kindredspiritsbuddyread

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I reread this one on my birthday, and realized that this may actually be my all-time favorite book.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead @BarbaraJean

TheAromaofBooks #HauntedShelf #ScreamTeam @ImperfectCJ
#WickedWords - Revolution @AsYouWish
#PumpkabooHunt @PuddleJumper
#ISpyBingo #BookSpinBingo #BirthdayBashReadathon 21h

BarbaraJean The BEST way to spend a birthday!!! 📚🥳📚 Also: that view is gorgeous!! 21h

wildwoodreads Gorgeous! 20h

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TheAromaofBooks Forgot to tag @Bookwormjillk!!! #OneSnacktoRuleThemAll #AllThingsApple 😁 20h

Bookwormjillk 🍎🍎🍎 20h

HeyT This one is definitely in my top ten of all time! 19h

Singout Wow, maybe I should try this again since I haven‘t read it since the late 70s. 15h

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LitsyEvents

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

Reposting for @BarbaraJean
Here‘s the next month for #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! We‘re just starting the tagged book for #LMMAdjacent, then after one more week back in the #LMMJournals, we‘ll return to the Emily books with Emily Climbs for an #LMMReread. Tag lists are in the comments… but all are welcome! Let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

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BarbaraJean

The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough

Here‘s the next month for #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! We‘re just starting the tagged book for #LMMAdjacent, then after one more week back in the #LMMJournals, we‘ll return to the Emily books with Emily Climbs for an #LMMReread. Tag lists are in the comments… but all are welcome! Let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

LitsyEvents

BarbaraJean Tag list for Missalonghi: @TheAromaofBooks, @julieclair, @lauraisntwilder, @rubyslippersreads, @DrSabrinaMoldenReads

The Ladies of Missalonghi

BarbaraJean Tag list for journals and Emily‘s Quest: @TheAromaofBooks @lauraisntwilder

Emily's Quest

BarbaraJean Okay, Missalonghi readers, I have no idea what‘s going on with chapters in this book. I have found no chapter divisions in the print copy. The Hoopla audio has 9 chapters. Searches online say: 1. There are chapters, 2. There are no chapters, 3. There are 19 chapters. All followed by the caveat: “AI answers may contain mistakes.” 🙄 I don‘t know where I got 22 chapters from. 🤷🏻‍♀️ So: read roughly half this week & we‘ll check in on Saturday! 😆 (edited) 3d

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TheAromaofBooks I just picked this up this morning and realized that it has no chapters 😂 Who does that!?!? 3d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Terry Pratchett does that and as much as I love Pratchett it drives me crazy! I started reading last night thinking I‘d read a couple chapters and see how far that took me. At page 30 of a 200-ish page book, I thought the first chapter was getting kind of long, and I started flipping ahead. By page 100 I realized I had yet again made a huge mistake in trusting a chapter count I found online 😂 3d

TheAromaofBooks That has actually been my biggest problem with reading the Discworld books! For some reason, the lack of chapters really turns me off of a book, and I can't even explain why 😂 3d

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks I feel the same—the lack of chapters turns me off! I think my brain prefers defined units of content so I know how many bits there are to parcel out. I've seen quotes from Pratchett saying he thought chapters broke up the natural flow of a story. But NOT having them kind of breaks my brain a little. I mean, you have to stop somewhere and I'd rather know where the author would stop! I guess he does use scene breaks, but still. ⬇ 3d

BarbaraJean The last Pratchett I read was an ebook version on Hoopla and it didn't even have any designation of where the scene breaks were. It gave me narrative whiplash to start a new paragraph and find I was suddenly in a completely different place with a different group of characters. That pulled me out of the narrative flow more than chapters would have! 3d

TheAromaofBooks Oh wow, that would be SO confusing! He definitely jumps around, so I can't imagine not even having the warning of an extra space! 😂 2d

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kwmg40

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

pick

This felt very different from the other L. M. Montgomery books I've read -- a very sharp critique of societal norms in an entertaining story with glorious descriptions of the Muskoka region in Ontario.

