I‘m having so much fun reading LMM‘s Christmas stories! We‘ll finish those on Christmas Eve, then pick up our regular buddy reading starting 12/29. Above is our #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead schedule through mid-February, including two for #LMMReread, the last bit of Vol. 3 for #LMMJournals, and #LMMAdjacent read: The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett. Let me know if you‘d like to be tagged for any or all of the above. All are welcome! ⬇

#5JoysFriday!

🌹A perfect bloom in the rose garden at church
🤗 Every person in my Education for Ministry group!
👶🏼 A FB memory of the year my roommate‘s boyfriend made a baby Jesus-shaped cake for our Christmas party 😂
🎄📚Reading by the Christmas tree
🎶🎷My husband‘s big band Christmas concert last night

I loved reading about all the little secrets as the Joseph children prepared gifts for each other! (Also, why are children so often described as having “curly heads”?!) In the end, this is yet another sweet story of kindness and sharing at Christmas. 💜🎄

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“Mrs Napier walked slowly to the middle of the terrace, noted the oncoming car, looked round to make sure that she was fully observed, crossed her legs deliberately, and fell heavily on to the red gravel drive.”

Now that‘s a great opening sentence!! 😂

What is the happiest Christmas morning you can remember?

This was another lovely story about giving to others on Christmas. So many of these stories have the same exact themes—in today‘s story, noticing someone who is lonely or less-fortunate and bringing them Christmas joy—but I LIKE those themes!

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #KindredSpiritsChristmas

“A life surrounded by good people is a successful life. It might not be success as defined by society, but thanks to the people around you, each day is a successful day.”

“Alexina was perfectly reckless; no matter how big a hole it made in their finances Uncle James must have a proper Christmas dinner. A favorable impression must be made.”

I did love this story, with all its familiar LMM Christmas story themes: a Christmas mishap is made right, a disagreement is resolved, and a rich relative swoops in to fix things! Although I wanted an apology from Duncan! ⤵️

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I‘ve been reading the images of Tolkien‘s handwritten letters alongside the printed text, and several times have discovered that the printed text makes minor changes or omits parts of the original letters! In today‘s letter, there‘s a whole paragraph about Priscilla‘s “Bingos” that is missing from the printed text. So interesting to see the editorial decisions! #TolkienChristmas #FellowshipofTolkien

Yesterday was so busy that I missed both reading and posting! I finished listening to “A Merryvale Christmas” this morning. It‘s a fun story, with kids longing for gifts, a snowball fight, sleigh rides & sledding, and bringing Christmas to the less-fortunate. But especially for a longer story, it felt a bit lacking. I‘m still puzzled by this little Hoopla audiobook and I have notes! ⤵️
#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

Well, this starts off with a lengthy intro about how great Christmas is (that I‘m pretty sure was not written by LMM)—and if you want to skip ahead, you can start chapter one around the 7:45 mark! Not a whole lot of story yet in the first two chapters, but I‘m interested to hear the result of the snow fight tomorrow. #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead ⤵️

#FiveJoysFriday!

Some joys this week:
🎄 Christmas decorations!
🐻‍❄️ This illustration from Tolkien‘s Letters from Father Christmas yesterday
☕️ A mug of tea from my tea Advent calendar every night
🍽️ Tasty Korean BBQ and good conversation last night with one of my best friends
🎁 My husband went Christmas shopping today (unheard of—he usually waits until at least the week of Christmas 😆)

Here‘s the schedule for week three of our #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead!

A Merryvale Christmas is available as an audiobook on Hoopla, and the Dec. 18-20 stories are in the tagged collection and online (I‘ll post links in the comments). See my previous post for a little caveat about Merryvale Christmas, which we‘ll be reading over a few days (~15 audiobook minutes per day). Looking forward to another week of cozy stories!

“No Blackburn Hill boy was ever known to miss an opportunity of flinging a slur at Enderly Road, even if no Enderly Roader were by to feel the sting.”

