I never read Anne's story when I was younger, so when I heard that Rachel McAdams was narrating the first in the series I knew I had to give it a go. I'm a sucker for a celebrity-narrated audiobook (if you haven't checked out Maggie Gyllenhaal's reading of  The Bell Jar, do that now!).

It's wonderful to read a story that, for the most part, is extremely uplifting. There's hardly anything truly terrible that happens in this story, and that's quite refreshing. Granted, it is a children's novel and from the early 1900's—so it has that moralistic quality to it wherein each incident Anne undergoes resolves itself with a lesson learned. But it was delightful, and Anne's optimism is contagious. Rachel McAdams also does a great job at encapsulating that attitude; I felt like I could hear her smile.

If, like me, you've never given Anne's story a chance, I can highly recommend the audiobook route. And I'm definitely going to continue listening to this series, especially when I'm in need of a pick-me-up.

A Beautiful Dreamer

As charming as she is Anne of Green Gables makes you fall in love with her not for her wit, but for her wholehearted love of life and the beauty of this world. She hates and loves with intense power for a little girl. I cried and smiled often during this story and I am so glad I finally read it.

This story is cute, touching, heart-warming, tear-jerking. In other words, a classic!

The target audience is definitely not me. I would say it would be perfect for a teenage girl living in Canada in the early 1900s. That makes sense, because that is exactly what Anne is! However, the point of this obvious detail is that sometimes it is fun to read a classic and try to put your mind in the mindset of who it was written for at the time. A couple of the storylines seemed silly or to not make sense, but if I stopped and changed my mindset, it would click.

A bit of a history lesson combined with a well written story. If you haven't read this before, give it a shot and maybe you will find your inner early 1900s Canadian teenager!

I have to admit that I hang my head in shame that, as a proud Canadian, I have never attempted to read any of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s collection of novels surrounding a precocious red-headed little girl. Asked to do so as part of a buddy read, I dove in to see what all the hoopla might be about and to finally partake in a part of true Canadiana, albeit a novel aimed at youths. Prince Edward Island is abuzz when Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert expect the arrival of a young boy from an orphanage. When Matthew arrives at the train station, there is no boy, but an eleven year-old girl. After an awkward exchange, Matthew and the young red-headed Anne Shirley begin the ride back to their residence. Anne is full of pep and vinegar, chatting the entire way and offering her own editorial comments about anything she can see. Marilla’s surprise when Anne arrives is one that cannot be masked, leaving the young girl to burst into tears. With the late hour, the issue is shelved until the morning and Anne settles into her room at Green Gables. Anne’s next few days are met with many troubling encounters with those close to the Cuthberts, many of which cause Anne distress and significant anger. When the Cuthberts agree to keep her on a trial basis, Anne finds herself putting down some roots and meets a young Diana Barry, another girl her own age. Anne and Diana create a wonderful world fuelled by their imaginations, which helps fill their time when not attending school. Anne meets her match, academically, in the form of Gilbert Blythe. An infuriatingly sharp Gilbert matches Anne’s skills and makes his intelligence known in various forms. Settling in at Green Gables, Anne and her friends find themselves in much mischief, to the point that the days turn to months and no one can remember what life was like before Anne arrived. Certainly a wonderful match, even if there are some bumps along the way. When a significant decisions awaits Anne, she must choose between her education and a family that has come to love her. The choice is one many readers will find quite amusing, amongst a great deal of emotional outpouring. A delightfully entertaining first book in a long series about Anne and her formative years along Canada’s East Coast. Recommended to those who love novels depicting early 20th century settings, as well as readers who enjoy something with a Canadian flavour to it.

As the father of a lively red-headed child, I know all too well the personality that Lucy Maud Montgomery infused into her protagonist. While Neo is an active eight year-old, his feistiness and need to talk incessantly reminded me so much of Anne’s depiction in this story, as well as their mutual need to get into mischief. Anne does come across as a tad precocious in the early portion of the novel, making her less than likeable to some readers, but her inherent desire to fit in is understandable. With a strong backstory in one of the early chapters, Montgomery weaves quite the tale for Anne as she seeks to finally be accepted and have a family of her own. As she gets more comfortable with the Cuthberts, Anne becomes one of the family, though her curiosity is sure to drive her parents wild. As the story progresses, the reader can see Anne’s character growth as she gets older, set against the backdrop of a Canada that still places women in subservient roles. Others in the story serve as plot advancers for the larger Anne narrative. Montgomery uses her characters so effectively and brings them back as needed, without carrying a large list of names for the reader to recollect throughout the entire reading journey. I am eager to see how some of these names will return throughout the series, though I am sure some flavour just the book in which they first emerge. The story itself is as Canadian as ever, though the early 20th century setting will differentiate it a great deal from today. A quasi-rural settling on Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province, creates a more wholesome aspect to the story, though it also helps to keep the focus on the plot, rather than having to worry about too many distractions in the forms of busy streets and large populations. I went into this book agreeing to fulfil a buddy read, but think that I might continue with the series, a book a month to keep the pleasantness of the series lingering into 2021. There’s something about a young ginger’s adventures that I like a great deal and it will allow me to add more editorialising about Neo’s life as well!

