There was nobody else — there never could be anybody else for me but you. I’ve loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.
I’m so glad I’m finally getting around to reading this series. I enjoyed the first two Anne books, and this one was no exception. This one is about Anne’s college years, her relationship with her friends Priscilla and Philippa, and also about her beaux Gilbert and Royal.
Spoilers ahead, but it probably doesn’t matter as most of you have already read the book anyway…
Of course, how could she choose anyone BUT Gilbert? I do wonder why it took her so long to realize that. Besides their relationship, I enjoyed reading about Patty’s Place, Davy’s further development, and all the other girls’ drama. I do think I enjoyed Anne of Avonlea just a bit more than this one, but I still fell in love with Anne of the Island as well. I probably won’t get to the others in the series until next year, but I’ve enjoyed these first three books tremendously.
What a wonderful book! I enjoyed Anne of Green Gables, but I absolutely adored Anne of Avonlea. Now a schoolteacher, Anne is much admired by her students. I loved the sweet descriptions of Anne’s pupils. I enjoyed meeting the new cast of characters as well: Mr. Harrison and his parrot, Miss Lavender and her lovely stone house, the twins Davy and Dora, and the motherless Paul Irving. I anxiously await Anne of the Island.
I listened to the CD read by Barbara Caruso. What an excellent narrator. I wouldn’t hesitate at all to listen to one of her audiobooks again.
Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps. . . perhaps. . .love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.
Then the veil dropped again; but the Anne who walked up the dark lane was not quite the same Anne who had driven gaily down it the evening before. The page of girlhood had been turned, as by an unseen finger, and the page of womanhood was before her with all its charm and mystery, its pain and gladness.
Poor Mr. Dinglebat was in a state. He had, he told Jacob Two-Two, recently invested a good deal of money in buying Canadian military secrets, and now he was stuck with them. “No customers,” he said.
This clever children’s book by Mordecai Richler was written for his children and modeled after the same, and it was just simply a delight to read. Featuring not only Jacob Two-Two, but also I.M. Greedyguts, Miss Sour Pickle, and Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse, this third installment of the Jacob Two-Two series made me laugh out loud at several points. I really, really enjoyed it. (It’s also a good short book for the Canadian Challenge — or if you need a ‘J’ title!)
I have always thought that the human heart is a little like the ocean, subject to tides, that joy rises in it in a steady flow, singing of waves, good fortune, and bliss; but afterward, when the high sea withdraws, it leaves an utter desolation in our sight. So it was with me that day.
Written in French by Gabrielle Roy and translated by Joyce Marshall, The Road Past Altamont captures a sweet young girl’s thoughts and feelings perfectly. I also enjoyed Roy’s descriptions of the vastness of the Manitoba prairie.
The book is really four interconnected stories more than a novel. The first story, “My Almighty Grandmother,” tells of Christine’s love and awe of her matriarch. The second story, “The Old Man and the Child,” is about Christine’s relationship with an elderly neighbor and their visit to Lake Winnipeg. This one was my favorite as I found so much sweetness in the pair’s friendship. In “The Move,” Christine discovers that not everyone lives as she does, and in “The Road Past Altamont,” an adult Christine deals with her mother’s increasing age and unrealized dreams.
I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy Willa Cather or L.M. Montgomery. I would definitely read another book by Gabrielle Roy.
I am probably the last adult female in the world to fall in love with Anne Shirley, but it’s finally happened. Her sweet, spunky, imaginative spirit is impossible not to fall in love with.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery is a book I wish I’d read in childhood. I know I would have gobbled up this series just like I did the Little House books. While as a child I could relate to Laura’s tomboyishness and her location on the prairie, I now see in Anne a competitive spirit that I could have also related to, particularly with academics. It also would have been nice to have the American/Canadian contrast while I was a young girl, but at least now I know what I’ve been missing. Just as those around her were spellbound by Anne, so was I. I can’t wait to read more of the series.
Raidergirl, I thought about you often during the reading of this book. I’d love to visit you in PEI someday!
I loved this book, perhaps even more than The Handmaid’s Tale, which I also rated 4.5. Whereas The Handmaid’s Tale was mostly a cautionary tale about men’s subjugation of women, Cat’s Eye is about girls subjugating and intimidating other girls. Elaine Risley as an adult is a successful artist, but as a little girl she was bullied by her friends and their ringleader, Cordelia. What makes little girls (and big ones!) do this, and why do the ones being tormented let them do it?
In an interview in the back of the book, Atwood states this is her most autobiographical novel, and she states the theme of the book as follows:
Cat’s Eye is about how girlhood traumas continue into adult life. Girls have a culture marked by secrets and shifting alliances, and these can cause a lot of distress. The girl who was your friend yesterday is not your friend today, but you don’t know why. These childhood power struggles color friendships between women. I’ve asked women if they fear criticism more from men or from other women. The overwhelming answer was: “From women.”
