Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Okay, I didn’t want anyone to know I was reading Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery until I had at least the first one done. (I thought they would go much faster but alas!) The reason I didn’t want anyone to know is because… I might have just signed up for another book challenge. *covers face* I know, I know, that’s crazy talk, right?! But I just couldn’t help myself when I saw it, and I’ve had the series on my shelf since I got them at a used book store last summer. Anyway, the Anne Challenge. I heard about it from The Book Date, who heard about it from co-hosts Jackie at Death by Tsundoku and Jane at Greenish Bookshelf, the latter its progenitor. The challenge suggests a book a month from May through December, so by the end of August (if I can catch up) I should be finished with book 4 of 8. You know I’ll keep you posted!!!

If you’ve never read Anne of Green Gables before you really must. It is an absolute classic, beautifully written, and a piece of North America’s (Canada’s) history. Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in 1874 and published the first Anne book in 1908!!! So if you’re looking for “a book 100 years or older,” this one certainly counts, and since it’s public domain, you can also read it free via Project Gutenberg. If you’re around my age, you might’ve grown up on the books and the Megan Follows movies; a new movie was put out in 2016 and you can check out more about it online here thanks to PBS. And if you’re planning a vacation, why not visit Prince Edward Island, (complete with an Anne Museum) home to Montgomery’s lovable characters! Anne is a global phenomenon—I remember one of my host-sisters reading a translation of the first book while I was in Japan! But you don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask Margaret Atwood.

All hype aside, Anne of Green Gables is about a precocious, talkative orphan girl who has never been loved or had a home, but despite these setbacks, has a huge heart and an even bigger imagination. She gets adopted by accident—they wanted a boy—but is given the chance to thrive with Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert, an old pair of siblings who never married and now run the family home and farm together. Sharing this humble abode, Anne is raised with kindness, love, and patience (long-suffering), surrounded by beautiful landscape on all sides. Anne makes friends and enemies, goes to school, and gets into all kinds of trouble. Despite it all, she manages to come out on top, spirits never crushed for long, even in “the depths of despair.”

Reading Challenges
Here we go for reading challenge updates:

• PopSugar 2017 reading challenge No. 25 a book you loved as a child. The Anne of Green Gables series is eight books of pure bliss. If you are a sucker for a happy end, this series, and likewise everything written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, is definitely for you. The series is a fantastic read or reread for kids and adults.
• Book Dragon’s Lair Audiobook challenge Nope.
• Book Dragon’s Lair Pages Read challenge This 308 pgs brings me to 9,508 pgs.
• Read It Again, Sam Yes! This is only my third re-read this year, but I only have to hit four to meet the first requirement.
• My Reader’s Block Mount To Be Read (TBR) and Rock My TBR challenge Yes. I purchased the entire series intending to reread it about a year ago.
• Diverse Reads challenge (here and here). No, but I have a plan for that.
• The Book Date Full House challenge Yes! Book From Childhood, of course.
• The Book Date Read the Books You Buy challenge Because I bought these last summer I didn’t think they should count for this year’s purchase challenge.
• The Worm Hole’s What’s In A Name challenge Nope.
• Anne Read Along Yes! Yes! Yes!

Hashtags for the challenges that had them:
#popsugarreadingchallenge
#rockmytbr
#diversereads2017
#whatsinaname2017
and the newest addition #AnneReadAlong2017

So there’s my big secret revealed, are you terribly cross with me?
Love,
Jobe