Kudos, Madam Montgomery, for a great beginning to the series. This is a Canadian classic that I hope many young readers will discover when time permits.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

✩ 5 stars ✩

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”

Back in college, I had a friend who was completely obsessed with this book. She worked it into a shocking amount of conversations and I remember thinking that it really couldn’t be THAT good. A children’s book about an orphan girl in the middle of nowhere? Sounded pretty dull to me, but boy was I wrong! Here to eat crow because I just fell in love with this book.

It was a pure delight to enjoy the atmospheric detailing of the Prince Edward Island. For someone like me, who gets deep into the non-tangible details of sight and smell of a setting before discerning the personality perusal, Anne of Green Gables is a bulls-eye!!

I co-related with Anne Shirley's character personification in totality. Her penchant for larger-than-life words, spark and zest for life, optimism and seeing the glint in the worst, describes our protagonist. She is funny, curious and full-of-life!

Her style of answering her own questions in the most flamboyant style possible, takes the reader deep into the atmospheric setting she builds-up.

Before picking up the book, I was dubious if Anne is one of those hyperbolic characters which fades away as the novel progresses, but LM Montgomery has woven her with grit and determination, vivacity and childishness. Anne deepens the interest of the reader, as the novel progresses.
There are moments of laughter and grief, moments of dancing with rapture and instances to wail and break. But there is no moment, for your heart to settle in a space of humdrumness.
I would have appreciated if the authoress would have described Anne's stay in Avonlea with Matthew and Marilla in more detail. It would have helped the readers to breathe in innocence a little more.

As I was devouring through the pages, my heart was melting away with the thought, that soon it will be all over. And yes it was.

I am surely, picking up the sequels, to explore how our all grown-up Anne shoulders with the world and it's responsibilities.

This book has transcended most of my existing reads, and is etched forever in my memory as one of my favorites for long!

NB- Epitome of friendship is directly proportional to the bosom friendship of Anne and Diana.

When I was in grade school, the anime adaptation of Anne of Green Gables was aired here in our country. I instantly saw myself in Anne because I'm talkative, passionate and a bit stubborn then, therefore, it's easy for me to get drawn immediately to the story. I never read any of the L.M. Montgomery's books even how much I adore Anne Shirley and even if how many times I saw the copies of her books in a local thrift bookstore.

However, when I saw that there's an available series of this in Netflix, I consider that now is the right time to start reading the original novels. From how much I love the anime series that I've watched when I was still young, I believe that my affection to the story and Anne's character revitalize when I read this classic. I'm quite certain that I will buy the physical copy of the entire book series of Anne of Green Gables because this is a great addition to my library.

My daughter loved this book over the summer, one of the classics I’ve never read and it’s now firmly on my To Read list. JS

Did I complete this book, or did this book complete me?

I picked up this jewel of a novel in attempts to quell a mental breakdown over the weather (30°F in the middle of April… isn’t Minnesota just lovely?), and needless to say; it worked! As I am writing this, it is just over 60°! I am convinced that L.M Montgomery has willed spring into my life with her writing, and I am forever grateful.

This is the kind of literature that instantly makes you want to be a better person (10x more than any self help book could!) and appreciate the small things in life. A reminder that even through pain, and hardship, there is always a beautiful world to get lost in. Reading this is like bathing your very soul in sunlight, you can’t help but feel warm and fuzzy when you’re immersed in Anne’s story. I’m so glad this book fell into my hands when it did, couldn’t be more in love.

Books around the globe: Canada

‘Dear old world,’ says Anne Shirley, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.’ Books like this, the long beloved Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, make me feel this sentiment deep in my bones. Despite it all, how can I not love a world and a humanity that brought this into existence. This book is perfectly splendid and I only wish I had read it as a child. Yet, traveling across Canada recently with this book, I was pleased to discover it could still build a bonfire in my adult heart to warm me with joy, still bring a frequent smile to my face and outbursts of gleeful laughter. ‘Anne with an ‘e’’ is an early ADHD icon who’s poetic ‘thoughts rove all over creation’ whom—as the rest of Avonlea soon discovers—is impossible not to love and I saw so much of my younger self in her. A coming-of-age tale wrapped in a sweet innocence that champions being yourself and embracing mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow, what really brought this novel to heart for me were the ways in which Anne’s offbeat personality cracks the stale and rigid expectations of a community and allows everyone to grow along with her. Community and shared growth are central to this story and this is as much a story about Avonlea as it is the Anne who makes it her home. Still touching hearts young and old since it was first published in 1908, Anne of Green Gables is an endearing and enduring classic.

