What reason do you have to be grateful for books?

There are so many reasons, where do I begin? As a young kid, fairy tales were my first literary love, a metaphor for experiences I couldn’t name but could feel: the trial of good and evil, of helplessness, loneliness, abandonment, wandering in the dark, concealed identity, offering hope in the magic and power granted to the smallest and youngest of heroes, ending happily. And in essence that is still what I love most in fiction: truth expressed, darkness faced, light found.

Then there is the world of non-fiction, everything I could want to find out in words and pictures. Really it’s a miracle. All I have to do is go to the library and the world is there before me. And there is challenge: ideas, thoughts asking me to grow and reconsider and integrate new information. In practical terms: I learned to knit from a kid’s book on knitting. What else can do all that while I’m still in my pj’s?

Is there any author for whose existence you are especially grateful?

There are too many to list, but I’ll start with I.L. Peretz who wrote “Bontsha the Silent” and thereby taught me the piercing power of irony and the use of magical realism when I was eleven and didn’t quite get it but read the story over and over. Stephen Levine introduced me to Buddhist concepts with Healing into Life and Death, especially the section on inviting one’s demons in for tea and seeing them transform into suffering children. I’ve written here about Up Front by Bill Mauldin. And of course I can’t leave out L.M. Montgomery or Louisa May Alcott who were my companions in childhood with their heroines who wanted to be writers and succeeded.

What positive aspect does reading have in your day?

Reading connects me to others and when I choose wisely it connects me in the best way. Fiction brings me into a community of writers, even if I don’t know them personally, who are all engaged in the same work of making art, speaking truth, enlarging understanding, bringing love and light into the world. The same is true of blogs, with the added benefit of keeping me current in the many areas that interest me: literature, science, psychology, feminism, art, the environment and more.

What good things has reading taught you?

Again too many to list, but I would say the most important thing is that we are not alone in this world, and the meaning of that on many levels.

Is there any particular book that’s special to you?

I was looking around my bookshelves to answer this and realized I hadn’t mentioned poetry. I was reminded of this by The Norton Anthology of Poetry, which I’ve been dragging around since I was in university, and that reminded me of Mary Oliver who is my favourite poet overall though I love this line by May Sarton: “Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!” It’s from a poem that encapsulates everything I could say about writing:

Now I Become Myself

Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before–”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

What are you most happy to have read recently?

Everything! Every book that I finish is a gift. I try to keep up with blogging about them, but often I feel so full hearted with what I’ve just read, it seems like too much work to translate the thought, emotion, and plain gratitude into words, at least for a while, until it all sinks in and settles. But I love this opportunity to think and write about my love of books. So thank you Litlove for starting this meme. In browsing my shelves, I just came across The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales (edited by the inimitable Angela Carter who taught me about nerve), which I’ll start reading aloud to my eight year old.

On Sunday, November 22nd, 2009, the Green Gables house – a national park in Cavendish, PE- played host to the Olympic Torch. The 2010 Winter Olympics are being held in Vancouver this year, and Cassie Campbell-Pascal, a well-known female hockey player and relative to L. M. Montgomery, carried the torch in a buggy ride on the Green Gables grounds. You can read more about this in the following articles:

At Green Gables, the flames arrive in period style
by Roy MacGreggor, The Globe and Mail, November 23rd, 2009

Anne of Green Gables house plays host to the torch
By Brian McInnis, Charlottetown Guardian, November 22, 2009

Managing the kids/teen sections in a bookstore can be a lot of fun. I love helping them find new books or re-connect with old favourites.  I also love to sit down and play with the little ones, showing them games and cool new toys.  But through all the chat and play there is the underlining  expectation that I’m well read in both children and teen books.  It’s an expectation that I am well aware of and one that I strive to achieve.

Everytime a customer asks me about a book that I haven’t had the chance to read yet my response is “No, not yet.  I’ve heard from other customers that _______.  It’s on my list though”.  Now I find myself having to actually write down various book in list format.  The trick is to stick to my list and not get distracted by pretty and alluring covers!

Here’s my list so far…

The Maze Runner by James Dashner- currently reading

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Road to Bliss by Joan Clark

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

The Blythes Are Quoted by L.M. Montgomery

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

This is just a few of them. Thank god it doesn’t take very long to read books in the 3-5 and 6-8 age groups!

