Carrie’s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge“officially” ends today.

Last year I just read the first Anne book, Anne of Green Gables. This year I’ve read Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars for this challenge, and watched Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel (all linked to my reviews) because it covers all three books.

I’ve started Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic, a sort-of biography of LMM by Irene Gammel, but I am only a third of the way through it. I’ll finish it because I wanted to do so while the books were still fresh in my mind and because I’d rather finish it now than pick it up again next year. I am having mixed emotions about it so far — I’ll tell you more when I finish it. 🙂

I had originally wanted to get to Anne’s House of Dreams, as it was my second favorite of the series after the first book, but I had thought it was the fourth book — I had forgotten about Windy Poplars. I thought about going ahead and reading it, but I think I will probably keep it for next year’s challenge and really give myself something to look foreword to! Plus, as much as I love Anne, I’m ready to read some other things.

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge. I had read the books several years ago after the films first came out on PBS — somehow I had never heard of them before. I’ve wanted to read them again, but it was a bit daunting to think of going through the six Anne books plus the two about her children. But this challenge has been just perfect to read a few at a time with the added bonus of doing so when others are reading them, too, and being able to share and discuss them.

So, thank you, Carrie! I am already looking forward to next year!

Carrie’s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge, includes any of the films based on LMM’s books as well as the books themselves. I’ve read Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island and  Anne of Windy Poplars (linked to my reviews) for this challenge, and I wanted to rewatch Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel at this time because it covers all three books. I had watched it (originally titled Anne of Avonlea on VHS) when it was first shown on PBS years ago.

“Covers” is not the right verb: it’s kind of a mash-up.

Anne of Avonlea deals with Anne’s first two years of teaching in Avonlea school, Anne of the Island with her four years at college, and Anne of Windy Poplars with her years of being a principal at Summerside High School (Kingsport Ladies’ College in the film) while Gilbert is in medical school.

The film begins at the end of Anne’s years of teaching in Avonlea. It leaves out completely Anne’s years at Redmond College and her almost-fiance from that time, Royal Gardiner, but it projects that relationship onto a father of one of Anne’s students at Kingsport. The Harris family is an amalgam of several different people from the books. In the books Anne and Gilbert are engaged at the end of Anne of the Island and then Anne teaches for three years while he finishes medical school, but the film has Anne leaving Avonlea to teach partly to get away from Gilbert’s pursuits and ends with their engagement after only one year of Anne’s being at Kinsgport.

Despite the jumble of plots and characters, many of the lines from the film are verbatim from the books, though some are said by different characters and in different settings. I think much of the spirit of the books is captured, from Anne’s feeling out of place and regretting everyone’s growing up and changing in Anne of the Island and her spirit in Anne of Windy Poplars. Her winning over of the snobbish Pringle family happens differently in the film than the book, but many of the elements are there. “Katherine with a K” with all her “prickles and stings” is portrayed excellently — I could feel and sympathize with the stark bleakness she saw her life to be. Her “transformation” was taken a bit father and faster than portrayed in the books.

I do have mixed emotions about the film. I loved seeing the characters come to life, the beautiful scenery, the lace on even the most severe characters, the old-fashioned pins and brooches (when these films first came out, many I knew dressed, not just like the films, but using many elements from them. I still love old-fashioned lace and brooches. I wish people still wore hats like the ones there!) I can understand the mash-up better than I can the atrocity that was done in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story. I think the film could have worked covering the sequence of events as they were in the books, but even some dedicated Anne fans feel that the Island and especially Windy Poplars lag a little bit, so, again, I can understand why the film was done this way, despite my purist preferences. I did miss Anne’s “House O’ Dreams” with her college chums and china dogs amd Aunt Jamesina as well as Rebecca Dew and some other characters from the books. But the film was a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of evenings, and I am sure I’ll watch it again and again in years to come.

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme centering on the subject of books which poses a question or a thought for participants to discuss. The question for this week is:

What’s the largest, thickest, heaviest book you ever read? Was it because you had to? For pleasure? For school?

That’s easy: the 1,463 page unabridged version os Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (linked to my review). I read it for pleasure. I had seen a recording of the 10th anniversary presentation of it and read two different abridged versions and wanted to read the whole thing in context. Normally I am a book purist who doesn’t like abridgments, but in this case I would definitely recommend an abridged version. I’m glad to have read the whole volume once, but if I read it again I will probably either skip over some of it (like the histories of convents and sewer systems) or go back to the abridged.

I am participating in Carrie‘s third annual Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge and finished Anne of Windy Poplars, the fourth in her Anne of Green Gables series.