‘ I shall give life here my best, and I believe it will give its best to me in return.’

There is a lot to love about Anne of Green Gables, but also a lot of messages to take to heart. An aspect I am particularly fond of in literature aimed at children is how the most successful ones can distill important themes in accessible ways that can enter our hearts to bathe us in pure shining light that always feels so pleasantly positive and empowering. There's multitudes to learn from Anne. For instance:

—Always embrace and learn from mistakes: ‘Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.’
—Find the good and fun in everything: ‘Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it.’
—A positive attitude makes a big difference: ‘It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.’
—Pay attention to the small joys and details in life: ‘All things great are wound up with all things little.’
—Give people a chance: ‘Miss Barry was a kindred spirit after all…you wouldn't think so to look at her, but she is.’
—Always prepare for setbacks: ‘There is always another bend in the road.’
—Start over fresh and don’t let setbacks get you down: ‘Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.’

There are many more, such as the importance of friendship, admitting faults and embracing imagination not just for oneself but to help it flourish in others. Going through these got me thinking how delightfully quotable and altogether memorable this novel is and it is no surprise this novel has continuously been endeared as an enduring classic. Even those who haven’t read the novel are likely familiar with certain scenes or lines, like the often quoted ‘I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers,’ which happens to arrive at the start of the same chapter in which the famous scene occurs where Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk on currant wine thinking she is serving raspberry cordial. The novel plays out in rather episodic moments such as this (which lends itself to the many tv series adaptations both animated and live action) with fairly contained action-consequence-resolution formats that build on each other to follow the course of Anne’s childhood into young adulthood. And it is a joy to watch Anne grow up.
n  n
Diana and Anne drink currant wine in the 2017 Netflix adaptation Anne With an E

What makes this book truly great are the characters. Anne, of course, but Marilla and Matthew are just as charming and engaging. I love Marilla who is struggling but earnest about trying to understand Anne and comes to really love her. As Matthew tells her, raising Anne won't be difficult 'if you only get her to love you,' and watching the relationship grow between her and Anne is so heartwarming. While sometimes she just wants Anne to shut up and stop being weird she can't help but privately enjoy how offbeat she is. I suspect this is a novel where those who read it in youth will identify with Anne but those who read it as adults (and especially as parents) will have a real appreciation for Marilla much like how everyone talks about which daughter from Little Women they are until they reread it as an adult and realize how much Marmee speaks to them. That was the case for me at least. But also wow did Anne speak to my heart and remind me of my pre-teen self.

'There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.'

The fictional town of Avonlea is nestled upon Prince Edward Island in Canada, which was also the birthplace and childhood home of author Lucy Maud Montgomery. While not an orphan as Anne was, Maud lost her mother at the age of two and when her father remarried she was sent to live with her grandparents. So one can see a twinkle of inspiration for the young Anne who (for those who don’t know the story), due to a misunderstanding, is sent to be adopted by aging siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. ‘She’s been a blessing to us,’ they learn, ‘and there never was a luckier mistake.’ Maud was fond of reading as a child and, like Anne, loved poetry. ‘Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back,’ Anne states, and in Anne we find quite the poet as well with long rambling chatter that moves ‘from safe concrete to dubious paths of abstraction.’ In an essay Montgomery discusses how novels were banned in her grandparents house but she had access to all the poetry she liked, and in her own writing there is certainly an impressive and delightful sense of the poetic. Montgomery pops off with excellent consonance quite frequently with phrases like ‘the waif of the world,’ but her vibrant imagery is certainly pure poetry. A favorite moment occurs right from the start with the images of Avonlea in bloom with an enraptured Anne finally rendered speechless. It is a critical image because it is in Avonlea that Anne is also able to bloom into the amazing person she becomes.
n  n
Prince Edward Island

‘What good would she be to us?’ Matthew asks Marilla when she questions keeping Anne, reminding her ‘we might be some good to her.’ This idea permeates the text and we see how community is so important. ‘True friends are always together in spirit,’ Anne teaches us and there are few more lovely friendships in fiction than Anne and her ‘bosom friend’ Diana. To watch Anne grow up is also to watch Diana grow up and to watch them love and support each other (I quite agree with the more recent adaptations, such as the modern-setting graphic novel Anne that portray them as a sapphic romance, besides *nose in air*I don’t think Gilbert is good enough for my Anne). Anne also comes to think of others as ‘kindred spirits’—such as Aunt Josephine who essentially becomes her benefactor after taking a liking to Anne while she apologizes for jumping onto her in bed by accident—and that we can find kindred spirits everywhere if we are willing to get to know people.

