The end of January brings with it the end of Carrie‘s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge.

My plan in my initial post was to pick up where I left off last year in rereading the Anne books. I only committed to reading the next two, but I secretly was hoping I’d finish the last four so I could start off next year reading some of LMM’s other books. And just finished the last book, Rilla of Ingleside, yesterday afternoon.

Here is what I read with links to my reviews:

Anne’s House of Dreams, about Anne and Gilbert’s first year of marriage. Loved this — it’s vying with the first book, Anne of Green Gables, for my favorite of the series. Love the mixture of blissful first days together with sorrow, the familiar characters and new memorable ones in Captain Jim and Leslie Moore.

Anne of Ingleside, Anne as a mother of five children, with a sixth coming during the book. It’s neat to see Anne’s exuberance “tamed” a bit — maybe “matured” would be a better word. Most of the focus is on the children, and many of their misunderstandings are good reminders that things are processed differently by them.

Rainbow Valley focuses more on the children than Anne, but even more on a new set of children belonging to the new widowed minister. Not one of my favorites of the series, but still a good read.

Rilla of Ingleside focuses mainly on Anne’s youngest daughter and her maturing from kind of a vain frothy teen to a sweet, mature woman during the course of the hardships of WWI. Love this book.

Seeing less of Anne as the books go on reminds me of someone’s lament once over seeing pictures of only their friend’s children in Christmas cards, “But we want to see you, too!” But Carrie pointed out that LMM only kept writing about Anne at her publisher’s insistence, so she was probably getting tired of her by then, plus she was writing these books primarily to younger people, I believe, so it’s natural the focus would be on the youth.

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting these books again. Some of LMM’s rapturous descriptions and and the eccentricity of some characters is a bit over the top and seems more so each time I read them (whether that’s due to my advancing age or increased familiarity with the books, I don’t know), but there is still enough else that I really like about her that I can forgive that. There is a wholesomeness about them and a sweetness that in my opinion is just right without going overboard. I like the emphasis on the nobleness of doing good and right.

Thanks to Carrie for hosting! And stay tuned here tomorrow for the beginning of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge!