kindredspiritsbuddyread

Hello, #KindredSpirits! Checking in halfway through our read of Rainbow Valley!

📚How is your reading going? What are your thoughts so far?
📚What stands out to you from the first half of the book?
📚Any favorite sections or quotes?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, CogsOfEncouragement, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

CogsOfEncouragement I'm just to chapter seven at this moment, but plan to finish the whole book in time for next week's discussion. This is a re-read for me. I read it once over ten years ago.

I'm struck by the relationship between Susan and Shirley, that he would not go with the rest of the family to Avonlea but with Susan to visit her brother. I can't imagine.

1d

CogsOfEncouragement Chapter One:

“Speaking of gossip...Mrs. Harrison Miller over harbour tried to hang herself...If I had been in her shoes, Mrs. Dr. dear, I would have gone to work to worry him so that he would try to hang himself instead of me.“
1d

CogsOfEncouragement Chapter Four:

Love was the only law at Glen St. Mary manse.

The world isn't a vale of tears, Mrs. Taylor. It's a world of laughter.

Father said in his sermon...we should love everybody...How could we love Mrs. Alec Davis?...Oh, father only said that from the pulpit...He has more sense than to really think that outside. (edited) 1d

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CogsOfEncouragement Chapter Five:

Mr. Wiley used to mention hell when he was alive. He was always telling folks to go there. I thought it was some place over in New Brunswick where he come from. 24h

julieclair I‘m behind as usual… 🙄 20h

lauraisntwilder Just like the last time I read this, I can't help feeling like it's strange to be introduced to all Anne's children and then spend most of the book with an entirely different group of children. I like Meredith children, so I'm still enjoying the book, but it's odd. Gilbert only spoke in one scene so far, that I can remember. I miss him--and Diana and Marilla, and, actually, Anne, too! 18h

23 likes6 comments

BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread

rubyslippersreads, JenlovesJT47, CogsOfEncouragement, lauraisntwilder, kwmg40, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

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CogsOfEncouragement

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“Mr. Wiley used to mention hell when he was alive. He was always telling folks to go there. I thought it was some place over in New Brunswick where he come from.”

- Mary Martha Lucilla Moore Ball Vance, age 12

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

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BarbaraJean

Rainbow Valley | L. M. Montgomery

“There are days when he growls at everybody because he thinks he is fore-ordained to eternal punishment… My own opinion is that he is not sound in his intellect, for none of that branch of the Millers were. His grandfather went out of his mind.”

Well, THAT lands differently after reading last week‘s section of LMM‘s journals. 😳😬😢

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMJournals #LMMReread

JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks

TheBookHippie 😵‍💫 5d

TheAromaofBooks For real!! 😥 4d

30 likes2 comments

LitsyEvents

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! 6d

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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 🎯🎯🎯 7d

BarbaraJean Just saw that my tags didn't show up! @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder @JenlovesJT47 6d

42 likes2 comments

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! 1w

julieclair Looking forward to both of these! 1w

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

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) 😭😭 1w

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) 1w

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) 1w

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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) 1w

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 ⬇ 1w

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

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 ⬇ 1w

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 ⬇ 1w

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 ⬇ 1w

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 ⬇ 1w

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?? 1w

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! 1w

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Ugh, yes—I felt that lament, too. It‘s hard NOW to form new, deep friendships as an adult, and our circles & connections are so much broader. It wasn‘t just the impossibility of ever finding another kindred spirit like Frede (that‘s there, too), but losing a longtime friend in mid-life—the memories, shared jokes, and depth of knowledge that are GONE, and all the life ahead of her that she had to face without her beloved friend! 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks The sections about Ewan were harder for me, too—especially because of my own “what ifs” and because so much has changed over the years with attitudes about and available treatment for mental illness. It‘s especially painful to see LMM‘s feelings of shame and helplessness, knowing both would be FAR different today. Then I wonder about how her own mental health might have been different if she hadn‘t married at all, or had married ⬇ 6d

BarbaraJean (cont‘d) someone different (just NOT Edwin Simpson 😏). That quote I highlighted last week about emotional heights and depths—I think she needed someone stable and grounded to help balance out that part of her emotional life. And I think you‘re right, her feelings about/responses to Ewan‘s depression had to affect his mental health as well! It seems like his depression triggered a vicious cycle that was very unhealthy for both of them. 6d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks My guess about her horror of mental illness is that she saw it as deeply shameful, AND she worried it would be passed on to their children. Take her judgmental opinions and high views of her own heritage—not wanting to bring “that“ into the family—add in her deep fear over “what others would think,” plus the stigma at that time about mental health: and her deep horror about it makes a lot of sense to me. 6d

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I get it! I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you're caught up! 6d

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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) 2w

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!! 2w

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 ⬇ 2w

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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. 2w

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. 2w

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!! 2w

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. 2w

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!!! 2w

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. 😭 2w

TheAromaofBooks This week's section is going to be so sad!!! 2w

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! 2w

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 ⬇ 2w

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. 2w

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! 1w

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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 2w

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 2w

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 😂 2w

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