It’s a little sad coming to the end of a beloved series, and this is a sad book to close the series off. I always come away from this book glad and a little verklempt at the same time. We’ve been building to the Great War, and Montgomery finally dives in, with details from the homefront aspect of fighting, which gives a new perspective to a war novel. This book, like so many others, is haunted by the soldiers who sacrificed and the families who […]

This is perhaps the oddest of the Anne books, because it has the least Anne in it. Yet as a kid, I really enjoyed reading about the Meredith kids, so Rainbow Valley had a winning way about it for me. And surprisingly, as an adult, this book still holds up for me, though there were a few startling moments I did not remember. John Meredith is the new minister for the Four Winds Presbyterian Church, and he brings with him a lively and spirited family: […]

Family life is a hard sell, but L.M. Montgomery, relying on her strengths, manages to pull off a chronicle of Anne’s family life as the “chatelaine” of Ingleside, the new family home in Four Winds. Through her traditional use of anecdotes strung together, Montgomery pulls together a life that is rich and exciting for the Blythe family, including the next generation—her children. The stories are delightful and engaging, with the humor that comes when Montgomery writes about children (thankfully omitting the obnoxiousness of the Davy […]

Now that I’m halfway through the Anne series, I can say that it’s been a deeply delightful journey. The second half of the series chronicles Anne’s adult married life, and I’ll be curious to see how reading it for the first time since I’ve been married will change my views on the next four books. Anne has finally married her beloved Gilbert Blythe and they have set off to start their new life together in Four Winds Harbor, far from her beloved Green Gables. As […]