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February 2019 Reading Round Up

Linen trousers and a t-shirt outside in British late February when the earliest opportunity had previously been mid-March… it has been lovely but also very worrying. I digress.

My literary February was all about classics. Looking at my shelves after each finished final page I attempted a contemporary novel, but nothing worked. Polly Clark’s Larchfield had to go back to its space, only a few pages read, and even the last Sherry Thomas book I have waiting for me, in all its easy-reading goodness, didn’t get my attention. Instead I found comfort in the mid-1800s; I thought it might be time to explore the world of the youngest Brontë writer and that proved correct, and later L M Montgomery’s famous series – written in the early 1900s but set in the 1860s and onward – drew me. I’ve often thought I might like to read the Anne novels, yet reckoned it might stay an idea unfulfilled – I think that would’ve been fine in regards to the first book, but the second is not to be missed.

All books are works of fiction.

The Books

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Anne Brontë: Agnes Grey – In order to help her family, a young woman becomes a governess, but finds a lot of problems in the world of the wealthy that she did not expect. The plot isn’t particularly thrilling but it’s well-written, an easy read, full of memorable paragraphs, and sports a nice romantic thread.

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L M Montgomery: Anne Of Green Gables – The Cuthbert siblings arrange for an orphan boy to be sent to them to help on the land, but when they receive a girl instead, they decide to keep her despite her inability to stop talking and her penchant for daydreaming. It doesn’t really go anywhere, prefers to work in cycles of events, but it’s an easy, fair, read.

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L M Montgomery: Anne Of Avonlea – Details the years following Anne’s childhood as she steps into her role as a teacher. A much better book: it’s got the same atmosphere of the first, but the plot here is more thought-out and interesting.

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Monica Ali: Brick Lane – When Nazneen was married to Chanu, he took her from Bangladesh to Britain with the promise of a better life, but they continue to reside in the flat the council gave them and Nazneen wants a little more from life. There needed to be a lot more to this book – everything in it has been done before and it’s quite frustrating when it starts to look like it’s going somewhere only for Ali to drop the subject soon after she’s begun (this happens a number of times).

The second Anne book pipped Brontë to the post at the eleventh hour; I loved the grown-up Anne and Montgomery seems to have got into her stride in regards to creating fun characters.

Quotation Report

In Anne Of Avonlea a woman, so fastidious about her house, lays newspaper down not only on her floors but all the way down the garden path, and requests her visitors to wipe their feet before treading on it. And, unrelated to this, a little boy wonders why male angels can’t wear trousers; he’s the very same boy who later pulls up his plants by the roots to see how they are getting on at the other end. Unsurprisingly, his twin sister’s garden is more successful.

The plan for March is to read at least one more classic and get to a review copy that I was sent in January that is published in April – Sofie Laguna’s The Choke. I also have an Elizabeth Chadwick on the go which I’d like to make more of a priority, and I will most likely keep reading Montgomery: I’d like to read the next Anne book, and having started the series I’m very tempted to return to The Blue Castle.

I have been away – update me on your reading!

 
 

Kelly

March 1, 2019, 5:43 pm

You had a good February. I’ve been tempted by Agnes Grey before, but never read it.

I’ve started doing monthly wrap-ups and have gotten off to a great start for the year with eight in January and five in February. Quite a varied group, too.

Freda

March 1, 2019, 9:25 pm

I love the Anne books. All of them. :-) Happy March!

jessicabookworm

March 3, 2019, 10:53 am

Well sadly not much to update you on, as I only finished reading two books in February: the challenging The Story of Reality by Gregory Koukl for my church’s book club and the super fun Origin by Dan Brown, the latest Robert Langdon book. However it looks like you enjoyed a wonderfully comforting classics month! I have both Agnes Grey and Anne of Green Gables on my Classics Club list. I never read anything by L M Montgomery, but I loved Anne Bronte’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Happy March reading!

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