Pat of Silver Bush, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 9/10

Aaand the L. M. Montgomery spree continues...

This is going to be a long, rambling post, so if you don't like rambles, especially fanciful ones, you'd better skip it, because I'm going to post it regardless! :)

Pat Gardiner loves her family's farm and home, Silver Bush, more than any place she's ever been and wants nothing more than to stay there, with everything in it always the same. She loves her family, friends, and home fiercely and tries her hardest to keep them unaltered. But change is fated to come, and Pat must cope with it.

I really enjoyed this. I love the descriptions of Silver Bush-the fields, trees, orchard, graveyard, garden. I love Judy Plum and her wise, wonderful way of talking; her supposedly Irish vernacular actually does not hinder the flow of the story, but adds to her likeableness (is that a word...? I think not). I always like housekeeper/cook characters like her. There's just something about them...like Rebecca Dew (Anne of Windy Poplars) and Susan Baker (Anne's House of Dreams through Rilla of Ingleside).

Pat herself is delightful, and I sympathize with her so much, with the way she wants things to stay the same. She learns to deal with it well, for example growing to love her new baby sister when at first she dreaded her birth; when Pat goes for a three-week visit to her aunt's, unwillingly: "This is just a visit. I'll soon be home again...in just twenty-one days," she reminded herself bravely. Pat is very dependable herself, and very good at loving people and things to the utmost.

I would've liked to be a little more introduced to Pat's family-their looks and personalities. There seemed to be a smaller cast of secondary characters in this book, or at least, they were less prominent. About Pat's mother: "Mother never showed what she felt." Sometimes I wish I could be that way! But, really, I don't think I do wish to be that way. Only to have the ability when I want it, maybe.

' "I knew they could never have the soul of Silver Bush. That would always be mine." ' Montgomery always has sentences like this in her books. She knew that places and things do have character, depending on who is looking at them, who loves/hates them, and what has happened in or to them.

I like the way Pat names things on Silver Bush. It never occurred to me to do that. Naming things does make them like people, and really alive! Montgomery really makes me more aware of my surroundings.
On inspiration I named some things in my backyard and house:
* Japanese maple with reddish-orange leaves: the Wednesday Woman
* Tall fir tree next to it: Lord Fir. I have less than a month to enjoy him before he becomes this year's Christmas tree :(
* Sprawling, rough, green tree with many, randomly-placed arms: Progo (the tree reminds me of the 'cherub' in L'Enle's A Wind in the Door)
* Lone maple tree- Aching Bess. She's been 'trimmed' (butchered) and so is longing, aching, for her reaching branches again. When they grow in she will just be Bess.
* Camellia bush in neighbor's yard: the Bush of Happily Ever After. The way the evening sun falls on it, is bewitching. It makes me think of all my favorite books and their happy endings.
* Huge tree with abundant red leaves in summer/spring, in another neighbor's yard, facing ours: the Tree of Time. This tree looks so wise, as if it has seen so much and has always been; I don't know if it's male or female. If someone cuts it down, look out!
In my living room:
* Baby grand piano: Olga
* Mini cactus: Floyd
* Blue, oriental-patterned wing chair: Timothy
* Yellow and blue-print chair and hassock: Wendy
* Big yellow curtains: left one is Deb, right one is Dina
* White china cat: Prissa
* Old black couch with thin white stripes: Sid
* Tall floor lamp: Lois
* Mantel clock: Esther. She has been in our family since the year the Titanic sunk. The things she must have seen!
* Little green-leafed plant whose scientific name I don't know: Lucy

Not very imaginative names, maybe, but it was fun to think of them. When I looked at the objects, the names just popped into my head and could be nothing else. I love books that cause me to imagine all kinds of things!

Okay, back to more things I liked about this book, if you don't think I'm a nut-case yet:

I love the idea of Jingle's 'dream houses'- wouldn't it be fun to imagine them, just the way we want? Houses, especially their interiors, are fascinating to me. Oh, and I like Jingle himself immensely, of course! He's a really interesting character, and Pat brightens his life so much. And he hers.

