A Year with Maud: Anne of Windy Poplars

There were a lot of things I loved about Anne of Windy Poplars but it fell a little flatter than the rest for me. I think it felt a lot like filler until Anne and Gilbert could be together. But there were still things to love!

Some of my favorite moments: 

"Have you ever noticed how many different silences there are, Gilbert? The silence of the woods... of the shore.. of the meadows... of the night... of the summer afternoon.. all different because all the undertones that thread them are different."

" I was alone but not lonely. I held a series of imaginary conversations with imaginary comrades and thought out so many epigrams that I was agreeably surprised of myself."

" I hate to lend a book I love... it never seems quite the same when it comes back to me."

The character of Nora cracked me up... like when Anne said, 

"I've always liked washing dishes. It's fun to make dirty things clean and shining again."

"Oh, you ought to be in a museum," snapped Nora. 

There was one passage with a description of an oncoming storm that I thought was beautiful..

"A veiled hush had fallen over the world. All the young breezes that had been whispering and rustling so importantly along the Dawlish road had folded their wings and become motionless and soundless. Not a leaf stirred, not a shadow flickered. The maple leaves at the bend of the road turned wrong side out until the trees looked as if they were turning pale from fear. 

A huge cool shadow seemed to engulf them like a green wave.. the cloud had reached them. 

Then the rain, with a rush and sweep of wind. The shower pattered sharply down on the leaves, danced along the smoking red road and pelted the roof of the old forge right merrily."

We meet Katherine Brook in this book. She is all prickles and then we really get to know her. 

" I want to travel... I've always wanted to go and find it... I want to see the Southern Cross and the Taj Mahal and the pillars of Karnak. I want to KNOW, not just believe, that the world is round."

I relate so much to Katherine in that moment. 

So, overall I enjoyed this book. It is written in mostly letters to Gilbert so it is very different from the others.