Are you reading a book you think I should put on my list? Let me know!

Stay tuned for “My Year in Books: 2009″.  I’ll be posting this list at the end of the year.

I did it! After putting it off for years, I finally finished all the Anne books. I have to admit, the books about Anne’s children just do not interest me as much as the books about Anne herself, but I really wanted to get through the whole series. A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and started reading Rilla of Ingleside, and while it wasn’t the most interesting volume in the series, it was alright.

Unlike Anne, Rilla has no ambition to speak of and does not feel ashamed to admit it. She just wants to be pretty and have fun. A little vain and a little proud, Rilla is nonetheless a very loyal sister and friend. At 15, Rilla has nothing on her mind but enjoying herself at her first dance, and that pesky war is not going to ruin her evening.

But when the war truly breaks out and Canada is called upon to send her troops, Rilla finds that there’s more to life than worrying about your lisp when a handsome boy takes you for a moonlit walk.

Like Anne, Rilla is a full of heart and makes the best of any situation. When her brothers leave for Europe to fight, Rilla is left to wait and comfort her mother, but she does not do so with her hands crossed. Though she wants nothing more than to be the wife of Kenneth Ford when he returns from the battlefront, Rilla grows and matures into a capable young woman.

Like many of L.M. Montgomery’s stories, the book is a bit preachy in parts, but the anxiety and terror brought on by the war serves to balance the many references to the divine. Rilla’s story is interesting as an account of the lives of women left at home during WWI. She experiences loss and grief but stands firm to support those she loves, even when the other girls call her cold.

Overall, I liked the book, but I could have done without some of the passages about the Glen St. Mary crowd.

—

After I finished Rilla, I told myself that I would also finish Robin McKinley’s The Door in the Hedge.

I started this four story collection of fairy tale retellings a few months ago, but didn’t get around to reading the final story until yesterday.

McKinley’s second published book, the collection includes “The Stolen Princess,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Hunting of the Hind,” and “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”. The characters in the stories are often unnamed, identified by their descriptions and titles and representing the sort of archetypal personalities often featured in traditional fairy tales.

Of the four stories, I enjoyed “The Hunting of the Hind” most of all, but though I like fairy tales, I prefer McKinley’s novels. The stories almost feel incomplete, which might explain why McKinley often notes that her stories have a tendency to turn into full-length novels when she starts to work on a short story collection. The descriptions are lush and airy, almost dreamlike, but I prefer a bit more depth.

That said, I still want to check out Water, and McKinley’s latest addition to the elementals story series, Fire.

Not many authors have come through with me from childhood. Ann M Martin (and her ghostwriters) and I parted ways awhile ago, just like RL Stine, Enid Blyton and John Grisham. Lucy Maud Montgomery, on the other hand, is my comfort food of literature – I read her for reasons similar, I’m guessing, to why people read Twilight. They make me happy inside, the pages melt away, they’re easy but kind of nourishing. However, unlike Ms Meyer, Maud could write, which makes her books ten times more satisfying. 

She’s most famous for Anne of Green Gables but my favourites are the Emily books. And I’m slowly pacing through the rest of the back catalogue. So when my parents went to Canada earlier this year – including a brief stay in Montgomery’s home of Prince Edward Island – I asked them to pick up the few novels that I haven’t read yet. Including Jane of Lantern Hill.

Jane is a standard LMM story, unloved child searching for parental love (and finds it in the picturesque setting of PEI). And even though it’s not up to the standards of my favourites (the Emilys, The Blue Castle, Kilmeny of the Orchard) it’s still utterly charming. There’s so much passion in these books, so much love of life and wonder at the world, that they make me want to be a better person. Neater, nicer, etc. Unfortunately it’s a feeling that doesn’t last forever – but it’s nice while it does.

Four of the women I know from the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum have started a joint blog called All The World’s Our Page. It’s joint venture across continents: two of the contributors are Australian, the other two American. Four like-minded people coming together from totally different parts of the world appeals to me, so I’ve added them to my reader.

Their initial posts explore the question of why each of them writes, and reading their answers got me thinking about my own. It’s not something I think about very often, because writing is just what I do. I can’t imagine not doing it, can’t fathom ignoring the stories that bubble up in my head or missing out on the rush that comes with putting together a sentence that feels just right.