In this book, Anne and Gilbert are engaged (sorry if that is a spoiler for anyone, but most people who are at all familiar with the books or films are aware that they do eventually marry), but Gilbert has three years of medical school left, so Anne takes the position of a principal at Summerside High during those three years. It’s far enough away that she can’t live at home, yet close enough to visit Avonlea over weekends. As Anne adjusts to her new job, living arrangements, and community, she finds that she is up against a couple of unexpected foes: sarcastic, brittle coworker Katherine, and the entire Pringle clan, the leading family who seems to run much of the town. One of the Pringle relatives was up for the job that was given to Anne, so immediately they are all against her. Most of her students are Pringles or half-Pringles who make her job especially difficult.

Yet Anne finds unexpected treasures in little Elizabeth, a neighbor girl in a strictly controlled loveless home, and various characters she meets, and she sets herself to change the tide of the Pringle sentiments and win Katherine’s friendship.

Even though I am an Anne fan, I have to say this is not my favorite of the first four books, for several reasons:

• We see very little of the old Avonlea characters.
• We see very little of Gilbert even though they are now engaged.
• Much of the book is written in the form of Anne’s letters to Gilbert. A few would have been fine, and even though Anne’s letters are long and more narrative than we usually see these days…it’s just not as enjoyable as reading a story.
• Anne seems a little….overbearing and almost smug at times in her setting people straight.
• There seems to be a little more meanness than in the other books. There have always been gossipers and snipes who are generally the antagonists in LMM’s books,  but they just seemed a little more caustic this time. For example, one girl says to Anne, “Amy hates you because she wanted to be my bridesmaid. But I couldn’t have anyone so fat and dumpy now, could I?” Even Anne said, “If I stayed any longer I’d either go crazy or slap Mrs. Gibson’s nutcracker face.”

However many moons ago I first read the Anne books, I then found everything else by Lucy Maud Montgomery I could read, and found a couple of books of her short stories. I don’t remember the titles now, but I remember thinking she was almost better at shorter stories than full-length books. This books almost seems like a collection of short stories. There are plot threads running throughout of Anne’s interactions with the Pringles, Katherine, and the ladies Anne boards with, but many of the chapters focus on isolated individuals or families. Some of their situations are comedic, some tragic. Almost all of them have some problem they want Anne to help with — or that she decides to help with unasked. She “begins to suspect…[she] is an inveterate meddler in other people’s business — always with excellent intentions, of course.” Some people like all the excess characters. I enjoyed some of them but I could have done with a few less.

But despite those caveats, there is much of the old Anne-ishness there. It was good to see her maturing and even getting into a “scrape” or two. Some of the dialogue is wonderful and some of the characters, particularly Katherine and Elizabeth, excellently drawn.

The only other quote I marked from the book was this: “Sarcasm, in man or woman, was the one weapon Anne dreaded. It always hurt her…raised blisters on her soul that smarted for months.” Such an apt description. May I always be careful of blistering anyone’s soul.

I’m curious: have you read this installment of Anne, and did you like it?

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of books.)

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

Wow, January has flown by — I can’t believe there is less that a week of it left. But I am glad — I look forward to February and Valentine’s Day, and then spring isn’t far behind!

Since last time I have read:

Snow Day by Billy Coffey, reviewed here.

Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery, reviewed here.

Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery, reviewed here.

The Anne books were read in conjunction with Carrie‘s third annual Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge. I just finished the next book in the series, Anne of Windy Poplars, and hope to review it later today or tomorrow.

I also made headway in 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith by Warren Wiersbe but admittedly set it aside to concentrate on the Anne books this month. I’ve been dabbling in it for a long while and need to make a dedicated effort to finish it.

I have a whole stack to choose from this next month. I don’t often accept requests for reviewing books, but something about Song of Renewal by Emily Sue Harvey spoke to me, so that will definitely be in the queue for this month. Also lined up are A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin, Faithful by Kim Cash Tate (won from Mocha With Linda‘s Booking the Holidays giveaways) and Just Between You and Me by Jenny B. Jones.

I also have on hand Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic, a biography of LMM by Irene Gammel. I wanted to read it in conjunction with the Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge but it is not likely I would finish it in time. But I would like to read it while the Anne books are still fresh in my mind. I haven’t decided yet whether to go ahead with it or save or for next year’s challenge. I also can’t decide whether to go on to Anne’s House of Dreams, which I was really looking forward to as, if memory serves, it was my second favorite of the series next to the first one, or to leave it for next year’s LMM challenge. The challenge ends this week, so I can’t do both by then…decisions, decisions!

Happy Reading!