What I'm Reading: Giants in the Earth

No, it isn’t a bestseller you missed. It was published in 1924 and translated from the Norwegian, the story of a Norwegian family that immigrates to the Dakota territory in the 1870s, struggling equally with farming the land, adjusting to a new and unfamiliar culture, and surviving the bitter winters.

The book made a big impression on me, since I grew up in the state next door. I vividly remember the most striking description of Seasonal Affective Disorder in literature, as farm wife Beret succumbs to being isolated and snowbound in a sod house warmed only by wood and lit only by candlelight.

We now have steam heat, electric light, and cable TV on the freezing prairie, but I can resonate with Beret. It’s already been a long winter, and it’s not over yet. I’m feeling the worst cabin fever I can remember in years. How are you bearing up, in whatever climate you live in?