I’ve always written, in one form or another. I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t part of who I am, though it’s been channelled in different ways at different times in my life. When I was nine or ten, I won ribbons for poetry. Around that time, I got hooked on Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, and dreamed of writing that well. Anne’s vividness inspired me, as my love for those books still does. When I was a teenager, I penned really awful romantic short stories. As an adult, my writing energies went into teaching others to put coherent sentences together in my role as a high school English teacher. The stories still brewed in my mind, though I did little more than play with them here and there.

The decision to stop dabbling and get serious about writing came suddenly. The morning of my 30th birthday, my husband woke me up to come and see the news. Planes had just flown into the World Trade Centre and North America was in shock. For me, the double whammy of a milestone birthday and that violent reminder that life is short was the push I needed to put my butt in a chair and write. Every day. I joined the forum immediately after that and began learning about the craft. And I wrote. I wrote while my child slept, while her dad took her out to have fun without me, and whenever I could carve out a few minutes.

Since then, I’ve written an ‘under the bed’ book that probably will never see the light of day, completed a manuscript that’s had good feedback but hasn’t found a home yet, and am about a third of the way into my new MS, a story that’s a big challenge to write but is really exciting, too. I keep writing every day, even if some days it’s not working and in the end all I write is an email to a friend. So really, I suppose the short answer to the subject of this post, if I need one other than “Because I can’t not write” is “Because of LM Montgomery and Al-Qaeda.” Bet you’ve never seen those two in the same sentence before.

LM Montgomery's writing desk at the site of her home in Cavendish, PEI

I can hardly believe it thanks to the way my year started, but I almost think I have a shot at this 52 Books in 52 Weeks goal.  I’ve gotten behind on reviews here, since a lot of books I’ve been reviewing for Tales From the Hollow Tree anyhow, and my life has gotten sadly chaotic lately—not that that’s much of an excuse, life has a tendency to do that every time we turn around, doesn’t it?

I’ve worked myself up to having read 4o books this year, though, just a dozen books shy of my ultimate goal—with that exact number of weeks left, as a matter of fact, so you see, I really do have a chance here, especially since I’m well on my way through a few books at this very moment.  I’ll let you wander over to the Hollow Tree if you want to read about YA Fantasy books, but these are a few of the other things I’ve been finishing off lately:

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery

Still really enjoying browsing slowly through the Anne books.  This was about the point where my attention would wander when I was younger—Gilbert wasn’t in it at all, and in my first, single-track-mind reading of this series, that was all I wanted to pay attention to.  It amazes me how many kinds and types of people L.M. Montgomery was able to write, though.  The latter part of this book, especially, feels like little more than a sampling of every-day humanity, though, and I think that’s why Montgomery’s books are as lasting as they are, because people don’t really change all that much, and Anne’s view of the sweet to the absurd is such a clear, kind way.  It’s like what I heard the actor who played Kirk (the town oddity) on Gilmore Girls say once about the creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, that she loved each one of the characters, even the odd ones, and that’s what made the characters so great.  I think the same is true for Montgomery.  She and Anne both love the range of humanity they’re presented with, and it shows.

A Book of Luminous Things edited by Czeslaw Milosz 

I’ve been trying my best to get back into reading poetry this year. In fact, the only New Year’s Resolution that I can actually remember, was to read a poem a day.  I failed pretty miserably in this, considering  Milosz’ book is the same one I cracked open on January 1st and it took me until mid-September to finish reading through it.  I’m glad I finally did, though.  This book was given to me in high school as a Christmas present from a good friend of mine, and every once in a while I’d open it up and read a poem or two, but I’d never have the forethought to actually read the thing through, which is a shame, because it is organized beautifully.  This was, quite honestly, the first collection of poems I’ve read straight through that wasn’t from a single author, but Milosz has it divided into segments, or “chapters” with introductions, that make it a truly enjoyable read.  I admit, too, that part of my love for it has to do with the fact that so many of the poets included are California poets, and there’s a certain flavor to Californian poetry that simply doesn’t  come from anywhere else, just like there’s a flavor to Russian novels or Italian opera.  It just is.  And that little taste of California is something that I always have, and always will love.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I had to give in to this one, once I saw the commercials for the movie start to show. The idea was to read it in time to see the film, and while I did that, I haven’t seen the movie yet.  That’s okay with me, though, I’m sure I will in time.  This book… hm.  I can understand completely why so many people recommended it so highly to me, because it’s a beautiful read.  I enjoyed just about every moment of it, because it swallows you up and keeps you in Clare and Henry’s world pretty fully, and Niffenegger’s handle of language and even more so of the timelines involved in the story—an impressive feat in and of itself.  I have to confess myself a little disappointed by the ending, though—I can’t tell you exactly what disappointed me, as it’s a big-time spoiler, but let’s just say I would have hoped more for Clare.  Really a gorgeous book, though, all in all, and definitely worth the read.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