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread
#HauntedShelf #ScreamTeam
#OneSnacktoRuleThemAll #AllThingsApple
#BookSpinBingo
#ISpyBingo (initials in author's name)
#PumpkabooHunt (medium)

kwmg40 #GottaCatchEmAllSpooky (gentle)
#GottaCatchEmAll (Goodra: ‘it‘s always the quiet ones‘ trope)
@ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk @TheAromaofBooks @PuddleJumper @BarbaraJean 4d

Bookwormjillk 🍎🍎🍎 4d

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 4d

PuddleJumper 🧡🖤🧡 4d

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BarbaraJean

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

Valancy strikes me as a particularly subversive heroine, and so many of her actions feel very progressive for her time—yet the ending of The Blue Castle leaves Valancy in a very traditional, conventional role.

How did the ending land with you?
Does it feel conventional? Predictable?

#LMMReread #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, Sparklemn, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 I like that her goals, while conventional, are also relatable, and she found the perfect person to complement her. I love that she doesn‘t play by society‘s rules anymore and is happy as a lark! 5d

BarbaraJean For me, I think this is a case of the journey mattering more than the destination. Valancy decides to live her life on her own terms, rather than according to others‘ expectations. The fact that in the end, she‘s in a situation that measures up to society‘s expectations doesn‘t matter, because it‘s not the expectations that mattered to her—it‘s her own. I do think the ending is predictable, but I don‘t care because I love the book so much! ⬇ 5d

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) I wonder how much Valancy embodies what LMM *wanted* to do & say, but felt too constrained by convention to actually live out. The freedom Valancy feels to flaunt convention & live unburdened by expectations is liberating to me, and I have a feeling it was a bit of wish-fulfillment for LMM. It feels like LMM let loose a little here, freeing her character from the worry of what others will think—a freedom it seems LMM couldn‘t attain. 5d

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rubyslippersreads @BarbaraJean I agree that Valancy can do and say what LMM (especially as a minister‘s wife) couldn‘t. Valancy could also have the romantic, passionate love story that LMM sadly didn‘t. 5d

TheAromaofBooks Valancy's ending is conventional in the sense that she ended up married, but not remotely so when you consider WHOM she married. To me, an actual conventional ending would be Valancy marrying Edward Beck and becoming a stepmother/drudge. Instead, she went out and found romance on her own terms, ending up with someone who would take her around the world and continue to broaden her horizons instead of keeping her confined to the kitchen. So the ⬇ 5d

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) ending is predictable, but I think it is still in line with the rest of Valancy's journey. And Valancy herself says at the very beginning that she does want to be married, to have her own house, her own husband, and even her own “sweet, little fat babies“ - so I love that she decided to go out and find her own fate. 5d

TheAromaofBooks Also, I wrote my comment on the other post about this being LMM's dream book before I read your comment here - we are on the same track! 😂 LMM allowed herself to be tied down by all THE RULES of society, and I think she found real joy in creating a character who was able to shed those fetters and sneeze whenever she wanted to. 5d

rubyslippersreads Maybe Olive should end up with Edward Beck. 😂 5d

lauraisntwilder I'm going to go a little off topic, but your framing of this question in terms of heroines of the day and the mention of the Rubio bio reminded me of Mazo de la Roche. This one feels so similar in tone to Jalna, but I didn't put that together until just now. Jalna came out the next year! And it totally steals Mr. Harrison's foul mouthed bird. No wonder LMM didn't like her! 5d

lauraisntwilder Just makes me wonder what other books she could've written if she hadn't been married to a pastor and been shoe-horned into only writing for children. 5d

kwmg40 I think most readers want happy endings in LMM's books and this one does it to excess -- the heroine ends up illness-free, married to the man she loves, and incredibly wealthy too. So to me, it wasn't very realistic, but as others had mentioned, it was the journey to that point that mattered. 5d

rubyslippersreads @lauraisntwilder This makes me want to reread the Jalna books. Was it Adeline who had the parrot? 5d

lauraisntwilder @rubyslippersreads Yes, Adeline has Boney, the parrot. I've only read one of them, the first (in publication order). One day I'll get around to the others! 5d

rubyslippersreads @lauraisntwilder I read most of the series when I was a teenager, because my mom loved them, but I don‘t think we could ever find a copy of the first one. 4d

julieclair I didn‘t get to read this one in time for the discussion. 🙁 4d

BarbaraJean @JenLovesJT47 @TheAromaofBooks I agree—what makes Valancy‘s story so compelling is that she goes after what she wants. Even though it‘s a “conventional” happy-ever-after ending, it feels so empowering because she chooses her own third path. In her family‘s view, she had two acceptable choices: fade into the old maid role, or marry whoever will condescend to have her. The irony of her unconventional choice is how it ends up both fulfilling ⬇ 2d

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...Valancy‘s dream and satisfying her family because of Barney‘s money! 🙄 The final exposure of hypocrisy... 2d

BarbaraJean @rubyslippersreads Yes, I think there was wish-fulfillment for LMM in the romance here, too. @TheAromaofBooks Great minds think alike! I kind of want an inspirational picture/sign that says “The greatest happiness is to sneeze when you want to.”

@lauraisntwilder @rubyslippersreads I‘ve never read any Mazo de la Roche! Maybe we should put Jalna into the #LMMAdjacent reads for next year. 2d

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I SO wish she‘d been able to write freely, without worries over conventions and expectations. In her journals, she comments more than once about how she would write something differently if it weren‘t for _____. I would love to read more along the lines of Blue Castle. And I‘m so curious how she would have written Emily differently. 2d

rubyslippersreads @BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I would love to add Jalna to the #LMMAdjacent reads. They all seem to be available on fadedpage.com and the first book in the series is

The Building of Jalna

(edited) 2d

BarbaraJean @julieclair Oh, that‘s a shame! Well, the discussion will still be here if you do have time to read it in the coming weeks! Do you still want to join in for Ladies of Missalonghi? 21h

julieclair @BarbaraJean I probably won‘t get to read Missalonghi in time either, but please tag me just in case. Both of these are books I have wanted to read for a long time. 12h

BarbaraJean @julieclair 👍 If you only have time for one, read Blue Castle. So far, Missalonghi is basically discount Blue Castle 😆 9h

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BarbaraJean

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

One of the things I love most about this book is its humor—it‘s filled with hilarious situations, comments, and descriptions. What are some of your favorites?

#LMMReread #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, Sparklemn, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 When Valancy first comes out of her shell, and they are having a family dinner and she tells everyone exactly what she thinks (and she‘s not wrong!), I find it SO gratifying as well as hilarious. She is now my favorite book character after Phryne Fisher. 5d

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 Right?! I always lose it over that ENTIRE family dinner scene. But especially when Aunt Alberta says she was bitten by a dog “a little below the Catholic church” and Valancy says “Is that a vital part?“ 😂 😂 Also later when Uncle Benjamin is spluttering about Valancy marrying Barney and she says: “Say ‘damn‘ and you‘ll feel better.” 😂 5d

rubyslippersreads I just love the way Valancy suddenly has no filter. I also love seeing Olive put in her place. And the way the family is much more careful of Valancy‘s feelings once they find out she‘s married a millionaire. (edited) 5d

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TheAromaofBooks @BarbaraJean - I lose it over the Catholic church every time 😂 Also Valancy sassing Abel about how not everyone should sing at their work haha 5d

lauraisntwilder @BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks I was listening to the audio on a walk with my husband (we can't talk easily when exercising so he listens to music and I usually have a book going) and I laughed out loud at the Catholic church line so hard I startled him! 🤣 5d

kwmg40 I found Uncle Benjamin's blatant hypocrisy hilarious, when he completely changes his attitude toward Valancy after finding out who she married. 5d

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BarbaraJean

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

The Blue Castle is set in Muskoka, where LMM traveled with her husband & children (and our old friend John Mustard & his wife) in 1922. She recounts this trip in her journal. The above passage made me laugh—hard—given how I feel about “Barney Snaith” as a name for a romantic lead!

What names in The Blue Castle did you find particularly evocative?
What role does naming play in the narrative?

#LMMReread #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, Sparklemn, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 Barney Snaith IS quite the interesting name for a romantic lead! 😆 I had totally forgotten about the Redfern angle but the whole thing is so hilarious. 5d

rubyslippersreads The name Barney Snaith just grates on me. I also had forgotten the Redfern angle, which I suppose explains it. Speaking of names, does anyone know why “Doss” is a nickname for Valancy? (edited) 5d

TheAromaofBooks Barney! I cannot BELIEVE that one of my favorite romantic heroes is named BARNEY. I try not to think about it 😂 Can we publish our own edition where the only thing we change is Barney's name??

@rubyslippersreads - I've often wondered the same thing! https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/doss Apparently it is a slang word, but I'm not sure any of these meanings would really apply to her?? Maybe the “little effort“ aspect? 5d

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TheAromaofBooks Speaking of Muskoka, I always forget how much of this book is really just a love song to nature and natural beauty. I don't know how LMM manages to just write sentence fragments (“Great silences, austere and searching. Jewelled, barbaric hills. Icy-grey twilights, broken by snow-squalls“) that convey SO much description. Every word in this book is perfect. 5d

rubyslippersreads @TheAromaofBooks Maybe “they sleep in a place which is uncomfortable, usually because they have nowhere else to live.” The whole family thinks that Valancy, as an “old maid,” has no choice but to live with her mother. 5d

lauraisntwilder Doss is the worst. I actually love the name Barney...but not Snaith. 5d

rubyslippersreads I had another thought about Barney‘s name. LMM was passionately in love with Herman Leard, not exactly the name I‘d give a romantic leading man. 5d

kwmg40 Ever since the purple dinosaur was introduced to the world, I've had a hard time taking anyone named Barney seriously! However, as I live in Ontario, I hear the name “Muskoka“ frequently so it didn't seem strange. I agree with @TheAromaofBooks that LMM's descriptions of nature are among the highlights of the book. 5d

rubyslippersreads I guess we‘re not the only ones who have pondered the meaning of Doss: https://wormhole.carnelianvalley.com/what-is-the-impact-of-the-nickname-doss-in-... 4d

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 @rubyslippersreads @kwmg40 I had also completely forgotten that his name isn‘t actually Barney Snaith. And that‘s a good point about “Herman Leard.” It makes me think about Anne‘s idolization of “Walter and Bertha Shirley” as such beautiful names. My grandmother was named Bertha and I always felt sorry for her over it! I‘m certain that some names just sound different to different generations. ⬇ 2d

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) Plus there are the inevitable cultural associations that ruin a name. I can‘t separate the name Barney from Barney Rubble, Barney Fife, and Barney the Dinosaur—but LMM would have had none of those problematic associations! 2d

BarbaraJean @rubyslippersreads @TheAromaofBooks The “Doss” definitions are fascinating! The “nowhere else to live” one makes a lot of sense. I wonder if LMM considered that, or if she meant to convey that the family intended it…? Or if we‘re reading into it! I‘d always assumed it was a “baby name”—some association that emerged in her childhood that just stuck. Kind of like Dickens‘ son, Plorn—the fact of which is an ENDLESS source of amusement to me ⬇ 2d

BarbaraJean Citations for Plorn, because WHAT?!
https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/kz85i5/what_the_dickens/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Dickens 2d

BarbaraJean There is so much about naming here that's interesting to me. A mistaken name (Stirling vs Sterling) kicks the whole thing off. Both Valancy and Barney cast off names they hate (Doss and Redfern)—and their reasons are somehow simultaneously very different, but also similar due to the hated name's association to their respective families. And then “Cousin Stickles” has always felt like SUCH a fitting name!! 1d

