kindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Rainbow Valley | L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Repost for @BarbaraJean
Next up in the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead our #LMMReread of Rainbow Valley & our #LMMAdjacent read of The Last of the Mohicans. @BarbaraJean will post check ins on Saturdays; full discussion of Rainbow Valley will be March 15 & for Last of the Mohicans it will be on April 12.
All are welcome to join in! Please let @BarbaraJean know if you want to be added to or removed from the tag
list.

BarbaraJean Thanks for re-posting! 2h

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BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years: 1918-1921 | Jen Rubio L.M. Montgomery

“I am almost worn out and feel as if the only thing that would do me any good would be to get away out in some lonely waste place and shriek at the top of my voice for half an hour.”
—July 22, 1919 (p. 173)

Same, Maud. Same.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMJournals

dabbe 🎯🎯🎯 17h

39 likes1 comment

BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

Next up in the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead: our #LMMReread of Rainbow Valley, and our #LMMAdjacent read of The Last of the Mohicans.

I‘ll post check-ins on Saturdays; the full discussion of Rainbow Valley will be March 15, and for Last of the Mohicans it will be on April 12.

All are welcome to join in! I‘ll post my tag lists for each book in the comments. Please let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be (or vice versa!)

LitsyEvents

BarbaraJean Rainbow Valley:
@julieclair, @TheAromaofBooks, @lauraisntwilder, @CogsOfEncouragement, @rubyslippersreads, @kwmg40, @JenLovesJT47

Rainbow Valley

BarbaraJean Last of the Mohicans:
@Daisey, @TheAromaofBooks, @julieclair, @lauraisntwilder, @rubyslippersreads, @JenLovesJT47

The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757

Daisey Looking forward to Last of the Mohicans! 2d

julieclair Looking forward to both of these! 2d

TheAromaofBooks Yay!! I'm in for both of these - or at least I've kept them from getting packed 😂 1d

34 likes5 comments

BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years: 1918-1921 | Jen Rubio L.M. Montgomery

This week‘s section was ROUGH and heartbreaking to read, and I‘m glad we‘re alternating between the journals and other books! A couple questions to get us started:

What stands out to you in LMM‘s description of her grief?
What stands out in her descriptions of Ewan‘s illness and her own response to it?
Are there other sections that you found interesting or meaningful?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMJournals

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

BarbaraJean This quote (and the preceding passage about their friendship) really struck me:
“I think what hurt me so keenly in these was the fact that there was no one left on earth to understand or note these things. In one letter... written one winter when I was not feeling well she said, ‘I tremble to think of what the world would be to me without you.‘
Oh, Frede, you never had to learn it. It is I who must find that out.”
(p. 131 - Mar. 23, 1919) 😭😭 2d

BarbaraJean Several times, I was struck (again!) by how judgmental LMM is. I also noticed her own fear of judgment, specifically about Ewan & what others would think if they knew his illness was other than only a physical ailment. It was interesting to see those two things side by side and feel there was likely a parallel there: she assumes judgment in part because of her own judgmental side.

“For Ewan's own sake and the childrens' the impression must not ⬇ (edited) 2d

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...get abroad that his mind was unbalanced. It would ruin his prospects. I talked to the people of his headaches and insomnia but I fenced the world from him as much as I could lest the other deadly thing should be suspected.” (Sept. 1, 1919: p. 149) vs. a comment like: “Flora is a stupid, uncultured, uninteresting woman but she has a heart of gold and she was kindness itself to us this summer.” (Aug. 3, 1919: p. 174) 2d

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BarbaraJean Also, I CRACKED UP over these two parts:

“I have a long way to go before I can believe that the spirits of the dead can spell out messages on the Ouija board or that they live in an eternal pink twilight on synthetic beef tea.” (March 29, 1919: p. 134)

“The McCombs are nice enough people but their cat is nicer.” (Aug. 3, 1919: p. 173) 2d

TheAromaofBooks Soooo many feelings in this week's section!! Wow! Can you imagine a worse year!? I think I had either not realized or maybe just forgotten that Frede died of the Spanish flu. So scary and fast. You can feel the shock and devastation on every page - to have just heard from someone and they were fine, and then 24hrs later to be told to come quickly because they're dying...!! It was hard to read. And I felt Maud's lament that she's too old to ⬇ 1d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) make another friend like that - the kind of person you've built a lifetime of memories with, and shared so much. 1d