This was one of those books that I was dying to read when I first heard about it… but then I kept passing it up at the bookstore for other things.  Or maybe I’m the only one who ever does that.  I admit, being broke and book-loving does not always mix supremely well together, so sometimes I run into conundrums like this.  The minute I saw this at the library, though, I snapped it up as quickly as I could.  I was due for some Austen-spin-offy fiction, having just read through the gamut of the master herself, and this fit the job nicely.  It was a bit odd that the focus was so much on Colin Firth as Darcy, rather on Darcy as Darcy, (like the outtake from Bridget Jones’ Diary where Bridget interviews Colin Firth as Colin Firth—if you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend) but maybe I only feel that way because I think Mr. Firth is much more like Darcy in the book in… well, almost every P&P-ish adaptation movie I’ve seen him in, than he is in the actual BBC production.  But that’s just my own personal thing. I can’t get too excited about Dracy jumping into a lake—I thought that scene was actually pretty silly.

Really, though, this was a fun book, all about a girl who treats every relationship (even the passing, childhood ones) as if they’re going to end up at the alter, and the Darcy-esque fellow she snags by the end is a perfect combination of stuffy and sweet.

Now I’m going to duck and hide as all the BBC Pride and Prejudice fans throw old vegetation at me.  Ah well, I stand by my words.  Colin Firth continues to get better and better, that’s all I’m saying.

There are Anne fans all over the world, as evidenced yet again by a recent L.M. Montgomery conference in Uppsala, Sweden.

Montgomery celebrated in Sweden by Jocelyne Lloyd, The Journal Pioneer, September 9, 2009

Here’s a related article:
Anne of the world Editorial in The Journal Pioneer, September 9, 2009

Something exciting happened yesterday.  I received an email from Darren Garnick, a reporter at the Boston Herald named, who asked me a couple questions about Anne of Green Gables.  He was writing an article about Cavendish Figurines‘ “Dress up as Anne” photo booth at the Confederation Bridge.  Unfortunately, I’d never visited the booth during my trip, in spite of crossing the Confederation Bridge.  I guess that means I’ll have to go back to PEI!    Darren asked to interview me about Anne and included the interview in his Boston Herald Blog “Working Stiff.”

Here are Darren Garnick’s three articles on Anne of Green Gables and some of his photos:

Boston Herald: For $2, you can be “Anne of Green Gables”

Jeannette Arsenault next to the Dress Up as Anne wall

Boston Herald Blog: “Dress for Success: Why can’t Lexington and Concord be this photo-op friendly?
(features an interview with me)

Anne of Green Gables Costumes

Tacky Tourist Photos: Third runner-up in the “Anne of Green Gables” lookalike contest

Here’s Darren himself as Anne Shirley!

Darren of Green Gables

I hope you enjoy the articles as much as I did!

I’m way behind in chonicling my books, and I’m not going to be giving a full review for all twelve that I’ve missed thus far, but I’ll certainly tell you about a couple of them.

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor

I really wanted to like this—I loved The Looking Glass Wars, and Beddor’s spin on the hows and whys Charles Dodgson was “wrong” about what Wonderland is really like.  The sequel though… I just didn’t enjoy it.  Beddor seems all-too taken with his own villains, and he enjoyed writing their scenes much more than I enjoyed reading them.  I found them to be a fairly sickening bunch, not even the type that are particularly enjoyable to hate, just plain vile.  They also seemed to occupy more than half of the novel, so the glimpses of the heroes that I really did enjoy… well they were still wonderful, but just not enough to counteract the bad taste the baddies were constantly leaving in my mouth.

Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

Another disappointment.  I really didn’t know what to expect going into this novel—I came by the series at a big discount sale and decided to try it, and while it was a fairly quick read… I just didn’t enjoy it much.  The faerie world was evocative and somewhat seducing, but the human world the main character was a part of… well that seemed almost as much fantasy as the other.  Her human friends came off as bad caricatures of 90s punks, and while I know that kids can be pretty hard-boiled about some things, I just didn’t buy it.  Also there are just some things played into here that do not appeal to me.  One of the main characters is obviously on a path towards… well, something that I don’t particularly care to see.  I may finish the series, since I already bought it, but it doesn’t come highly recommended from me.

Emma by Jane Austen

I’ve already mentioned that this one was a struggle for me this go around.  I don’t think it’s the book’s fault, I’m just not in a place in my life at the moment to have much patience with Miss Woodhouse.  Which is odd, because before reading this, I would have told you that it was (because it really is) one of my favorite Austen novels.  I’m starting to wonder, though, if I could enjoy it again.  The first time you read Emma is fabulous, because you follow along with her thoughts and (if you haven’t seen the film adaptations or paid too much attention to them) you more or less think like she does, expect her to be right about things, and then you’re taken by surprise by how things turn out, just as she is.  The second time is always fun, too, because then you can pinpoint all the things she’s missing as she misses them.  The third time, though… it just didn’t seem quite as fun.  I knew all the steps a bit too well.  I did love Jane Fairfax more than I have previously.  I wish, though, that I hadn’t watched both the films (Gwyneth and Kate) right before starting this.  Maybe that was a factor.

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Just delicious.  I really can’t remember half of these books, so reading them again, a little older and able to appreciate more than just Gilbert Blythe (though I do still appreciate him quite a bit) is really a lovely experience.  I wound up copying down half the things Miss Lavender said to write them up in my quote book.  People don’t talk like this anymore… they can’t even really get away with it in fiction, which is a little unfortunate.

Lexi James and the Council of Girlfriends by Melissa Jacobs

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this.  The first third of it seemed mind-numbing chick-lit, with far too much detail about what every single character was wearing every single time they showed up on the scene… but it had a sweet, heartwarming, and nicely empowering ending.  Good stuff.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (audio, read by Jim Dale)

I had never listened to Harry Potter on audio—I very much like hearing the actors’ voices in my head when I read voices—but my brother and I were setting off on a long roadtrip, and he wanted to freshen up his memory of the fifth book before seeing the sixth movie, and it was a lot of fun to listen to in the car.  I still prefer reading the books on my own, but as a group activity, the books on tape are lots of fun.

The Hourglass Door by Lisa Magnum

Sadly another disappointment.  This is being hailed all over as being “better than Twilight,” but I’m afraid that is just ridiculous.  I really wish I could say it was better than Twilight, because it’d be nice to see a college-bound multi-tasking, smart, responsible girl knock down Bella Swan and all her willingness to basically give up her life before she hits the age of twenty.  But while we keep being told that the main character is this fantastic, special, smart, strong girl… we really don’t see it at all.  I have some more nit-picky opinions about this novel concerning understudies and legendary artists and whatnot… but they’re a bit spoilery, so I’ll just leave it at that.

So yes, my reading of late has sadly not been of the most inspiring type, but I’m very much enjoying what I’m reading at the moment.  I’m continuing with Anne, of course, in Anne of the Island, and I’ve moved from Jane Austen to Jane Eyre, a revisitation to what really probably is my favorite book of all time… though Persuasion likes to vie for position.  I’ve also started (finally, finally) to read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, which all my friends rave about, because I’d really like to finish it before I see the film.  And while I’m only a couple of chapters in, it really is delicious.  Every line.

Sullivan Entertainment has posted a recap of the Avonlea Convention (AvCon) events, which took place last weekend.  It looks like so much fun!  The group visited all sorts of Anne of Green Gables and L.M. Montgomery locations and got to hear stories from a number of Road to Avonlea cast members.

AvCon Recap

Avcon Photos

Official AvCon Website

Here are some articles on the new play “Maud of Cavendish” by Anne Kathleen McLaughlin about L.M. Montgomery. The play will be performed at the Green Gables House, which is a National Historic Site in Cavendish, P.E.I.

Green Gables backdrop for Lucy Maud play by CBC News, cbc.ca, Friday, July 17, 2009.

In memory of Maud: Montgomery Theatre’s second season begins tonight by Nancy MacPhee, The Journal Pioneer, July 16, 2009.

