It's almost Monday, here's what I'm reading!

I finished listening to Hattie Big Sky late last week and it was a fabulous book. I'd strongly recommend it to fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is probably why I loved Hattie so much.  The major difference in the two strong female characters is family.  Laura had one and Hattie doesn't.

In the early 1900s, Hattie travels from Iowa to Montana alone, at the age of 16, and takes over her uncle's claim of 300 acres with the provisions that she fences a certain % and farms a certain % as well.  She lives by herself in a shack that isn't weatherproofed, secure, or really very safe.  But as I listened, I thought that safety then was so different than safety now.  Back then, homesteaders were made of much sterner stuff than many of us nowadays and the major difference is...they had no choice.  They also respected their fellow homesteaders. Well, as you'll see in the book, most of them respected their neighbors.  Hattie exemplifies the homestead attitude that either she tries to make it, or she fails.  To quote a term my Grampa would have used, Hattie has gumption.

I'll stop here so I don't spoil the rest of the story but Hattie gets 5 stars from me!  I hope you think so too.  Enjoy!