Montgomery always puts into exquisite wording truths I have always felt; many of the sentences she puts together just make me shiver with their beauty and intrigue. Here are some, with my comments:

'She was pierced by the swift exquisite pang which beauty always gave her...always would give her. It was almost anguish while it lasted...but the pain was heavenly.'  Who hasn't felt this, when looking at a gorgeous sunset,or moonlight, etc?

'Pat felt herself a sister to all the loveliness of the world. If only everybody could feel this secret, satisfying rapture!'   Pat thinks this while outside, on a moonlit night.

'A street where the wind could only creep in a narrow space like a cringing, fettered thing, instead of sweeping grandly over wide fields and great salt wastes of sea.'   *shiver*

'The old loyalties of home were still potent.'

'The big white house with its background of sapphire water, where there was a coloured, fir-scented garden, full of wind music and bee song, that dipped in terraces to the harbour shore and was always filled with the sound of "perilous seas forlorn." '     It seems that in almost every book LMM quotes this line of Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale'. It's a beautiful quote- 'perilous seas in fairylands forlorn'. Doesn't that just give you shivers?

'He was thinking...of the house. He could see it...He could almost see its lights gleaming through the dusk of some land "beyond the hills and far away." '

'Hilary (Jingle's real name) was waiting in Happiness, sitting on an old mossy stone by the spring that the years had never touched.'

'Why, Pat wondered, did lovely thing so often hurt?'    Why, indeed? It's such an unfathomable mystery and truth.

Too many lovely sentences to list here! Montgomery writes about quite ordinary situations, if indeed anything is truly ordinary, but she makes them fascinating and exciting; her books read like fantasy, without the...fantasy.

Sometimes it's like Pat's my twin! When told she must go to Queen's Academy and study for a teacher's license, she tells Judy: "I don't seem to be like other girls, Judy. They all want to go to college and have a career. I don't...I just want to stay at Silver Bush and help you and mother."
That's the way I recently felt! I didn't want to go to college, but stay home and help my parents, maybe get a job while living at home. Now I'm reconciled to college...sort of :)
Pat is a 'kindred spirit', as Anne would say.

LMM has an uncanny knack of making me dislike, even despise, the 'beaus' of her heroines that don't end up lasting. Harris and Lester-ugh! Suffocating. But Jingle...!

Again, this book emphasized looks too much for my liking, but I really couldn't care less because the rest more than makes up for that.

When her characters grow up there's always sadness accompanying it, just the fact of them growing up along with other things. Sometimes 'losing the way to fairyland'. I hope I never lose that! Or maybe I already have...

I love LMM's love stories...her stories in general. They make me feel warm and happy inside, as do the books of Shannon Hale and many others. I don't necessarily look for reality in books, but for that warm, happy feeling. No stuffy professor of literature will ever bring me away from that or convince me that 'great works of literature' are the only worthwhile books to be read. Never!
Montgomery's endings always give me 'that thrill'. The last sentences or so are always just right, and haunting. There is no one like LMM! The same could be said of my other favorite authors.

I'm tempted to immediately read the sequel, but I believe I will read the sequel to The Story Girl, The Golden Road, first. Ahh, it's the best of all things to have so many LMM books yet to read!

I promise I will never write such a long post again, unless I cannot help it. I just had to let out the torrent of feeling Pat of Silver Bush brought in me.

Sometimes I think that stories/books are beyond the author's control or influence, and the authors are only the mediums through which they are told.

Okay, I'll shut up now. My word, that was long.

Kilmeny of the Orchard, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 6/10

Eric Marshall goes to be a substitute teacher for a friend at Lindsay, P.E.. Island. One day he stumbles upon a wonderful old deserted orchard. There he discovers a girl playing a violin. This beautiful, mute girl is Kilmeny Gordon,  and she steals Eric's heart.

I'll start off with the good:

* I liked reading about Eric coming out of his practical, matter-of-fact self

* The dialogue between Eric and David Baker in the beginning was absorbing and real-sounding-'fleshed out', as they say.

