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A review by daybreak1012
Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage and Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere by Ree Drummond
4.25
We all remember the heyday of blogging. And were there many bigger blog-celebrities than Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman? I hadn't picked up her earlier memoir, but decided I wanted to give this one a shot. I've had some personal struggles with blogger-writes-a-book, but Ree has been known to entertain me and I was game to give it a shot.
Let me be clear: my rating and review is based solely on the quality of the content delivery and my ability to engage with it, not the stories being told, because who am I to rate someone else's life experience and their vulnerability in sharing it with the masses?
Let me be clear: my rating and review is based solely on the quality of the content delivery and my ability to engage with it, not the stories being told, because who am I to rate someone else's life experience and their vulnerability in sharing it with the masses?
What I liked about Frontier Follies:
It's not a challenging read - There are times I appreciate a book that doesn't make me think too hard or get bogged down in absorbing what I'm reading. Now was a good time for me for such a book, because I've been grappling with my reading rhythm. We're officially in "southern summer" which means I will be ensconced in my air conditioning as much as possible. Now is the time when I can get a good groove on with my reading and this is the kind of book that can unlock it for me.
Some definite chuckles - If you're at all familiar with Ree's storytelling, it's less about anything deep or introspective or vulnerable, and more about lighthearted amusement. If that's what you like about her blogging, you'll feel at home here. I laughed out loud more than once. Enough that I got raised eyebrows from my husband.
What I didn't care for:
I struggled a bit to connect early on - I can't really say for sure what exactly it was, but I can say this is one of the contributing factors to my overall rating. It wasn't unreadble; I just couldn't engage in a way that made me care about what I was reading. While this might not be the same for another reader, for me, it was a problem: you have to get me invested. (Eventually, she got there.)
What left me conflicted:
The writing style - It was somewhat as I feared: it felt like a collection of blog posts. There wasn't really a continuity or flow to the storytelling (I got spoiled by Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends, which may have singlehandedly ruined me for memoirs forevermore)... until maybe the last third of the book! That's when it stopped reading like a series of blog posts and started to feel like an actual book. They are just two entirely different writing styles and voices.
Overall, a decent book. Fun, true to the Ree one would expect based on her blogging. The biggest hangup for me was that the book started out like a blog that didn't quite catch me with its content for the first third; the second third the content caught me, but it still felt like a printed-out blog; the final third, the style finally caught up to the content for me. Overall, this was a fun read, even if the execution of it somewhat missed the mark for me, personally.
It's not a challenging read - There are times I appreciate a book that doesn't make me think too hard or get bogged down in absorbing what I'm reading. Now was a good time for me for such a book, because I've been grappling with my reading rhythm. We're officially in "southern summer" which means I will be ensconced in my air conditioning as much as possible. Now is the time when I can get a good groove on with my reading and this is the kind of book that can unlock it for me.
Some definite chuckles - If you're at all familiar with Ree's storytelling, it's less about anything deep or introspective or vulnerable, and more about lighthearted amusement. If that's what you like about her blogging, you'll feel at home here. I laughed out loud more than once. Enough that I got raised eyebrows from my husband.
What I didn't care for:
I struggled a bit to connect early on - I can't really say for sure what exactly it was, but I can say this is one of the contributing factors to my overall rating. It wasn't unreadble; I just couldn't engage in a way that made me care about what I was reading. While this might not be the same for another reader, for me, it was a problem: you have to get me invested. (Eventually, she got there.)
What left me conflicted:
The writing style - It was somewhat as I feared: it felt like a collection of blog posts. There wasn't really a continuity or flow to the storytelling (I got spoiled by Rob Lowe's Stories I Only Tell My Friends, which may have singlehandedly ruined me for memoirs forevermore)... until maybe the last third of the book! That's when it stopped reading like a series of blog posts and started to feel like an actual book. They are just two entirely different writing styles and voices.
Overall, a decent book. Fun, true to the Ree one would expect based on her blogging. The biggest hangup for me was that the book started out like a blog that didn't quite catch me with its content for the first third; the second third the content caught me, but it still felt like a printed-out blog; the final third, the style finally caught up to the content for me. Overall, this was a fun read, even if the execution of it somewhat missed the mark for me, personally.