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Montgomery, L.M. 1939. Anne of Ingleside.

Out of all of the Anne books--Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla of Ingleside--this one is actually my least favorite of the bunch. Perhaps it is the fact that it was written so many years after the others. Rainbow Valley, the one which chronologically is the sequel to Anne of Ingleside, was published in 1919. (The order of publication for those that want to know is Anne of Green Gables, 1908; Anne of Avonlea, 1909; Anne of the Island, 1915; Rainbow Valley, 1919; Anne's House of Dreams, 1922; Anne of Windy Poplars, 1936; Anne of Ingleside, 1939; Rilla of Ingleside, 1944.) This one always seemed a bit tacked on to the others.

Anne is all grown up with children of her own: Jem, Walter, Nan and Di (the Blythe twins), Shirley (boy with a bit of a girly name), and Rilla, the baby of the family. Anne and Gilbert are still happily wed though we don't see too closely or intimately into their relationship. Susan Baker is their live-in helper. Part nanny. Part cook. Full-time storyteller.

The book is episodic. There isn't one narrator. The role of narrator shifts between Anne and each of her children. (I can't remember if Susan ever gets her own chapters or not.) Each child seems to get a turn in the spotlight. From baby-Rilla being frightened to walk through town carrying a cake to Jem's heartbreaking loss of his first dog. The stories are about family and friendship and at times some of the harder things in life.

My favorite sequence in Anne of Ingleside is the visit of Aunt Mary Maria, Gilbert's aunt who invites herself to stay. No one has the gumption to even hint that it's time for her to go back to her own home. But an accidental surprise birthday party does the trick just fine.

I'm not suggesting it isn't worth reading, but it doesn't have that satisfying grinning ear-to-ear something special feeling about it.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Montgomery, L.M. 1915. Anne of the Island.

"Harvest is ended and summer is gone," quoted Anne Shirley, gazing across the shorn fields dreamily.

I don't know if there are enough words to describe how I feel about Anne of the Island. It is one of the most magically, wonderful, giddy-making, purely-delightful, satisfying books I've ever read...and reread...and reread. Reading this book makes all the world seem right. (At least during the reading process.) It picks up shortly after where Anne of Avonlea leaves off. Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe are preparing to go off to Redmond college. (Along with Charlie Sloane and Priscilla Grant who you may or may not remember.) Diana Barry is engaged to Fred Wright. And there is a hint of love in the air.

This is the story of Anne's college years; it spans four years. The books focus on her friendships with Priscilla Grant, Philippa Gordon, and Stella Maynard, her roommates. And of course the book focuses on her romantic-and-not-so-romantic dealings with men. Many men propose to Anne during the course of the book including Billy Andrews--who sends his sister in his place--and Sam Toliver with his bumbling, "Will yeh heve me?" (Charlie Sloane, Gilbert Blythe, and Royal Gardner are others.)

There are many side stories in Anne of The Island. And while these little asides and tangents are not employed much in modern fiction, within the works of L.M. Montgomery, they are so thoroughly charming that they just work well. Really really well.

I loved this one. Loved the romance. Loved the characters. Loved everything.

Here's my favorite bit of the book:

There is a book of Revelation in every one's life, as there is in the Bible. Anne read hers that bitter night, as she kept her agonized vigil through the hours of storm and darkness. She loved Gilbert—had always loved him! She knew that now. She knew that she could no more cast him out of her life without agony than she could have cut off her right hand and cast it from her. And the knowledge had come too late—too late even for the bitter solace of being with him at the last. If she had not been so blind—so foolish—she would have had the right to go to him now. But he would never know that she loved him—he would go away from this life thinking that she did not care. Oh, the black years of emptiness stretching before her! She could not live through them—she could not! She cowered down by her window and wished, for the first time in her gay young life, that she could die, too. If Gilbert went away from her, without one word or sign or message, she could not live. Nothing was of any value without him. She belonged to him and he to her. In her hour of supreme agony she had no doubt of that. He did not love Christine Stuart—never had loved Christine Stuart. Oh, what a fool she had been not to realize what the bond was that had held her to Gilbert—to think that the flattered fancy she had felt for Roy Gardner had been love. And now she must pay for her folly as for a crime. (237)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Montgomery, L.M. 1909. Anne of Avonlea.

Anne of Avonlea is the second book in the Anne series by L.M. Montgomery. Anne has graduated from Queens now, and is ready to begin her teaching career. She'll be teaching at the Avonlea school. She is still quite chummy with Diana Barry and Gilbert Blythe. And she is almost (but not quite) just as prone to getting into trouble as she ever was.

This second book adds some great characters: Mr. Harrison, the cranky neighbor with a parrot; Davy and Dora, the twins Marilla adopts; Paul Irving, the boy-from-the-States with a big imagination and a way with words; and Miss Lavendar, the "old" maid that has spent most of her years in seclusion but who is a true kindred spirit. And it has some great adventures or "incidents" that I love. Painting the debate hall that horrid shade of blue. Prophesying Uncle Abe's "big storm." The charming love story of Miss Lavendar and Mr. Irving...in which it is shown that it is never too late for one's Prince to return and for love to take hold.

I love Anne Shirley. I love her world. I love her friends. These books are just magical.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Tolkien, J.R.R. 1937, 1966. The Hobbit.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. (3)

Hobbits do like to be comfortable. That is a fact. But in The Hobbit, we read of one hobbit in particular, a Mr. Bilbo Baggins, who leaves his life of comfort behind him to go on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure with thirteen dwarves and one wizard. It is the story of how he went from being a respectable hobbit to a very unrespectable, "odd" little hobbit. Bilbo never meant to have an adventure. He was quite clear on that. But never say never. It all starts with a visit from a wizard, Gandalf. That visit leads to another visit--a visit by thirteen dwarves--who call upon him unawares and give him the surprise of his life. They want him--they expect him--to be a part of their expedition, their adventure, their journey to go off and kill a dragon, Smaug by name, and steal his treasure. It's laughable almost, at least at first, but slowly and surely Bilbo gets carried away with it all. And the adventures that follow--oh my!

The Hobbit is a charming and delightful though-not-a-thin adventure book that everyone should read. (Or at least attempt to read! By that I mean, while I loved it--while I think many many people love it--I suppose no one book can please everyone. But this one should at least be attempted, tested to see if you like this sort of thing.)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Over at Big A little a , Indefatigable Kelly commented on a Slate survey of contemporary authors' "gravest literary omissions." Read the comments to see what other omissions bloggers will admit to.

Well, I don't know many folks who have actually read War and Peace or Ulysses or Moby Dick but I have some real omissions to admit to.

I have never read...
oh...
this is really embarrassing...

I have never read:

Huckleberry Finn
I have read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BUT I have not read any other Narnia books.
I've never read Farmer Boy in the Little House series. I always just skipped that book because I wanted to read more about Laura and her family.
The Phantom Tollbooth
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Bridge to Terabithia


Oh the shame, shame shame.

I am going to remedy the Huckleberry Finn omission soon.
(It wasn't my fault that I missed American Literature in high school. I didn't have to read Billy Budd either.)