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. 

A Year with Maud: Thoughts on Anne of the Island

I enjoyed Anne of the Island. 

Again, it was like visiting an old friend. While it doesn't land in the top Anne books for me, it still was fun and entertaining for the most part. 

One of my favorite parts is when Anne is able to visit the home of her birth parents. 

I had completely forgot about that happening. 

She is given letters that were written between her parents and it is the only thing she has ever owned that belonged to her mother. 

Other notable moments and quotes from this book: 

"It is never pleasant to have our old shrines desecrated, even when we have outgrown them."

"We mustn't let next week rob us of this week's joy."

When Ruby is dying I really appreciated the exchange she and Anne had. 

"I think, perhaps, we have very mistaken ideas about heaven- what it is and what it holds for us. I don't think it can be so very different from life here as most people seem to think. I believe we will just go on living, a good deal as we live here- and be ourselves just the same- only it will be easier to be good and to follow the highest. 

All the hindrances and perplexities will be taken away, and we shall see clearly. 

Don't be afraid Ruby."

There is the character of Aunt Jamesina in this book and she can be very funny. 

When Anne is speaking to her of Phil...

"I can't understand her- she beats me. She isn't like any of the girls I ever knew, or any of the girls I was myself."

"How many girls were you, Aunt Jimsie?"

"About half a dozen, my dear."

And of course my favorite part of the entire book is when Anne and Gilbert finally confess their love for each other and we get those wonderful words that the movie used for the end of Anne of Avonlea, 

"I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want you."

A Year With Maud: Thoughts on Anne of Avonlea

I have gotten ridiculously behind on my Anne posts. I have been keeping up with my Year With Maud, I just haven't got around to writing about it. I have enjoyed every minute of it though!

My thoughts after reading Anne of Avonlea: 

Anne of Avonlea definitely feels like it has a lot more "filler" than Anne of Green Gables did. LMM did this in a lot of her Anne books. Sometimes there seems to be more information about other characters and side stories than there is about Anne. 

That might bug some people... but somehow it didn't bother me because I enjoyed the other characters and their side stories. 

In this book we meet little Paul Irving who seems to be the male version of Anne. I really enjoy him and the romantic story between his father and Miss Lavender. 

I liked how Paul Irving is given a 'catchphrase'. She does that with Davey too.

Paul Irving: "You know."

Davey: " I want to know."

I also loved Mr. Harrison. It's a shame that in the movies Gilbert is given most of Mr. Harrison's lines as he is not in the film. 

However, I would always want more Gilbert! I will be writing a post (hopefully soon) about Gilbert Blythe. So stay tuned for that one!

Some of my favorite quotes from Anne of Avonlea:  

" I think an old, deserted house is such a sad sight," said Anne dreamily, "It always seems to me to be thinking about its past and mourning its old time joys.

How lonely and sorrowful it must feel! Perhaps they all come back on moonlit nights... the ghosts of little children of long ago and the roses and the songs... and for a little while the old house can dream it is young and joyous again."

This spoke to me because I always feel this way when I see old houses. If they are abandoned and crumbling even more so.. I can't help but wonder who lived there, when it was built, what happened to it, how has it come to be abandoned...

"Have you ever noticed, " asked Anne reflectively, " that when people say it is their duty to tell you a certain thing you may prepare for something disagreeable? Why is it that they never seem to think it a duty to tell you the pleasant things they hear about you?"

This quote goes nicely along with one of my favorite exchanges in the book when Mr. Harrison is talking to Anne and says that he tells the truth no matter what. Anne says, "But you don't tell the whole truth- you have told me a dozen times that my hair was red but you have never once told me that I had a nice nose." He says she knows that without him telling her. She says, "I know I have red hair too. So there's no need of telling me that either."

He goes on to tell her that is just who he is- that he has a habit of being outspoken and that people mustn't mind him.

To this she says, " What would you think of a person who went about sticking pins and needles into people and saying, 'Excuse me, you mustn't mind it. It's just a habit I've got'."

I LOVE this exchange.  

Also, while I don't mind watching Anne grow up and becoming more serious (something we all do but it seems that a lot of people hate it when literary characters do it) I love that you do see that "old Anne" peek through occasionally. 

I believe it was Diana who says to her in this book, " Anne Shirley, you're only pretending to be grown up. I believe when you're alone you're as much a little girl as you ever were."

Another thing that stood out was how Anne started the school year with so many "theories" and ideals. They were good ones but not always practical. I think we all go into parenthood that way. I knew I wouldn't do this or that and then I became a parent and realize you will never be as a good a parent as you are when you haven't had kids yet. So I liked the passage, 

"School opened and Anne returned to her work with fewer theories but considerably more experience."

Overall, I again really enjoyed re-visiting this book. I don't love it as much as Anne of Green Gables, but I feel like it builds onto the story well.

A Year with Maud

If you follow me on Instagram you will already know that I am planning a 2017 read-a-long of all of Lucy Maud Montgomery books, journals, and magazines. 

I have a lot of them. I own every novel of hers, as far as I know I have all of her short story collections. I have two of her journals, one biography, one scrapbook like compilation, and a handful of Kindred Spirits magazines.

I will be posting here and on Instagram at the end of each month to outline which things I will be trying to read during the following month. If you would like to I would love it if you joined me!

If you want to just read a few of her novels that is great! I will be finishing the Anne of Green Gables series very early on in the year but if you want to read it throughout the year I would love for you to come back to my posts after each book!

It has been way too long since I have read through her works and I have never read the 2nd journal (I just got it for Christmas). I am hoping to get to the rest of her journals later but for this year I am focusing on the ones I own. 

So, for January I will be trying to get through....

I will be starting Anne of Green Gables and hoping to get through Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, and Anne of Windy Poplars. 

I will begin the first volume of her journals but will be reading this over the course of a couple of months. 

I will be reading the Winter 2000/2001 edition of Kindred Spirits. 

As I read I will post my thoughts. I also have a new journal that I will be writing in throughout this journey and I will share the things that I record there. 

I will be posting a lot to Instagram so make sure you follow me there if you want to see that!

Let me know if you plan on joining in!

Happy reading!