Back to the Prairie

Terrible book

Too political

I love this book. I love the homesteading aspect, and interesting to hear about her political (running for office) stance, since I only knew she dropped out at the time. I lean “left” but not so far left. I love that we both can be leaning together in politics, and still want a homestead, self sufficiency, and freedom from people/things (contrary to many conservatives who think we don’t/can’t do that sort of thing). Love love love. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. I do wish there was more recipes (I already have her cookbook.) and more tips on chickens, gardening, canning. But overall loved it

Quick review: Wish this had been more a book on tips for starting a homestead, cooking & simplifying your life & less a memoir of her current life. I enjoy Melissa Gilbert’s writing style and have read her other memoir & intend to buy her cookbook. This book,as expected, contains a lot of personal info I was just mildly interested in but also much more of her political opinions which I very much didn’t want to hear about. I would have rated it 5 stars had it been solely about her remodeling her mini farm, gardening, cooking & raising chickens during the pandemic. For me many of the personal (particularly political) anecdotes should have been left out or much more minimal. Not a bad book, just not a favorite for me. If you are a strongly left leaning democrat then the political commentary likely won’t be an issue. If you tend more towards middle of the road or conservative, you might find some portions a bit irritating. I think Ms. Gilbert might want to consider that many who loved the little house series or who are interested in homesteading and simplified living are also conservative and might feel put off by the political/social commentary she occasionally shared. If you are purchasing this book just because you are a huge Melissa Gilbert fan and want to know lots of details on her current life & don’t mind occasional disparaging political comments about the former Trump administration and lots of talk in support of masking & vaxing you will enjoy it very much. If you are a hard core conservative you may really dislike parts of the book. Overall I’m not that political so for me it was an ok read that could have been much better. I’d have preferred more of a country lifestyle book than the memoir style. I really enjoyed when she wrote about chickens, gardening, and cooking as well as how much she got from slowing down and simplifying her life. I also really liked the parts she wrote about embracing her age and wish she’d written even more about that.