L.M. Montgomery (known as Lucy Maude to fans) is the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables and other children’s books about quirky orphaned or semi-orphaned intelligent, imaginative girls. Lucy Maude herself lived with her mother until a late (for

L.M. Montgomery 1900

the time) marriage to a minister whose occupation required her to stifle her lively mind (at least outwardly) and to endure many boring teas as well as move out of her beloved PEI to Ontario. Adding insult to injury, her husband was mentally ill, something she covered up on his behalf, as well as her own bouts of depression.

Like all successful and well merchandised (through movies, dolls, tv spin-offs and much else) authors whose copyright has expired, there is always another buck to be extracted from her journals and notes. Penguin is set to release The Blythes Are Quoted in Oct/09, a collection of short stories derived from the archives at The University of Guelph. Die hard Lucy Maud fans will enjoy, I’m sure, with some surprises. Though Lucy Maud wrote that it’s as easy to write about the sky as it is the privy, these stories contain plenty of privy:

From Quill and Quire

[T]he stories don’t reflect the sunny tone readers might expect from Montgomery. Several themes in The Blythes Are Quoted are inescapably grown-up: adultery, illegitimacy, hatred, revenge, death.

In my experience, books put together from scraps unused by the author in the author’s lifetime are usually not very good, but I’ll probably read it just for the fun of seeing another side of Lucy Maud (who inspired me as a kid and many other Canadian writers, too!). However, I recommend the journals, which I read in PEI while working on my first novel. Her journals make fascinating reading and reveal the range and depth of her mind.

At the end of her life she lived in a part of Toronto that overlooks Lake Ontario. It’s a lovely place, originally the Village of Swansea, so named because it looked so much like Wales, and was one of the last two villages to be absorbed by the city in 1967. It’s about a 15 minute drive from my house.

catfish pond, Swansea (ON) by Alex Laney

H/T Bookninja

Quick Links:

HTML eBook of Anne of Green Gables

Plain Text eBook of Anne of Green Gables

Summary

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, unmarried middle-aged siblings who live together at Green Gables, a farm in the town of Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island, decide to adopt a boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia as a helper on their farm. Through a series of mishaps, the person who ends up under their roof is a precocious girl of eleven named Anne Shirley. Anne is bright and quick, eager to please and talkative, but dissatisfied with her

name, her pale countenance dotted with freckles, and with her long braids of red hair. Although wishing she was named Cordelia, she insists that if you are to call her Anne, it must be spelt with an ‘E’, as it is “so much more distinguished.” Being a child of imagination, however, Anne takes much joy in life, and adapts quickly, thriving in the environment of Prince Edward Island. She is something of a chatterbox, and drives the prim, duty-driven Marilla to distraction, although shy Matthew falls for her immediately.

The rest of the book recounts her continued education at school, where she excels in studies very quickly, her budding literary ambitions and her friendships with people such as Diana Barry (her best friend, “bosom friend” as Anne fondly calls her), Jane Andrews, Ruby Gillis, and her rivalry with Gilbert Blythe, who teases her about her red hair and for that acquires her hatred, although he apologizes many times. Anne and Gilbert compete in class and Anne one day realizes she no longer hates Gilbert, but will not admit it but at the end of the book, they both become very good friends.

(Source of Summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Green_Gables)

Download free eBook of Anne of Green Gables from Project Gutenberg

So this week I’ve been busy with summer courses, taking some terrible second year math courses that I’ve put off for far too long. Math and I have never gotten along, a relationship I’ve always tried to make work, but always end up being utterly broken in spirit and deeply disappointed at life. And the class is full of know-it-alls who mumble during class about how eaaasy everything is, and scoff at questions others timidly ask. Okay, so I’m oozing with jealousy over how well they thrive in the math atmosphere, I totally admit it. *Sigh sigh sighhhh* Anyway, to try to help me through these tough times, I’ve gone on a library raid to buy used books and to borrow ‘em.

I bought $3.75 worth of discarded library books:

1. Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery, the only one I don’t have in the Emily series. It was still in great condition, the library stickers peeled off without leaving the stickiness and the library stamp was very faded, so all in all quite a nice find!

2. The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence. I think I’ve read this before when I was younger and I quite enjoyed it. Looking forward to re-reading it!