* Eric's thoughts after Kilmeny runs from him on their first meeting are very funny

* I liked Kilmeny's childlike candidness, and the fact that she was free from silly feminine coquetry; she was strange and interesting.

* The orchard was exquisitely described, making me want to be in it. Or plant an orchard in my backyard :)

Now for the bad:

* The beauty thing. Now, I don't mind beautiful characters as long as it isn't excessively emphasized. In this book, it's as if Eric only loved Kilmeny and wanted to marry her because of it. And his family and friends seemed to approve of her based on her looks! Whenever they were doubtful over the wisdom of the match, Eric said "Wait until you see her", not mentioning Kilmeny's personality. And they were won over at once when they saw her. Ugh.

* I can't say more, but lots of it was rather contrived and predictable. There was only one unexpected conflict. The end was a bit convenient and predictable. This doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of it too much, though

* Neil Gordon, who loved Kilmeny too, was treated as the 'untrustworthy foreigner' because he was Italian and often sulky

* I would have liked to know Kilmeny a weensy bit better. It would have been interesting if Montgomery had alternated between her and Eric's perspectives. But maybe that's because I"m so used to female protagonists in her books...

* There was a little humor, but not as much as in her other books

So, to sum up, this was a sweet, enjoyable story (every reviewer has said that, but there's really no other way to describe the book), with the usual interesting background characters. Love wins the day, and that is always good :). Now, whether it's true love, that's another matter...
This, after The Blue Castle, is the second of LMM's more 'adult' books I've read, and Blue Castle is definitely the better of the two.
All in all, Montgomery's orphan/young girl/ coming of age stories are my favorites. Thinking of them, at the moment, is like thinking of a cold glass of water on a hot day.
I'm definitely not paying $40 for it on Amazon-for the Bantam edition, anyway, which is the cover on this post. It's a beautiful cover, and I'm too stubborn to settle for anything other than that edition. I know, I'm silly, but I set a great deal of store by book covers!

And yes, that means that I do think this book is worth adding to my LMM collection. It's good to read for fans of Montgomery.

Her books always have a haunting effect that gives me a strange ache, especially because of her wonderful descriptions of nature and the effect it can have on us. Except for the part when I met the orchard, Kilmany of the Orchard didn't give me that ache, which both hurts me and enchants me, that I've come to expect from Montgomery.

Pat of Silver Bush next!

Jane of Lantern Hill, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 8/10

Jane Stuart has always lived with her mother and grandmother in a mansion on dreary Gay Street, where she never feels at home. Her grandmother is cold and controlling, and Jane's mother, always going out to social gatherings, does not have the backbone to stand up to her; neither does Jane, at first.
This all changes when Jane's father, who has lived apart from his wife for years on P. E. Island, sends for Jane to come see him. Jane has been taught to hate him, but when she visits him she finds everything a father should be. They pick a house together on Lantern Hill, where Jane spends the summers, and it becomes her real home, where she comes alive.

I'm going on a Montgomery spree! I've found several great websites where I can read her books for free!! Because my library does not have them. After the review I will list the sites.

This is a great book! I love the way Jane blossoms when she is living with her father during the summer. He helps make school subjects more interesting and meaningful to Jane, and when she goes back home to the mansion, she has more nerve to stand up to grandmother, and not let her biting remarks hurt her. Jane's natural cooking and housekeeping skills stretch plausibility, and the ending is rather abrupt, but these are very minor grievances.

Montgomery defies the notion that without a definite 'plot', there is no good story. She defies that so well! Especially with her characters that fairly walk off the page. I can just see Jane's grandmother sneering at me, and Jane cooking in the kitchen. The characters in Montgomery's books are the sort that make me expect them to appear before me at any moment.

A recurring theme I see in her books is that imagination is wonderful and can add so much to life, but it can never replace real people and experiences. It was great to see Jane able to feel useful and appreciated. I understand the need to be useful! Sometimes it takes me a bit to get engaged in Montgomery's books, but once I do they make a home in my heart. All the warmth and gorgeous descriptions of nature! Ahhh...wonderful stuff!