TheAromaofBooks The sections about Ewan were in some ways harder to read, because it felt like so much of that grief LMM put on herself. Her obsession with appearances, combined with the lack of knowledge/empathy concerning mental health issues boxed her into a situation that was way worse than I feel like it would have been if it had happened today. I thought it was strange that they went to Massachusetts for the entire summer - was it just to keep Ewan away ⬇ 1d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) from the neighborhood?? It was also so hard to read the beginnings of the usage of various drugs to help with sleeping and getting through the day, knowing how destructive those will be over time. And I also felt bad for Ewan, who honestly seems like a perfectly nice guy (despite all the slagging he got in basically every biography). I think until this point he and LMM have been companionable and work partners, even if they haven't ⬇ 1d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) been passionate lovers. To go into this time of deep, deep depression and basically be told that it's your fault and you're a disgrace and have to be hidden away - ugh, so awful.

When you mentioned about LMM being really judgmental, it made me remember a footnote from the earlier section (pg47), which quoted a later journal entry of LMM's saying that her cousin James had no children and so “the old homestead of Hugh Montgomery will ⬇ 1d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) pass into other hands with this generation.“ The footnote points out that James actually had adopted three children. I was immediately struck by how LMM definitely seems like the type of person who would not have remotely considered adopted children inheriting the same as the farm “staying in the family.“ Her high view of the Montgomerys comes through frequently, and she definitely has a lot of feelings about “class“ and who belongs ⬇ 1d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) where.

It's interesting to me how deeply the idea of someone being “insane“ haunted LMM. She says on pg149 “Was my husband going out of his mind? He had every symptom given in the encyclopedia on that type of insanity. It was one of the things I had always had the most deeply rooted horror of.“

I wonder why it horrified her so much?? 1d

lauraisntwilder The week got away from me and I'm behind on my reading, but I'll come back and discuss when I get caught up! 1d

24 likes12 comments

BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years: 1918-1921 | Jen Rubio L.M. Montgomery

This week, we read the first part of volume 4 of the complete journals, where perhaps most significantly, LMM records her response to the end of WWI.

📚What are your thoughts on this week‘s section of the journals?
📚What sections or quotes stand out to you?

#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

BarbaraJean I was struck by her entry from Nov. 12, where she said she was “thankful—and bored!” The sudden end to the ups and downs, victories and reverses in the war, the feeling of NOT dreading the news—I can imagine how odd that must have felt to happen so suddenly, and what a strange void it must have left after she‘d been following the war news so closely and intensely for so long. It also made me wish I could feel bored about the news!!! (edited) 1w

TheAromaofBooks It does make sense in a way. When you go through something so intense and so all-consuming, you do feel a little lost when it's over, even if you also are glad haha I personally LOVED the story that she got from an old friend of her mother's - her mother so glad to see the old friend because she needed help - “What is your trouble?“ “Oh, little Lucy Maud is SO sweet and lovely today... and I've NO ONE to help me enjoy her!“ I love that so much!! 1w

TheAromaofBooks For some reason another story that stuck out to me was when she was talking about her Aunt Emily and how she's just kind of mean-spirited and doesn't even know it. “I recall some things that Aunt Emily said to me when I was a young girl that I can never forget - little poisoned arrows that have rankled ever since. Yet I have no doubt she forgets she ever said them and would be amazed if she were told of them.“ It just really made me think how ⬇ 1w

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TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) important it is to watch what we say to people because you never know when something is going to stick with them!

And I LOVED that the story in Rilla where Rilla yells at the movie theater for the girl to pull the knife out of her stocking - is a true story! That made me so happy because that story has always cracked me up. 1w

lauraisntwilder @TheAromaofBooks I find it so strange that she later went on to write a largely autobiographical series of books about a young orphan who is forever haunted by the mean things her mean, old relatives said about her while she was hiding under a table and that she would name that character EMILY. 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Yes!! I loved that story about her mother, and what a gift it was for her to hear it! It reminded me of the little packet of letters Anne receives when she visits her birthplace, giving her a glimpse of her mother's love and pride in little baby Anne. And I was so glad to discover that it was Frede who was the original for the movie theater story!! 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder Isn't it wild how much of LMM's life shows up in little bits and pieces in her fiction? I hadn't even made the connection between Aunt Emily and Emily the character. What a parallel. And LMM's comments about Aunt Emily are also echoed in Marilla's memories of cruel things said to her as a child. 1w