3. The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. I read The Queen’s Fool a long time ago, and I thought it was okay. Anyway, I’ve got it in hard cover, and it looks like new because it originally had all the library barcode stickers on this protective plastic. Once I snipped the plastic off ~ voila! A new-ish hardcover book!

4. A Handful of Stars by Janet MacLoed Trotter. Never read any of her books, but it sounds intriguing, and I’m always up for some good historical fiction.

5 . Looking at the Moon by Kit Pearson. In my time, there was a huge huge obsession about Kit Pearson (along with an equally huge obsession about Ella Enchanted), everyone read them! I remember starting on Awake and Dreaming, then reading A Handful of Time, then The Sky is Falling, then The Lights go on Again… haha. I love her novels. Especially A Handful of Time. Has anyone else read them? The one I have is still a little sticky from the old library stickers.

6. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce. I’ve only ever read Protector of the Small by Tamora Pierce and I thought it was okay. I heard so much about this particular ‘empress’ series so I thought I’d give it a try.

And I borrowed a few as well.

So far I’ve read Evermore by Alyson Noel. I picked this one because at the moment I’ve been thinking a lot about mediums and people who have abilities to communicate with spirits and have visions about the lives of other people through their touch or proximity with them. I’ve always believed that some of us have that special openness of the mind to be able to see the parallel dimension where the energy waves of ghosts could inhabit. Of course, there are many tv programs airing starring such people, and I’m always filled with such skepticism. Especially those “Ghost Hunter” shows, or those Sylvia Browne-Montel shows. Guilty Admission: I still, always, end up watching them (the ones where the detectives resort to the help of psychics to help them solve a case are soooo interesting!). Anyway, that’s why when I saw this book, I was thinking, “Hey! I’ve never read a book about a medium before. This could be interesting…”

When I flipped through the first chapters of the novel (it reads very fast), I felt I was reliving my experiences with Twilight.  Just the same type of dark mysterious doode who appears in a lonely girl’s life, filling her life with warmth, happiness…tulips. A guy who is frustratingly mysterious about himself, seems to be super-human in terms of intelligence, strength and beauty. Someone who watches over her… apprently has been, through eternity.  I think Alyson Noel might have been playing with the Twilight hype, but purposely setting up the novel to sound as if it might be a mere vampire-human girl romance, so that the climax of the story would be so much more the shocker ending. But I was on to it! Haha. Anyway, the romance was very, well, romantic. After all, it’s apparently been repeating through several life cycles. This totally reminds me of old chinese romances (the ones involving a heavenly deity and some mortal).

However, I wish she’d write more about Ever, the protoganist, and her ability to see other’s auras and why that was to be. Because Ever survived a car accident that killed her entire family but her, and when she survived, she was left with these psychic abilities. In the story, Noel suggests that Ever has met with other ghosts as well, but there isn’t much talk about if Ever really helped these spirits. The only spirit she does commune with is that of her younger sister, but that even seemed sort of thrown into the plot. The huge climatic ending itself was a tad bit disappointing.In fact, the whole novel is just about her trying to lose her abilities and refusing help from a fellow pyschic who could help her control her abilities. Maybe Alyson Noel was holding out until the next book? I hate it when they do that! That’s why I’m not into series…

All in all its basically just a romance story and with a subtheme about overcoming loss.

So, has anyone else read this? And do you think the red drink purposely described to sound like blood is some sort of ambrosia? I don’t remember if it was ever explained in the story. I think I might have read through it too fast near the end. Anyway this book wasn’t really for me. A smokin’ hot guy like Damen seems too good, too perfect… to be interesting. I did get the ocasional shivers about the eternal love thing, though. I’m still susceptible to sappiness like that, but I’ll only admit it on this anonymous online blog. =P.

Rating: 2/5 Hauntings

Here’s a short video on Anne and Gilbert, The Musical. The story is based on Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery. If you watch the video, then you will have a good sense of the show, and of course, you’ll want to go see it in person!

There’s also a Japanese version of the Anne and Gilbert video on YouTube.

Lastly, there are some great photographs of Anne and Gilbert, the Musical taken in 2008 by Louise Vessey, which are available for on viewing on Flickr.

A profile of a 102 year old book club that L.M. Montgomery was once a member.
The Maud squad: The creator of Anne of Green Gables was a member of the Hypatia Club, but that’s so last century. This club is still going strong after 102 years by Peter Scowen, The Globe and Mail, April 24, 2009.