, she wrote and read endlessly. She mentored young men and didn't hold back her intellect but instead used it to shape what she was passionate about.

In 2017, I am going to try to be more like Rose Lane Wilder. I am going to let me my voice be heard and read. I am going to continuously educate myself and dialogue with others about my beliefs. I am also committing myself this year to bipartisan friendships where we can both learn from one another and love one another for our differences. I may know a lot of things about Laura and Rose that I didn't before but that doesn't mean I love them led or that my fantasy friendship is led valid. When you learn more about a friend it brings you closer together. I have more understanding and empathy for these women, this family, than I did before. So glad I picked up this super nerdy read.

xox, katia