Aren't these Bantam editions beautiful?

Up next is Kilmeny of the Orchard.

Here are the sites where I found free Montgomery e-books:

Project Gutenberg

Onread.com

Free-ebooks

Many Books

Another thing- one of my favorite authors, Shannon Hale, posted a great entry in her blog some time ago. It has changed my outlook on reading! You can find it here.

A Room Made of Windows, by Eleanor Cameron

Rating: 7/10

Someone salvaged this book from being thrown away at a school and brought it to me. He has good taste-it's an intriguing title and cover, isn't it?

Julia Redfern lives in her own secure, dreamy world in which the inhabitants and places must stay the same, or it crumbles around her. Dramatic, spontaneous Julia, who aspires to be a writer, struggles with the changing lives of those around her, especially with the prospect of her widowed mother's remarriage. She especially loves her bedroom-a room made of windows.

Julia is a lovable protagonist despite the fact that she is quite self-centered. I can understand how much she just wants things to stay the same, safe and stable. By trying to hold on to everything, she loses it. That was interesting. The other characters were memorable and well-rounded. The ending was just a little too abrupt for me, though, and I wanted a little more elaboration on Julia's turn-around. And sometimes the events seemed a bit scattered and unconnected. Or maybe I was missing things...

However, I liked the feel of this book, it's homey atmosphere, and the nice descriptions and insights into writing. While I can't say I loved it, I would read it again, and at some point will check out the other books in the Julia Refern series.

All in all, I'm glad that the 'someone' dug the book out of the trash pile and brought it home to me.

Magic for Marigold, by L. M. Montgomery

Rating: 8/10


The story of Marigold Lesley, a blond, imaginative girl, is told in a series of mishaps and adventures, joys and sorrows in her sixth year to twelfth year. She meets many new friends and experiences, learning valuable lessons along the way. The setting is picturesque Prince Edward Island, among the many, diverse members of the Lesley clan and those around them.

I loved Magic for Marigold. It has all the ingredients that make Montgomery's books wonderful: memorable, 'flesh and blood' characters, an imaginative, spunky heroine, humor, and magic; plus some spine-tingling descriptions and sentences-a pleasant spine-tingling. In short, the essence of life.

Montgomery always introduces many set of aunts, uncles, cousins, and playmates in her stories, and the complications between them and the main character. She contrives great scenarios and adventures that are laugh-out-loud or beautiful; sometimes both. I loved the part in the beginning when the Lesley clan is trying to decide on Marigold's name. The input of the various relatives is just priceless.

Montgomery's books also always feature a bit of sadness, especially pertaining to growing up and 'losing the way to fairyland', that makes me sigh and feel wistful. But in a rather beautiful, thrilling way, if that makes any sense. I guess it's those elements of the glories of childhood, the magic, wonder and imagination that characterize her young heroines and their lives.

*Sigh*. To be young again. Alright, so I'm not even out of my teens, but you know what I mean. Young young.

Anyway, great book. It was delightful the whole way through.

Although...one thing that irks me in Montgomery's books is that she tends to emphasize looks too much. It's often 'she was not pretty, but...'   The 'but'! Like homeliness is a factor in judging someone, a flaw.  In one part of this book, a friend of Marigold's was described as 'she was ugly, but' (emphasis mine). That kind of thing just bugs me. I mean, ugly? That's a little harsh. I don't believe anyone is really ugly, except when they are mean, or just plain evil. No matter how gorgeous someone may be, he is ugly if he is wicked. Eh, well, I come across these things in many other books, too. There's really no escaping it, so I'd better learn to deal with my own insecurity.

Besides that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed Magic for Marigold.

