my books - Anne of Green Gables (1908) by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Oh, how I wish I had read this book (and undoubtedly the series) out loud to the kids (or at least the youngest) years ago.

I had never read Anne before last month. I simply didn't know.

If you are trying to place the style of this book, it is similar to the Little House on the Prairie series. It is that type of book. Anne is an orphan. She was not abandoned. Her parents died when she was small baby (epidemic). The story starts when she is 11.

Here is a bit of background (context section) from Sparknotes on Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942). It was interesting to note that she married at age 37 and had three children. Highly unusual for those days.



Wiki notes:

Anne of Green Gables (1908) is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Written as fiction for readers of all ages, since the mid-twentieth century, the literary classic has been considered a children's novel. It recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, a young orphan girl sent to a middle-aged brother and sister who have a farm on Prince Edward Island, and who had intended to adopt a boy to help them. The novel recounts how Anne makes her way with the Cuthberts, in school and the town.

Since publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than 50 million copies, and has been translated into 20 languages. Numerous sequels were written by Montgomery, and since her death, another sequel has been published, as well as an authorized prequel. The original book is taught to students around the world.

It has been adapted as films, made for television movies, and animated and live-action television series. Plays and musicals have also been created, with productions annually in Canada since 1964 of the first musical production, which has toured in Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan. Others have been produced in Canada and the United States,

In writing the novel, Montgomery was inspired by notes she had made as a young girl, about a couple who were mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of the boy they had requested, yet decided to keep her. She drew upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island. Montgomery used a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit, which she had clipped from New York’s Metropolitan Magazine and put on the wall of her bedroom, as the model for the face of Anne Shirley, the book's main character.

Montgomery also was inspired by the "formula Ann" orphan stories which were popular at the time and distinguished her character by her insistence on spelling her name as "Anne". She based other characters such as Gilbert Blythe, in part on people she knew. She said she wrote the novel in the twilight of the day, while sitting at her window and overlooking the fields of Cavendish.

As soon as I read those Wiki notes, my mind went to the poem (written in 1885) -

The Little Orphan Annie
by James Whitcomb Riley

Little Orphan Annie's come to my house to stay.
To wash the cups and saucers up and brush the crumbs away.
To shoo the chickens from the porch and dust the hearth and sweep,
and make the fire and bake the bread to earn her board and keep.
While all us other children, when the supper things is done,
we sit around the kitchen fire and has the mostest fun,
a listening to the witch tales that Annie tells about
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!

Once there was a little boy who wouldn't say his prayers,
and when he went to bed at night away up stairs,
his mammy heard him holler and his daddy heard him bawl,
and when they turned the covers down,
he wasn't there at all!
They searched him in the attic room
and cubby hole and press
and even up the chimney flu and every wheres, I guess,
but all they ever found of him was just his pants and round-abouts
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!!

Once there was a little girl who always laughed and grinned
and made fun of everyone, of all her blood and kin,
and once when there was company and old folks was there,
she mocked them and she shocked them and said, she didn't care.
And just as she turned on her heels and to go and run and hide,
there was two great big black things a standing by her side.
They snatched her through the ceiling fore she knew what shes about,
and the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!!

When the night is dark and scary,
and the moon is full and creatures are a flying and the wind goes Whoooooooooo,
you better mind your parents and your teachers fond and dear,
and cherish them that loves ya, and dry the orphans tears
and help the poor and needy ones that cluster all about,
or the goblins will get ya if ya don't watch out!!!

my books - East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck

Wiki writes:

Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories.

The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors.

The Hamilton family in the novel is said to be based on the real-life family of Samuel Hamilton, Steinbeck's maternal grandfather.

A young John Steinbeck also appears briefly in the novel as a minor character. According to his third and last wife, Elaine, he considered it his magnum opus – his greatest novel.

Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: "It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years." He further claimed: "I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this."

Does that almost bring a tear to your eye? It does mine.





This is my oldest's all time favorite book. It is a beloved book to him.

I read it specifically because he wanted me to read it (and it was darned well about time, I am 51 years old and college educated, Steinbeck is a Nobel Prize winning American author.).

