Arthur William Presser William Presser itibaren Texas itibaren Texas

The Price of Spring brings The Long Price Quartet to a tremendously satisfying conclusion. The impact is deep and reverberates if you've read all four books. There isn't really anything more that needs to be said.

2015 Review: It seems I’ve read this one before, but it didn’t seem familiar. Perhaps that because it was felt a little underwhelming. It had all the classic elements of Oke’s “new adventures in the West” gentle romances, but I just didn’t connect with these characters. The book tried to cover a lot of territory so the children all sort of started running together, which probably didn’t add to my enjoyment. Overall, not a bad read but not my favorite. 2012 Review: Reread 8 or 9? Maybe? I used to own the first four Women of the West books and would reread them at the drop of a hat. In my early teens I devoured Janette Oke’s books about women in the frontier west and they are still among my favorite “romances”, if they can be called that. This one is less about finding love then about the challenges and struggles a family may face, but I remember really liking the way the relationship between Julia and John is portrayed and thinking that I wanted the support and teamwork they showed to be part of my own marriage someday. On this reread (as it’s been at least 10 years), the simplicity and sweetness of this story still appeals but I don’t find the characters as interesting as I once did. I don’t think this is Oke’s strongest writing but it’s a nice story about family and overcoming adversity and not a terribly long read so – time well spent, I think.

Learned of this from Pollan's New Yorker article. Book a bit heavy on the science of corn in the first section, but got steadily better as it progressed, and damned if I don't find myself noticing how corn shows up in everything these days... so I guess it sunk in, even while it was my least favorite part of the book.