Another sweet story of good deeds and generosity at Christmas! (And another couple recurring themes for our LMM bingo board—we need squares for “a grudge/misunderstanding is mended” and “Christmas is brought to the less fortunate”)
⤵️
#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“Wouldn‘t the government interfere”—😂 Awww…
This was another sweet story of a mistake that comes right and a relationship mended. I kind of want to put together a bingo card for common themes/happenings in these stories! 😆

Story link below⤵️

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“Mrs Chillip does go so far as to say… that what such people miscall their religion, is a vent for their bad humours and arrogance. And do you know I must say, sir… that I don‘t find authority for Mr and Miss Murdstone in the New Testament?”

#WhatTheDickens

“‘I‘ve got a new outlook on life,‘ thought Katherine as she drifted off to slumber. ‘I didn‘t know there were people like this.‘

‘Come again,‘ said Marilla when she left.

Marilla never said that to any one unless she meant it.”

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I love this excerpt from Windy Poplars so, so much. Marilla only makes the briefest appearances, but you can feel the Green Gables welcome throughout. ⤵️

“Clorinda stopped short suddenly. She had just remembered that she would not have liked to say that last sentence to Aunt Emmy. Therefore, there was something wrong about it. Clorinda had long ago learned that there was sure to be something wrong in anything that could not be said to Aunt Emmy.”

I loved today‘s story, with its focus on giving out of who you are, rather than what you can spend.❤️

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“All in all, the effect was not of a poodle, but of malformed poodlosity. That is to say, everything about it suggested ‘poodle‘ except for the whole thing itself, which suggested walking away.”

😂😂

#OokBOokClub @julesG

“…it was Christmas Eve, and there was a light in every window of Ingleside, the glow breaking out through the whispering darkness like a flame-red blossom swung against the background of the evergreens; for the children were coming home for the Christmas reunion…”

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I have to confess that I found today‘s story a bit much 🤷🏻‍♀️I thought it was very poignant & sweet last time I read it, so maybe ⤵️

A sweet but very short story today! We get just a glimpse of the characters, but I‘d love to read more about both Cousin Myra and eight-year-old Darby. I love the ending:

“We‘re not going to stop with Christmas, Cousin Myra… We‘re just going to keep on through the year. We‘ve never had such a delightful old Christmas before.”
“You‘ve learned the secret of happiness,” said Cousin Myra gently.
And the Osbornes understood what she meant.

Here‘s the schedule for week two of the #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! All of the stories for this week are in the tagged book, and with the exception of the Windy Poplars excerpt, they can also all be found on Hoopla as ebooks or audiobooks. I‘ll add links for reading online in the comments below. Looking forward to another week of delightful holiday stories!

“I like to call things as they are. Before, the only thing I was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. I didn‘t know then that it wasn‘t even love that I was interested in, but my own suffering. I thought suffering kept things interesting. How funny that I called it love and the whole time it was pain.“

—from “Calling Things What They Are“

#5JoysFriday!

The ginkgo trees at church have turned golden and I love seeing their leaves against the bright blue sky
My favorite roses in the garden are STILL blooming in December (welcome to Los Angeles!)
I went to a beautiful lunchtime Advent retreat on Tuesday
Daily joys: poetry & tea advent calendars, plus reading LMM‘s Christmas stories and Tolkien‘s Father Christmas letters
Christmas decorations! An annual tradition at my parents‘ house⤵️

I just died when I got to the 3-4 dozen apples. HOW big is this basket?!?

I loved that the passengers have a little concert, with recitations and songs and a “whistling solo!” I started wondering what that might look like today. What would you contribute to a “concert” if you were stuck on a train with a bunch of strangers at Christmas?
Story link below ⬇️
#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I loved this story of sisters getting into a Christmas “scrape,” which of course comes right in the end!

Today‘s story, “The End of the Young Family Feud” is available on Hoopla or in this collection: https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20150145 (or in print in the “Christmas with Anne” holiday story collection). Link to tomorrow‘s story is in the comments!

