I wasn't going to add this as it's a kiddy book but after the multiple 900+ page books I've read this year, screw it - this counts. When I was a kid in Wisconsin I reread the Little House book series every summer. While I was studying for my stats final, I finished up a stats problem when suddenly my hand reached out and just snatched this book off my bookshelf. I was like my mind needed something simple and almost meditative.

Hence began the rereading of the Little House series. It's bitter sweet. It reminds me of a time when my family was so normal. I could identify my family with Laura's family (mother is ladylike, father more out-there and more of a risk taker, had a good yet sometimes frustrating sibling relationship). It's like rereading my childhood since I read it so consistently during my elementary school years. And looking back now it's sweet and sad as things aren't that way anymore.

I still remember the picture of the deer at the last chapter and dreading seeing that deer as I knew the book was ending soon. And I've always remembered the end: "She looked at Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth and Ma gently rocking and knitting. She thought to herself, "This is now." She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago."