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Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

Posted on March 10, 2011
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Reason(s) for Reading:
  • It’s Anne with an E.  Why wouldn’t I?
I also recommend:
  • The Entire Anne of Green Gables series!

Summary from GoodReads:

Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, he and Anne are about to speak their vows. They will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house on the purple shores of Four Winds.

My Review:

Do you have a House of Dreams?  I do.  I’ve had one since I was a little girl.  Of course, it involves a white picket fence and beautiful flowers and pretty green shutters.  I imagine that it has just enough bedrooms for a family, a warm and welcoming kitchen and it’s always Spring so I can keep the windows open.

Anne and Gilbert are finally married in Anne’s House of Dreams.  There is so much sweetness in the days leading up to the wedding that I ended up reading through those pages with tears holding a permanent place on my cheeks.  The mention of Matthew, the memories – I think that’s what makes these books so strong.  I grew up with Anne, of course, and so her memories are also some of my own.  Memories of a slate being broken over Gilbert’s head, the childish pranks of the girls, Matthew and the puffed sleeves, Marilla finally saying yes to the little Anne-girl staying for good.  So when Anne looks at leaving Green Gables behind and transferring her precious little gable room to Dora, it’s not just a bittersweet moment for her, but for me as well.

But then there’s so much excitement ahead.  Married life, a precious home, new friends and the promise of babies – because Anne is so ready to love and be a mother to her own children, and she’s had plenty of training you know!

This book introduced Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia, both immensely colorful characters.  There are subtle little moments when you can’t help laughing out loud with Gilbert (who’s bound to be hiding in another room) while listening to Miss Cornelia prattle on.  But, as always, life tends to step in and give us twists.

I think I can relate to this Anne in this book more now then I could as a teenager.  I’ve experienced some sorrow of my own and seen some of my dreams fade, but I’d like to think that I’d be “of the race of Joseph” and I know there are others out there who are as well.

Check out these review(s):

At Home with Books

 

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Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery

Posted on February 27, 2011
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Reason(s) for Reading:
  • This is the year I’m re-acquainting myself with Anne.  I actually had to buy a copy of this book since my Kindle didn’t have it for download!
I  also recommend:
  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Summary from GoodReads:

Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They’re known as the royal family of Summerside—and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person theyhad wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty—and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside’s strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.

My Review:

My memory of Anne of Windy Poplars is.. non-existent.  It’s been so long since I’ve read the books and I see the PBS movies (which are wonderful in their own right) once or twice throughout the year, so it’s easy to forget that Anne of Avonlea (the movie edition) is a mix-match of several books in the series.

In Anne of Windy Poplars the dreaded Pringles make their appearance.  And it’s oh so much more than the movie shows.  They are so dreadful, each and every one of them, but everything else is an absolute delight.  Windy Poplars, Rebecca Dew, Little Elizabeth and most of all – a character we rarely get to see in the book, Gilbert Blythe.

Wait, how can Gilbert be so wonderful? He’s hardly in the book!  I’ll tell you why – because this book shows the reader just how beautiful love letters can be.

A good portion of Anne of Windy Poplars is composed of Anne’s letters to “her dearest of dears” and they are so tender and sweet and filled with so much news and juicy tidbits and sweetness (with just the right amount of “pages omitted”) that it set the romantic in me a-fluttering.  Anne is learning how to be in love, something we see all too rarely in girls literature today.  She has to be patient, to wait to make a life with the one her heart has chosen, but she does it so sweetly it’s impossible not to feel the excitement.  Romance doesn’t need to be rushed.  One doesn’t need to spend all of ones time before the wedding crushed up against his or her chosen.  Anne learns that absence sweetens the deal and her dreams grow because of it.  And, in the process, sets aside a beautiful history to share with her own children.

Today we write emails and tweet to one another and love letters such as those in this book are a thing of the past.  But they don’t have to be – and if you need inspiration, pick up this book.

Check out these review(s):

Stray Thoughts

Book Addicts

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Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Posted on January 16, 2011
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Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
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Reason(s) for Reading:
  • Revising childhood favorites this year – and I’d forgotten how much I love this series.
I  also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Anne Shirley has come a long way since her days as a mischievous orphan living in the house at Green Gables. She is now eighteen and headed to faraway Redmond College in Kingsport. Anne’s college years are sure to be full of fun, but they will also be a time for soul-searching and big decisions. When her longtime friend Gilbert Blythe proposes marriage, Anne feels they can never be more than friends. But is her new admirer, the handsome and wealthy Roy Gardner, really the man of her dreams?

My Review:

This is my favorite book of the Anne of Green Gables series (well, one of two favorites).  The story held in the pages of Anne of the Island is one filled with the growing pains of youth, the losing of dreams, replaced by the gaining of new dreams, the making of new friends, saying goodbye to old and life continuing it’s everlasting journey of passing us by.

Although the times were different, much of what L.M. Montgomery wrote of Anne’s experience at college is still the same today.  It’s a time for discovering yourself, of getting to know who you are.  And for Anne, who’s mind is “constantly changing” so she’s having to “reacquaint herself” with it (one of my favorite quotes in the book), college is everything I remember it being for me as well.

I think one of the reasons I love Anne so much is because she has such a perfect, wonderful appreciation for home.  Sure, she sees it through rose-tinted glasses, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  I think we all long to have that place in our minds, that home filled with memories and the ghosts of our youth.  Remembering mine helps to steady me when things get rough, but also has such a bittersweet taste to it – and that’s what Anne of the Island captures so well.

Ruby Gillis, Gilbert Blythe, Patty’s Place, Diana (Barry) Wright, the births of new characters, the deaths of some old favorites, all happen in this story and it’s very much a turning point.  The ending of something special and the beginning of something new and exciting.

Check out these review(s):

Chrisbookarama

Reading to Know

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Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Posted on January 6, 2011
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Reason(s) for Reading:
  • I wanted to end the year with something insightful, beautiful and poignant – Anne always provides all of those in these stories.
I  also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Avonlea is the prettiest little town on Prince Edward Island, which is the prettiest little island in all of Canada. Anne had come here as an orphan—a skinny redhead showing up on the steps of Green Gables with a shabby suitcase and a heart full of dreams.

Anne’s dream of finding a home had come true. But now she is a young woman, with new dreams, She has a teaching job in the city, with a chance to become a published magazine writer.

And an even greater adventure awaits: Anne is about to begin her first romance—with a handsome Boston millionaire whose dreams are very different from hers….

My Review:

I started reading about Anne’s antics when I was a young girl, not yet a teenager, and had an imagination to rival even this beautiful, darling red-headed girl.  As you can imagine (and like so many other girls), I fell promptly in love with Anne after reading the first book and hungrily devoured every book in the series.  I felt both the “flying high with anticipation” and the “thud” that came after finishing each book, knowing that I was one step closer to having to put Anne away.

It’s those thuds I sadly remember the most clearly.  I’ve gotten my Anne fix over the years by watching the wonderful PBS movies that go under the same names.. but they just aren’t the same – and this book is a good example of why.

So many beautiful characters are left out of the stories.  Mr. Harrison and his rascally parrot (who’s Jersey cow is the one sold, NOT Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s).  The adorable Paul Irving, his American father and… not Anne who is the romantic interest, but the lovely Miss Lavender and her house of echoes.  And then – I’d totally forgotten about the twins – Davy and Dora!  Such a perfect thing having lovely twins coming back into Anne’s life.

I loved this book and am glad I’m finally re-reading the series again. It was a beautiful way to end 2010 and helped me approach 2011 with hope, a few stars in my eyes and a sense of peace.

Check out these review(s):

Always with a Book

Bippity Boppity Book

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