lory_enterenchanted's Reviews (582)

Beautiful evocation of the spirit of a great mystic that keeps her real and relatable…I’ve not yet read the original text but after I do I’ll reread this and write more thoughts. 

Had a notion I wanted to reread the first two books and go on in tge series. But I got bored with the battle parts in Crystal Cave and gave up. 

I was interested after reading LMMs bio but after a few stories and poems I’d had enough. Blatant repackage of random stories to try to cash in on a popular character. And I don’t even like Anne much after she gets married and gives up writing. She’s dull. 

The only poem that wasn’t unbearably twee was the last one   More of Walters war writing could have been interesting. 

Really fascinating theory on attention styles and how we can train ourselves to be more flexible, with benefits to our health in all kinds of ways. I am excited to try it!

Not really a krimi. It was the characters of the sheep that kept me going, plus the German language practice (read out loud with my husband). 

Just a delight for anyone who enjoys Shakespeare, full of insight into character and craft, along with priceless behind-the-scenes anecdotes. I paired it with a viewing of the RSC production of The Comedy of Errors, which was great fun. (I was not up for watching a tragedy this year.) 

An interesting read to follow up Montgomery’s biography, The Gift of Wings. The later Anne books were not my favorites as a child, I preferred the ones before her marriage. Her children just aren't so interesting to me as characters - including Rilla. But I was intrigued by this as a contemporary account of the Great War in Canada, and it did provide a unique view there. 

Based on later events, it was hard to stomach Montgomery's anti-pacifism and anti-Hun sentiments, totally ignoring the irony that the hated Emperor was a cousin of her own King.  Like most people, she clings to the notion that violence can be combatted by violence, whereas the "war to end war" merely set off a horrific century of war. It's so very tempting to believe that as humans we can fight evil, but fighting it only gives it strength. The question is how to suffer it in the right way, but that is a path few want to go down. It's not obviously heroic and provides no noble or inspiring gestures, at least not to begin with, only ugliness and incapacity. Yet it is the only way to freedom.

The most moving aspect is how Rilla grows through caring for a baby she takes in through a sense of duty - initially unable to love him, and doing her baby care "by the book," she can't keep up that sterile way for long, and learns that hugs and kisses are more important than avoiding germs. 

Though the book could have used a bit more attention in the editing department (there were some repetitive passages, some unnecessary detail, and some garbled sentences, at least in the e-book version) it kept me glued to the pages. Rubio does too much biographical speculating for my taste -- I hate it when biographers keep saying people "must have" felt or thought something! -- but there is a compelling story to be told through the actual facts, as well as the intriguing, frustrating holes in those facts.

LMM's story is an utter tragedy in the end, and yet out of this sad, lost life we have a legacy of books that still have the power to uplift and comfort so many. One of those literary riddles that has no answer.

I got about halfway through this. I was interested in the musical setting but there was not enough of that and too much of the main characters' silly psychological games. The heroine was impossibly beautiful and talented, but with the emotional intelligence of a shrimp.

A girl falls in love with a house. Will the boy-man who adores her be able to win her away from Silver Bush? We'll find out in the next book, I expect.

Otherwise, this was super cozy reading, like a warm hug of a book. Dark, difficult things happen, but Pat has Silver Bush to comfort her, as well as the indefatigable Judy - who seems much more of a caregiver to her than her own parents, though she loves them. 

A bit too cozy were some of the names - including a friend named Jingle, a sister named Cuddles, and a dog named Snicklefritz was over the top, in my opinion. But as always in Montgomery, there are wonderful descriptions of the PEI landscape encompassing stories of the kind of close-knit but not always harmonious community that seems all too distant nowadays.

As for comparing Pat to other heroines, her one ambition is to care for her favorite places and people, her only talent is to love ... and as that is her choice and her passion, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, surely we could use more of that kind of passion in the world.