#KindredSpiritsChristmas #KndredSpiritsBuddyRead

“He liked the time just before a winter‘s dawn. It was generally foggy, which made it hard to see the city, and for a few hours there was no sound but the occasional brief scream.”

#OokBOokClub

“I'll tell you what I'm going to do when I'm sixteen, Theodora. I'm going to pay off the mortgage, and buy mother a silk dress, and a piano for the twins. Won't that be elegant? I'll be able to do that 'cause I'm a man. Of course if I was only a girl I couldn't.“

🙄 I definitely rolled my eyes at this. And then the story went on to show just how much a 16-year-old girl can do!! #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

🎶 It‘s the most wonderful time of the year—my #AuldLangSpine list has arrived!! I‘m so excited to be matched with @Librarybelle ! I‘m planning to drop in where I can with #AgathaChristieClubR3, and am also doing the #192025 challenge, so I love having the #AuldLangSpine connection as well! This is a great list, with a nice mix of genres and moods—a few I‘ve read & loved (always a good sign), some from my TBR, and lots of new-to-me picks! ⤵️

I just love this chapter—Matthew is the dearest. The way he notices what‘s “different” about Anne and then—as an extreme introvert—braves the unknown territory of buying a girl‘s dress 😂😍 It‘s sweet and hilarious and delightful. I have to admit, I never liked the sound of “brown gloria” and approved of the film version making Anne‘s dress blue! #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“I sometimes suspect that we really like Aunt Susanna tremendously if she‘d only leave us alone long enough to find it out.” 😂

Today‘s story gave me such Anne of the Island vibes, with four girls keeping house & the scrapes that invariably ensue! Aunt Susanna—maybe a bit of Rachel Lynde + some of Emily‘s Aunt Elizabeth? A fun story, but I can‘t help still feeling indignant toward the McGinnises! #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

November‘s #BookSpinBingo board reveals that I got zero bingos and haven‘t yet finished reading my spins, but I did manage to fill all my free spaces! 😂

Favorites for the month—two very different genres!
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson (which was my September #BookSpin)

It‘s the last #BookSpin day of 2024! Thank you, Sarah, for running this challenge—I look forward to it every month! My last two spins of the year are: a mystery from my Kindle TBR (I‘d love to use it for the #christmascrimechallenge if I can make it fit a prompt), and one from my library list that I‘ve been meaning to read forever (and it fits a year I need for #192025). Looking forward to squeezing these into my already-full December!

“...For what is happiness but growth in peace,
The timeless sense of time when furniture
Has stood a life's span in a single place,
And as the air moves, so the old dreams stir
The shining leaves of present happiness?
No one has heard thought or listened to a mind,
But where people have lived in inwardness
The air is charged with blessing and does bless;
Windows look out on mountains and the walls are kind.“
—from “The Work of Happiness“

“The Genesis of the Doughnut Club” is a new discovery for me this year—and a great way to kick off our #KindredSpiritsChristmas #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead! The food prep in this Thanksgiving story resonated with me this Thanksgiving weekend! I loved how LMM described “old maid” Aunt Patty finding her own way, and loved the quotes above. Northfield sounds like Cavendish…😆 The story link is below, and we‘ll enjoy another Thanksgiving story tomorrow!

#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

I didn‘t realize until @TheKidUpstairs mentioned it a few days ago: 2024 is the 150th anniversary of LMM‘s birth. At that point, I remembered LMM‘s birthday was in November, but I didn‘t remember the date and thought I‘d missed the day. And then I read this last night and realized it‘s TODAY! Happy 150th Birthday, L.M. Montgomery! 🎂🎉In celebration, share in the comments something you love about LMM‘s books!

#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead discussion: July 14, 1913 - Mar. 12, 1916

“How I love my old journal and what a part of my life it has become. It satisfies some need in my nature. It seems like a personal confidant in whom I can repose absolute trust.”