TheAromaofBooks @BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder - I have to say that the parts of this journal section that broke my heart a little were the ones where she talks about how important Frede is to her and how she doesn't know what she would do without that friendship. 😢 It's just so crazy how we have no idea what life is going to bring us, and how someone you think is going to be there to grow old with you might not be. But seeing how close they are - sooo sad!!! 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Ugh, YES. I keep a page flag at the outer edge of the week's reading, and I kept seeing the beginning of the next section, when she records Frede's death. It broke my heart every time she talked about her friendship with Frede, and I was reminded of how little time they had left together. 😭 1w

TheAromaofBooks This week's section is going to be so sad!!! 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks With the journals, I usually read 20-ish pages on M-F… but yesterday was a rough day and I couldn‘t bear to start this section, knowing how it begins! 6d

TheAromaofBooks That's usually what I do as well, but with the moving I have been wrapping up all my “chapter ish a day“ reads one at a time instead of trying to read a chapter out of a half dozen books 😂 So I am trying to read this entire journals section next and it's SO hard. And we can talk about this when we discuss this section, but I feel like one of the biographies kind of dissed LMM because she wrote more about her cat dying than Frede - but this has ⬇ 6d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) been SO powerful and emotional and it's pages long! It's been really interesting to read the full journals for myself because there have definitely been several interpretations of her journals in the various biographies we read that I have NOT agreed with. 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Yeah, this week's section isn't an easy one to binge 😢 I read just the first entry last night and discovered that it's 20-ish pages—and I also thought about that criticism of LMM writing such a long entry about her cat's death. I was inclined to dismiss the comparison/criticism at the time—sometimes things are just too difficult to write about. But the length & emotion of this entry made me even more mad at that biographer! 4d

28 likes14 comments

BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years: 1918-1921 | Jen Rubio L.M. Montgomery

“…think of all the fun you miss if you are non-excitable. There's nothing quite so wonderful as dancing around a blazing fire. What matter if it end only in gray ashes? And while walking is a sure and safe mode of locomotion it isn't half as exhilarating as flying, even if you do come down with a thud.”

This reminds me SO much of Anne! Doesn‘t Marilla use the same reasoning in reverse?!

#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

CSeydel Oh my gosh, I love this 1w

TheAromaofBooks I do think this is such a great example of different personality types. I'm definitely in the “walk even though it's boring“ camp haha 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Yeah, I tend to agree with Marilla a bit on this one--I tend to privilege the sure and safe modes of locomotion so as to avoid the thud 😂 1w

32 likes3 comments

BarbaraJean

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years: 1918-1921 | Jen Rubio L.M. Montgomery

“This is part of Montgomery‘s great gift as a story teller—she actually relived the moments as her pen traced them on the page… It would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of the journals as living text. Her life is literally in these pages and in the pages of her novels.”
#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I started Vol. 4 last night and really enjoyed the intro, as well as getting back into Maud‘s life. How‘s your reading coming?

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

JenlovesJT47 I haven‘t read any of the journals yet. Do you think it‘s essential to read them in order or does it matter? 2w

TheAromaofBooks I started the journal yesterday... a brief delay when I realized I had accidentally purchased Volume 5 instead of Volume 4 😂 But I am back on track now that I am in the right year!! 2w

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 Oh, I didn‘t realize you hadn‘t read any of the journals yet! Do you want to still be tagged for the journal posts? I don‘t think it‘s essential to start from the beginning instead of jumping in partway through, but it‘s probably helpful to have some context for her life (biographies, etc.)—she does refer back to previous events, people, places, etc. 2w

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BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Hahaha! I asked for volume 4 for Christmas and was annoyingly specific on my list, realizing how similar all the titles are—they‘re not super clearly marked by volume numbers! I was paranoid my husband would get volume 5 accidentally 😆 2w

JenlovesJT47 You can tag me, no problem. I got behind on reading the journals last year but I do have them downloaded already so I‘m going to start them soon. I love journaling myself so I‘m looking forward to these! 2w

JenlovesJT47 I have read quite a few biographies about her so I will try to start on the current one this week. She was such an interesting person! 2w

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 Sounds good! She WAS such an interesting person—and such a good storyteller that her journals really bring her to life. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as you read! 2w

35 likes7 comments

BarbaraJean

The Country of the Pointed Firs | Sarah Orne Jewett

Bonus info I somehow missed before:
There are four short stories related to Pointed Firs (I guess those are the “and other stories” in some editions!). I haven‘t read them yet, but I‘m planning to track them down to read in the next week or two. If you‘ve read them, or want to check them out & report back, please chime in with your thoughts! The stories are:
"The Foreigner"
"The Queen's Twin"
"A Dunnet Shepherdess"
"William's Wedding"

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, monalyisha, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

BarbaraJean #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent 2w

TheAromaofBooks I ended up purchasing this book - and am very glad I did!! - and does include these stories. I'm definitely planning to read them!! 2w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks It‘s funny, because I intentionally checked out an ebook without “and other stories” because I didn‘t realize they were related and didn‘t intend to read them. And I wanted a correct page count for tracking my reading. Now I‘m gonna have to check out a different copy WITH the stories and adjust my reading trackers 😂 2w

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TheAromaofBooks I actually kind of did the same thing - I looked for an edition without the stories because I thought they were related to EACH OTHER not to the main story 😂 But now I'm glad that I ended up with this one and cannot WAIT to find out how William gets married!! 2w

julieclair I also purposely looked for a copy without the other stories! And I read an e-book, but I think I‘d like to actually own a copy. A vintage copy would be ideal. 5d

BarbaraJean @julieclair I had to order a print copy from the library in order to get one with the stories, but I may end up buying a copy as well! 4d

julieclair Just saw the eBay prices for a vintage copy. 😳 I think a modern copy will have to suffice! 4d

30 likes7 comments

BarbaraJean

The Country of the Pointed Firs | Sarah Orne Jewett

Which scenes or chapters stand out in your reading? What made them memorable or meaningful?

Is there anything else you‘d like to discuss from your reading of this book, or quotes you‘d like to share?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, monalyisha, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

julieclair I loved the chapter with the widower who lost his wife 8 years prior. He was such a sweet man… I wanted to reach through the book and hug him! 5d

BarbaraJean @julieclair Yes! I just loved the way he talked about his wife. He reminded me a lot of Captain Jim from House of Dreams, and his “lost Margaret.“ 4d

julieclair Yes! I agree! 4d

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BarbaraJean

The Country of the Pointed Firs | Sarah Orne Jewett

Reading this as an #LMMAdjacent book, I had my eye out for paralells with LMM‘s other work. What similarities or differences do you see between Pointed Firs and Anne‘s House of Dreams (setting, characters, narrative style, etc.)?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, monalyisha, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

TheAromaofBooks Certain scenes definitely made me think of LMM - especially the big family reunion, or the parts where someone else is telling a story. I expected descriptions of nature and the sea to make me think of her writing, but it was actually the human parts. Jewett does a wonderful job sketching characters through their words and actions, and that part really reminded me of LMM's similar ability. 2w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks The setting felt like it should remind me of Four Winds—there were a lot of surface similarities—but it had a whole different vibe than House of Dreams. I completely agree about the characters. Mrs. Todd especially! The episodic, sketch-like writing style and its lightness on plot actually reminded me more of Lark Rise! LMM‘s more episodic books feel more humorous than this one, but the nostalgia here felt like Lark. 2w

julieclair @BarbaraJean Yes! This totally reminded me of Lark Rise. But I‘ve been wondering why I loved this book and didn‘t really care for Lark Rise. I think it‘s Jewett‘s lyrical writing style that made the difference for me. 5d

BarbaraJean @julieclair Yes, I felt like the writing in Lark (especially in the first book and a half) was very plain and flat. I enjoyed the last book and a half of Lark Rise quite a bit, once there were actual characters and personalities on the page! But the descriptions and the personalities here were delightful throughout. 4d

julieclair I am still struggling through Lark Rise, but am determined to finish… sometime… It‘s good to know the second half picks up a bit. 4d

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