"Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey" by Lillian Schlissel

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey is an amazingly interesting book, with a few drawbacks that may or may not take away from its importance. I'll let you decide.

This book is essentially tracing the women's journey across the midwest to California and Oregon using the diaries that these women kept and left behind. Schlissel uses 96 diaries to defend her conclusions, and as one can expect that the journey wasn't entirely different for these women. There are some differences, as the circumstances of women differed--being married with children, newly wed without children, being older with children back home, etc, but the scenery doesn't change that much. This is where I find the drawback--the book is really repetitive. I understand why, but it can still be tedious. But once you overlook this, there's a lot of important information to be found. And a lot of questions that you can ask about women living on the road and those things that we women have to deal with that men will probably never understand.

Even with the repetitiveness, it's a very quick read--I think I spent 3 hours reading 150 pages before class, not sure how much time I've spent since to finish it. And it's a very visual book--you should be able to vividly picture the world that these women traveled through.

Shadows on my Heart: Civil War Diary of Lucy Buck

Definitely not your typically view of the Civil War. This is the diary of a southern plantation mistress of sorts (she's a young southern daughter, not married). If nothing else, she gives a different view of the Yankees than the heroic champions of freedom that we are often taught in school. Is she biased? Of course, but that's what makes it real. You'll need to like the way Anne of Green Gables talks because this girl does have a visual way of writing like that and since it's her diary, there's no Marilla around to tell her to "shut up and get to the point" haha. So keep that in mind if you're thinking about reading this book.