‘Evidently she did not like talking about her experiences in a world that had not wanted her.’

Friends are also important to Anne as she never had them before, unless you count Katie Maurice (her reflection) or Violetta (her echo). Her attachment to them is rather telling because not only was it a sign of her strong imagination but also because they were simply an extension of herself–Anne only had herself and coming to Avonlea. But we also see how Anne struggles at concepts like religion, which Marilla realizes is not due to irreverence but rather how can Anne comprehend divine love if she’d never experienced love from another before (though her distaste for God for having given her red hair—a constant struggle that leads to a very humorous scene about dying her hair and also is a point of contention where Gilbert calling her “carrot” cuts far too deep—is quite amusing). Anne had to learn community in general. Over the novel we see she thrives at this due to her imagination, something she says is easy ‘if you’d only cultivate it.’ Anne perfects how to bring out the imagination in others, something that—following in the footsteps of her mentor, Miss Stacy—makes her career as a schoolteacher a perfect fit to utilize such abilities. Sure, sometimes imagination can backfire like when she becomes afraid of the haunted woods, but it is also a path through that fear.

‘Ever since I came to Green Gables I’ve been making mistakes, and each mistake has helped to cure me of some great shortcoming.’

Though one of the greatest lessons in this book, I think, is the rather optimistic approach to embracing mistakes and learning from them. Each moment of growth comes from something initially thought of as an error (getting Diana drunk, almost drowning in the river) and finding it to be a teachable moment for the self. Though this extends beyond Anne too, as some of the friction Anne comes up against in the community becomes an opportunity for growth for them as well, or even with the Cuthberts who quickly learn that adopting a child is more about the child being an asset to the farm but a person to help grow and cultivate love, and be loved in return.

‘We ought always to try to influence others for good.’

This is such a lovely novel, one that encourages imagination, friendship, love, and appreciation of the world around us. For Anne, simply being out in nature and basking in the light of life is enough to ‘feel a prayer’ and in our encounters with Anne we too can feel it within ourselves. Though this is also a story of hard work, finding joy in simply learning and not having to always be the best, and also the importance of persistence. Anne of Green Gables is a marvelous story for readers both young and old, and I greatly enjoyed my time in Avonlea.

5/5
n  n
I also really love this edition of the book.

خب ظاهراً چاره ای نیست، جز این که ناتمام کنار بذارمش.
از تجربه های خوب من در کتاب صوتی بود، ولی متأسفانه نوارها ناقص بودن و نتونستم کاملش رو پیدا کنم.

عقل
"جین اوستن" نویسنده ی انگلیسی، رمانی داره به نام "عقل و احساس".
در این رمان، جین اوستن شدیداً به نهضت رمانتیک که در اون دوره در اوج خودش بوده، می تازه و در ضمن داستانی زیبا، نشون میده چطور اصالت احساس و اصالت غریزه، میتونه کار انسان رو به تباهی بکشه و باید با "عقل عُقلایی"
(Common Sense)
به غلیان و فوران احساسات، مهار زد و احساست رو در راه درست و حزم اندیشانه انداخت.

احساس
"آنی شرلی در گرین گیبلز"، شاید بشه گفت دقیقاً نقطه ی مقابل عقل و احساس هستش.
در این رمان، آنی نماینده ی تمام و کمال رمانتیک گری، با دید احساساتی و فردگرایانه ی خودش به جهان، همه ی نماینده های عقل عقلایی رو به مبارزه می طلبه و به شدت نقدشون میکنه و حتا گاهی، میتونه احساسات پنهان پشت نقاب عقل اون ها رو تحریک کنه.
هر چند، "آنی شرلی در گرین گیبلز"، بر خلاف "عقل و احساس" صریحاً موضع گیری نمی کنه و یکی از این دو دیدگاه رو بر دیگری ترجیح نمیده، ولی خود روایت، به گونه ایه که خواننده رو ناخودآگاه جلب رمانتیسیسم میکنه.

The audiobook performed by Rachel McAdams is perfection. As is the story, of course. Anne will always, always be one of my favorite stories and favorite heroines of all time. Her spunk, her kindness, her imagination, her devotion, her passion - I love her and I love all of Avonlea.

____________

Reread 8/27/18
Obviously Anne is my favorite forever. Reread for #nothankswerebookedwithanne