Dan L. White

I wanted to love this book. I loved the idea of a book about Manly and Laura's love story. I truly believe they did have one of the greatest love stories of all times. It wasn't all romance and wining and dining but it was a love that grew from a flirtatious interest into something real and solid that lastest beyone their lifetimes. This book was truly disappointing in the fact that there is a miniscule amount of new information here, perhaps none. The author also recites passages from Laura's books in great details...he may re-word things, but if I wrote like this on a school paper the teacher would give me an 'F' for plagurizing. Why would anyone want to read Mr White's play by plays when we could read the beautiful originals in Laura's books? Another thing that irritated me: About half of this book is Mr. White citing his own previously written works on the Wilders. It was beyond annoying and still the information has been read a million other places. There are no photographs available in the book and even if they were previously published pictures it would have added to the tale. The end of the book where the death of Almanzo is described by one of Laura's neighbors is touching and that is the only reason for moving this up to 2 stars from the 1 I had originally contemplated. I think for this book to be worth the money you should never have read a biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder before. Even at that, there are many better ones available.… (mehr)