I’ve recently been rereading the eight-book Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery, for the fourth (fifth? sixth?) time. As always with Montgomery’s work, I love reading her fiction as informed by her journals (and her journals as informed by her fiction…it’s cyclical). I recently finished book six, Anne of Ingleside, and had…a LOT of thoughts. I reread Montgomery’s journals quite recently, and there was a lot that came to bear in this book.
The last time I read Anne of Ingleside, it was my favorite of the series, though I couldn’t have told you why. On this read, I’m not sure it still is—but I know why it was. This changed significantly in the several years since I last visited it.
Anne has grown up by now, and is the happy mistress of gracious Ingleside, with her successful doctor husband Gilbert, five children (number six on the way at the beginning), faithful maid (and surrogate co-parent) Susan Baker, and a respected place in society. The stories mostly revolve around Anne’s children, their little adventures and childhood heartbreaks.
I realized for the first time in this reread that two completely different worldviews are at odds in this book. The setting and framework is optimistic and idyllic; the episodic stories are grim and disillusioned. Even though this is book six of eight, this is the very last novel Montgomery ever wrote, and her later journals show her deeply struggling with depression and dissatisfaction with aspects of her life. Anne of Ingleside is a war between Montgomery’s optimism and pessimism. Continue reading “Book Review: Anne of Ingleside”
I don’t find very many books at random anymore—I’ve become a “request and pick up” reader rather than a library browser, mostly. But…sometimes I’m short on books and that requesting does take time. And sometimes I find a gem just by picking it up. Such is how I found Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven, a troubled teen story with teens with unusual troubles.
Continuing the pattern of last year, I’m making a good run through the Newbery winners. I picked Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata in part because it also serves my diversity challenge, centering on a Japanese-American family living in Georgia in the 1950s. There was some exploration of that dynamic…but it was also the most unrelentingly depressing Newbery I’ve read yet!
I finished out last year’s Newbery reading by reading the (almost) most recent book on the list. The 2015 winner, Crossover by Kwame Alexander, sat at the top of the list all year, until I finally added 2016’s winner in December. A basketball story, I had some doubts about this one—and if I’d realized the format, I would have had more! But it was surprisingly enjoyable.
I think I’ve managed a first for me in my challenge reading. I put The Square-Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood on my random To-Read list on my phone (I think I stumbled on a blog post review while at work—more on that later, and why it really was work). I requested it from the library without remembering it clearly—and found myself stumbling accidentally into a parallel universe novel!