JenlovesJT47 Cousin Stickles always sounds like Cousin Prickles and I think that‘s very fitting! I‘m with you on the name Barney. Not my first choice of name for a romantic lead. I had remembered most everything from the first time I read it minus the fact that he was a Redfern. Valancy really lucked out with that lol. I love how her family is equal parts in awe and fear of her after they find out she‘s married to a millionaire. 🤑🤑🤑 1d

TheAromaofBooks @rubyslippersreads - Oooo thank you for sharing that article! 1d

TheAromaofBooks It's definitely true that popular names change over times AND that certain names pick up cultural connotations. My husband's grandpa's name was Kermit, and I actually LOVE that name objectively, but it's awfully hard to separate from the Muppets at this point! 1d

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BarbaraJean

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

How does The Blue Castle strike you when read within the chronology of LMM‘s other books?
Did you find it surprising?
What feels similar or different from her earlier books?

#LMMReread #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, Sparklemn, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 I found it surprising the first time I read it since most of her books are about younger girls. But I love it so much! If I had read this in my 20s my life would be very different right now. 5d

rubyslippersreads This book reminds me so much of Emily of New Moon, I think because of all the clannish family stuff. 5d

TheAromaofBooks This really seems like a departure from her other books. I think spiritually it's actually closest to Rilla? I feel like this is LMM's “dream book“ - she spends SO much of her life doing what people think she should be doing, or doing something because of “what people will think.“ She's someone very bound by tradition and appearances. To write about someone who was willing to throw all of that over and just follow her heart makes me think LMM ⬇ 5d

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TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) wanted to do the same. 5d

lauraisntwilder I think if I read her books in publication order, without reading her journals, I would be surprised. It does feel like a big departure. In the context of her life though, I kept thinking how it sounds like observations of a pastor's wife. 5d

kwmg40 This book did seem surprising to me. In the other LMM books I'd read, her protagonists did push back against societal norms but in gentler ways. This book felt like a very powerful criticism of society, and it must have seemed especially so when the book was published. 5d

BarbaraJean @JenlovesJT47 It is really inspiring as far as living the life you want!!

@rubyslippersreads Yes, the clannishness and so many quirky horrible repressive family members really do recall Emily. 2d

BarbaraJean I hadn't found Blue Castle surprising until this re-read, in the context of her other works. Even so, reading it in the context of her journals, it doesn't seem surprising at all. @lauraisntwilder @TheAromaofBooks YES, exactly... her journals make this book make SO much sense from a personal standpoint. I agree about Rilla, as well. Rilla feels like the most “grown up” of LMM‘s books to this point. 2d

BarbaraJean @kwmg40 Yes, the social criticism just feels different here. There are very few redeeming qualities in the Stirling clan, whereas with Emily‘s family, the characters are a little more nuanced. And Valancy‘s rebellion is kind of a wholesale denouncement of societal norms, while in earlier novels, LMM‘s heroines push back in much softer ways—or only in one area instead of across the board. 2d

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BarbaraJean

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

These quotes from LMM‘s journals feel so timely, since reading this felt like an escape and a refuge from the world for me—and both LMM‘s words and my experience of the book feel like a parallel to Valancy‘s Blue Castle.

Do you have a “Blue Castle”? Where are you finding refuge and escape these days?

#LMMReread #LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

rubyslippersreads, DrSabrinaMoldenReads, JenlovesJT47, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, Sparklemn, julieclair

JenlovesJT47 I feel this way about my writing (mostly poetry). But it‘s not quite a blue castle. Maybe I need to restore faith in myself and remind myself it‘s okay to go after your dreams. You‘ll never get anywhere if you don‘t ever try. 💙🩵💙 5d

rubyslippersreads I‘m finding refuge in books. 5d

Sparklemn @rubyslippersreads Me too 5d

TheAromaofBooks Sitting on our porch has been my escape lately! Just being able to listen to the quiet and watch the leaves is so calming. 5d

kwmg40 Cooking while listening to audiobooks is how I escape from the troubles of the world. 5d

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lauraisntwilder

The Blue Castle | L. M. Montgomery

pick

I saw the ending coming a mile off, but it's a sweet story and the humor is perfect. #kindredspiritsbuddyread

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