There was a LOT in this week‘s section: from the heartbreak of the loss of her child and the WWI years to Stuart‘s birth. What parts did you find particularly interesting or meaningful?

December #BookSpin list! Lately I‘ve felt like I have so many “required” books in progress, that I put together this list of lots of “want-to” books. Some are recent library impulse checkouts, some are from the TBR, some are next-book-in-a-series choices, but all are fun reads I‘m excited about. (Okay, The First Advent in Palestine is more serious, but I‘m also really interested in it!)

“…at this sight, Mrs Markleham dropped the newspaper, and stared more like a figure-head intended for a ship to be called The Astonishment, than anything else I can think of.”

😂😂 #WhatTheDickens

This has a completely far-fetched premise and a fairly predictable plot, but it was charming nonetheless—a quick read and a nice change of pace in the middle of a lot of heavier, longer, more drawn-out books on my list lately!

I read Tim Alberta‘s The Power, the Kingdom, and the Glory earlier this year, and this was a great companion read—though tough to stomach. While Alberta explores Christian nationalism & its roots in evangelicalism, Kobes Du Mez approaches a similar topic from a different lens: focusing on the roots of the toxic masculinity & sexism that have become so pervasive in evangelical Christianity. This was a harder read because it hit closer to home. ⤵️

On Election Night, I needed a comfort read, and so I checked this out and read it in its entirety. It‘s a beautiful exploration of grief and love and caring for the earth. Its artwork and its heart offered me hope and comfort as the depressing election news loomed in the background.

This was a mixed bag for me. The literary parts were so interesting, seeing the growth of Tolkien‘s early work and ideas, and the development of his mythology. I was fascinated by the connections the author traced between Tolkien‘s early writing, his life leading up to the war years, and his experiences in the war. But unfortunately, so much of the war part was a slog for me. Maybe I‘d have gotten more out of this ⤵️

“What a pity it is so hard to be both good and interesting. I am not good—but I *am* interesting!”

#LMMJournals #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

“Books are like truth serum—if you don‘t read, you can‘t figure out what‘s real.”

Let‘s have a #KindredSpiritsChristmas! Here‘s the schedule for the first week of December‘s story-a-day #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead. We‘ll enjoy these cozy stories and chat about them as we go. Let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

All of these (except “Matthew Insists”) are on Hoopla as ebooks (and several as audiobooks). The Dec. 3-6 stories are in the tagged collection. In the comments, I‘ll add links for reading online.

A reminder for the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead-ers who are following along with the #LMMJournals: this coming week (Nov. 24-30) we‘ll be picking up the journals again for just one week, before we dive into LMM‘s Christmas stories.

On Saturday 11/30, we‘ll discuss July 14, 1913 - March 12, 1916 from Volume 3 of LMM‘s Complete Journals. Looking forward to it!

LMM called The Story Girl “my own favourite among my books” and “the best piece of work I have yet done.” Of writing it, she said: “I was sorry to finish it. Never…had I laid down my pen and taken farewell of my characters with more regret…I have written it from sheer love of it.”
Her comments above about The Golden Road were quite different.
What are your feelings about each book?
Do you think the difference LMM felt is apparent in her writing?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread Golden Road Discussion: 2/3

Which of the characters did you relate to the most? Who would you have most enjoyed having as a childhood friend?

What did you think of the Story Girl‘s “prophecies”—and of the way the book ends?
What would you imagine for these characters‘ futures?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMReread Golden Road Discussion: 1/3

What did you think of the book overall?
Are there any specific quotes or particular sections that stand out to you?

Do you see any common themes or parallels between this book and others you‘ve read by LMM? Or with LMM‘s life and her writing in her journals?

#5JoysFriday!
1. The soup my husband made for me while I was sick with a cold
2. A Zoom call with my spiritual direction mentor group, where we talked about JOY!
3. That conversation led me to Mary Oliver‘s poem “Mindful”:
“…It was what I was born for—
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.”
https://www.mindfulnessassociation.net/words-of-wonder/mindful-mary-oliver/
⤵️