The View from Saturday, by E. L. Konigsburg

Rating: 6/10
















Mrs. Olinski chooses four of her sixth-grade students at Epiphany Middle School for the Academic Bowl competition. She herself doesn't know why she chose these particular kids. They are a diverse group: Noah, a calligraphy enthusiast; red-haired Nadia, who is fond of baby turtles; quiet Ethan; and Julian, an persecuted Indian boy who invites the others to tea and so establishes their group: the Souls. The team becomes about much more than academic achievement.

I enjoyed this one, although at first I was annoyed by it. I usually don't go in for books that clearly try to be clever and unique and are, frankly, weird (except A Series of Unfortunate Events, of course). But I came to like the characters and care about them. It was fun to read from each child's perspective and also from Mrs. Olinski's. Each discovered something valuable and had a turn-around. I like how they all came together despite their differences and problems.


I'm glad I finally read this book-it has gathered dust in my room for quite a while!

Spring Pearl: The Last Flower, by Laurence Yep

Rating: 5/10 


During the French-British invasion of China, orphaned Spring Pearl goes to live in wealthy Master Sung's house. With her background of growing up in a poor family, she is subject to his snobby wife and daughters' disapproval. Spring Pearl must find a way to gain their favor while surviving the invasion.

This was kind of an eye-roller. Spring Pearl acted and spoke beyond her age of 12. I'm not one to underestimate kids, but let's be realistic. Mistress Sung, supposedly this strong and clever woman, would say "Yes, you're right, Spring Pearl. I didn't even think of that." You didn't think of getting your servants into a place safe from the army's shells? Come on! And Master Sung was rather pathetic: "Yes, dear (Mistress Sung), your advice is so helpful, I'm not going to stop you from being horrible to Spring Pearl." I mean, is he the 'master' of his house or not?

It always bugs me when 'children's' books are silly and implausible, just because they're written for kids. I've  read others in the Girls of Many Lands series, and the only one I've liked is Neela: Victory Song. It's really exciting and lovable. In Spring Pearl, I also thought the bits of history were sometimes dropped rather clumsily into the narrative.

It was still a pretty good story, about a strong girl who copes with her circumstances and holds her own. I liked Spring Pearl, the protagonist, I just think she didn't act like a twelve-year-old, no matter how tough and self-sufficient she was when living with her parents in the slums.

Bottom line, I won't read it again.

I'm hoping for some 8-10 rating-worthy books now!!

  

The Black Opal, by Victoria Holt

Rating: 7/10


I'm usually not attracted to books that are pure romance or mystery, but after reading Holt's Pride of the Peacock, I decided to try other books of hers. She was a very prolific author, with several pen names.

As a baby, Carmel March was left under an azalea bush in the garden of a wealthy English family. Everyone believes that she was left by a gypsy, and she never feels that she is wanted in the Marline household, called Commonwood House. That changes when Carmel meets her kind Uncle Toby when he comes to visit. One day he takes her away to Australia with him, and she later finds out that she was being removed from the scene of a murder that took place at Commonwood House. Carmel returns to England after she is grown and tries to put the pieces of her past together and clear an innocent man's name.

I was pleasantly surprised that this book was not purely a romantic mystery, but had some substance. In it Carmel copes with grief and the complications of relationships, especially family ones.

After reading two of Holt's books, a pattern has already surfaced: they both start from the beginning of the heroine's life, which is full of secrets and mysteries that are resolved throughout the book. There is a murder, and a romance. I also noticed that both were hard to get into at first, but worth sticking to as I became attached to the characters.

Holt is a good writer, and I will be reading more of her books - I have two or three waiting in my closet. I don't mind patterns in books. What counts to me is what is done with the patterns.




Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman

Rating: 2/10


The main reason I read this book was that one of my favorite authors, Shannon Hale, loves it. The other was that I thought it sounded good. Oh boy was I wrong!

This book is in diary format, and follows the story of Catherine, a clever and spirited girl, in the year 1290. Her greedy father brings old and repulsive suitors to their home and tries to marry her off to them because they are rich. Catherine does all she can to thwart her father's efforts.

I could hardly get through it. It was really rather disgusting and distasteful. All I was thinking was congratulations, you're a tomboy who wishes she could 'fart' at will. Round of applause for Catherine.There were too many mentions of 'passing wind' and so on. I didn't find Catherine very lovable, although her descriptions of a saint at the beginning of each entry were amusing. The book didn't entertain me or make me feel sympathy for her at all.

Or maybe I've just read too many books about heroines who hate embroidery and flout the feminine ideals of their day. Somehow I don't think so. I don't really get tired of that as long as it's done well, like in Ella Enchanted. Whatever the case, this book turned me off. I was highly disappointed, because I love Hale's books.

It seems more and more that I like author's books more than their recommendations. Interesting...

The Borrowers Aloft, by Mary Norton

Rating: 8/10

I've had this one for years and finally got around to reading it. Thank goodness I did!

The borrowers - Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock (aren't those delicious names?), a family of tiny people who live by 'borrowing' from 'human beans'- have finally settled in a comfortable, safe home, in a miniature village built by a retired railway-man. But the Platters, constantly spying on the elderly Mr. Pott so they can compete with the business his village attracts, contrive to steal the Clocks for their own miniature village. The family must find a way to escape from the greedy couple.

I really enjoyed this. The beginning describes Mr. Pott's progress in building his tiny village, Little Fordham, and the Platters' efforts to pass him up. That was very fun to read about, and Mr. Pott's cluelessness of the Clocks' presence was amusing. I love Pod's cleverness and resourcefulness that enable him to always find a way for his family to survive. In this book his wife and daughter help him build a hot air balloon that will take them out of the Platter's attic where they are imprisoned.

Arrietty is endearing because she is very brave, and wants to be friends with a woman who helps Mr. Pott build the village. Her budding romance with Spiller, a wild fellow borrower who we meet in the second book in the series, adds a little intrigue also.

Norton has a knack for humor, coziness, and creativity that make her books a delight, lovable and memorable.

Welcome!


This is my first  time blogging, and I thought I would start one where I review books I read. I've been inspired by several book blogs I follow. It will be interesting to see if I get any comments or followers, so I'm giving it a try!

To kick this blog off, I will start by listing my favorite books, for any who are curious (that's always the first thing I want to know about fellow book-lovers!); and maybe I will gain some sympathizers that way :)

So here they are, not in order of preference:

1. Harry Potter series.
2. The Chronicles of Narnia
3. Little House books
4. Ella Enchanted
5. Little Women
6. The Neverending Story
7. Anne of Green Gables series
8. American Girls Collection
9. Magic Tree House
10. The Velvet Room
11. Inkheart
12. A Series of Unfortunate Events
13. The Books of Bayern
14. The Penderwicks
15. Mitford series
16. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
17. Thornyhold
18. Nine Coaches Waiting
19. Thunder on the Right
20. Jane Eyre
21. The Little White Horse
22. The Library
23. The Ordinary Princess
24. Book of a Thousand Days

Rather a lot-no doubt many more will be added to the list in the future! It's evident from the list that I love children's books. This is because I feel that adult books can often be too pretentious, and it's hard to really get down to the actual stories. Also, fantasy is my favorite genre, but some books about 'ordinary' life are so enchanting they read like fantasy, e.g. the Anne books and Mitford books.
I need to say right off that I generally steer clear of bestsellers. So many of them are too trashy for me to bear. That really isn't my taste, and I love modern books that are clean, a rare treasure.

Boring anyone yet?

About this blog's title: Elinor from Inkheart is one of my favorite characters of all time, presumably because I relate to her so much. And 'Happy Endings' because I mostly prefer books with happy endings. Some with sad endings are beautiful, like Gone With the Wind and Green Mansions.

Another thing: This is not going to be a stuffy, or particularly 'intellectual' blog. I'm just going to give my impressions and feelings on the books, without going too much into symbolism and all that stuff, as important as I know that is.

Enjoy! Comments are certainly welcome. I would love to know what you think about any books you have read that I review here, or anythings else you'd like to share.

(I'll be adding some books in the next week or so)