In typical Atwood fashion, there were also themes concerning male-female relationships. In one painting of Elaine’s, called Falling Women, she describes what was meant in the artwork:
There were no men in this painting, but it was about men, the kind who caused women to fall. I did not ascribe any intentions to these men. They were like the weather, they didn’t have a mind. They merely drenched you or struck you like lightning and moved on, mindless as blizzards. Or they were like rocks, a line of sharp slippery rocks with jagged edges. You could walk with care along between the rocks, picking your steps and if you slipped you’d fall and cut yourself, but it was no use blaming the rocks.
That must be what was meant by fallen women. Fallen women were women who had fallen onto men and hurt themselves. There was some suggestion of downward motion, against one’s will and not with the will of anyone else. Fallen women were not pulled-down women or pushed women, merely fallen.
Definitely one to read if you’ve enjoyed other Atwood novels.
This was Canadian author Marie-Claire Blais’s first book. It was published in 1959 and translated from the French by Daphne Marlatt in 1960. Blais was a winner of the French language Governor General’s award in 1996 for Soifs.
Apparently this was made into a film last year with its French title, La Belle Bête. I wish they would have kept this title, The Beautiful Beast, for the English version of the book rather than using Mad Shadows. The Beautiful Beast is much more fitting.
She thought of the approaching marriage of this pair of dolls, a male doll and a female doll. She would have to live in the midst of this depravity-the artificial depravity of faces in the movies. How sad, she thought, they have no souls.
This is a story of a very dysfunctional family. Louise is a beautiful, but aging mother who is trying her best to hold on to her beauty. Aside from the usual ways, she also does this by nearly worshipping her son Patrice, who is beautiful but retarded. She sees her own beauty in him and thus is blind to his mental condition. In contrast to her extreme over-affection for her son is her disdain for her daughter Isabelle-Marie. She is not loved by her mother simply because she is not beautiful. This sets up a series of events that is catastrophic for the family.
To be frank, I read this book because it was short (130 pages), and I could use it for the Canadian Challenge. While not ‘enjoyable’ because of the subject matter, it was thought-provoking, and I’m very glad I did read it. I would recommend it to anyone, not just those participating in the Canadian Challenge.
I was disappointed in this book. I expected great things after loving The Handmaid’s Tale earlier in the year. I was especially disappointed as it was over 500 pages; it could have easily lost about 100 pages of detail. I guess that’s my main gripe about it. It just seemed too detailed for me. Also I correctly predicted almost all that happened. Long, too detailed, and too predictable. But still, Atwood does know how to turn a phrase, and that is why it still gets a 3.5 star rating.
I loved this book. I loved the writing. It isn’t a heartwarming book, but it is a thoughtful one. These “diaries” chronicle Daisy Goodwill’s life from her birth in 1905 to her death in 199? (we aren’t told the exact year). Each chapter of her life is told from her point of view, although in the book (and sometimes even in a single sentence) she switches back and forth between 1st and 3rd person. We learn of her childhood, her marriages and children, loves and losses, work and leisure, and finally her old age and death. The “chapters” made me think of my own life stages so far and the ones that are to come. All of us have a similar beginning and ending, but it’s the middle that makes life interesting.
There were many, many beautiful passages in this book. I’ll leave you with one as an example of the excellence of Shields’ writing:
Something has occurred to her–something transparently simple, something she’s always known, it seems, but never articulated. Which is that the moment of death occurs while we’re still alive. Life marches right up to the wall of that final darkness, one extreme state of being butting against the other. Not even a breath separates them. Not even a blink of the eye. A person can go on and on tuned in to the daily music of food and work and weather and speech right up to the last minute, so that not a single thing gets lost.
Carol Shields died of cancer in 2003. She was a gifted writer, and I definitely plan on reading more of her works.
There was nobody else — there never could be anybody else for me but you. I’ve loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.
I have always thought that the human heart is a little like the ocean, subject to tides, that joy rises in it in a steady flow, singing of waves, good fortune, and bliss; but afterward, when the high sea withdraws, it leaves an utter desolation in our sight. So it was with me that day.
I am probably the last adult female in the world to fall in love with Anne Shirley, but it’s finally happened. Her sweet, spunky, imaginative spirit is impossible not to fall in love with.
I loved this book, perhaps even more than 
This was Canadian author Marie-Claire Blais’s first book. It was published in 1959 and translated from the French by Daphne Marlatt in 1960. Blais was a winner of the French language Governor General’s award in 1996 for Soifs.
The Blind Assassin