I loved this book. It belongs to a lengthy list of really great books I have read. The book is deliciously long. It is a really, really good story.

In fact, I am not sure what my one favorite would be. I have read a lot of books I truly love. But the ONE? Not sure I can choose. Once upon a time it was Gone with the Wind. At other points it was Agatha Christie in general. At another time it was the Merlin Series by Mary Florence Elinor Stewart.   Oldest loves the the Stewart Merlin Series also. I am not sure either of the girls has ever read it.

I read East of Eden shortly after Grapes of Wrath. I think there were three books in between those two texts. As I got ready to start East of Eden I asked oldest if I needed to be forewarned (is Eden as sad as Grapes?).

He assured me that it was not as sad. I asked what it was about and he told me two brothers. Then I looked it up on Wiki and it reference two families. I actually think it is more accurate to say it is about a man who had a family (including a brother) and neighbors and friends.  At one point in the story, I thought oldest should have said - it is about a psychopath (antisocial personality disorder). Because that stood out to me in the book. I also saw a lot of history repeating itself.

The title of the book relates to the Garden of Eden and the story of Cain and Able. Not only can one see that story running through the book, but it also shows that story is running through human kind through the ages.

As I read, I was a little worry history was just going to keep repeating itself and no one was going to learn/change through the generations of families.

That is a topic that is hard for me. I feel very strongly about there being lines in the sand and learning and applying.

I almost called the oldest several times to ask if history just keeps repeating itself in the story. I didn't, he was in the midst of studying for very hard finals.

And honestly, I am not sure how he would have answered that question. I am not sure how I would answer that question now that I am done with the book. Human kind, families, are a complex issue.





For those of you who like older/classic movies, yes there was an East of Eden movie.

Wiki writes:

East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the novel of the same name by John Steinbeck.

The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey. It also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos and Jo Van Fleet, and was adapted by Paul Osborn and John Steinbeck.

Although set in early twentieth century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley.

Of the three films in which James Dean played the male lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime and the only one which Dean personally viewed in its entirety.

In 1995 Nonesuch Records issued an album of music from both "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause" - both written by Leonard Rosenman - played by the London Sinfonietta conducted by John Adams.

If you like context as much as I do, here it is (from Sparknotes) for Steinbeck (as author of East of Eden). This section does not give away the plot. At the end of the context section there is a review of Genesis and the story of Cain and Able.

my books - A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway

In a post a while ago, I wrote:

This (For Whom the Bell Tolls) was my second Hemingway book (read A Farewell to Arms last year and liked it too). His books have a very definite style. These first two were very much about men, but the men both had women they deeply loved.

I found A Farewell to Arms to be a bit choppy around the middle, but it is set during a war and war is muddled. Actually For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during war too. And it is much cleaner, more straight forward in its telling.


Here is The Big Read's Audio Radio show on Farewell to Arms.

That (above) was the grand total of my notes on Farewell (and apparently For Whom the Bell Tolls also) the first time I read it.

I read Farewell again last month.

If you are wondering why I reread Farewell, two reasons:
1. I have always wondered if I didn't like it simply because it was my first Hemingway and I didn't have my Hemingway chops (I have loved the Hemingway books I have read subsequently.)
2. I read All Quiet on the Western Front (also WWI) and wanted to compare.



On Farewell, Wiki notes:

A Farewell to Arms is a novel written by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. The book, published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant ("Tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken from a poem by 16th-century English dramatist George Peele.

A Farewell to Arms focuses on a romance between Henry and a British nurse, Catherine Barkley, against the backdrop of World War I, cynical soldiers, fighting and the displacement of populations. The publication of this, Hemingway's bleakest novel, cemented his stature as a modern American writer, became his first best-seller, and is described by biographer Michael Reynolds as "the premier American war novel from that debacle [World War I]".

The novel was first adapted to film in 1932, with further versions in the following decades.

Even though there was dirt and shrapnel and wounds and fear and displacement in Farewell, it is not the same level of war as All Quiet.

Farewell sort of reads as the Country Club version of war when compared to All Quiet.

My husband has read both of these books also. He commented Farewell reads like the Hollywood version of war. And All Quiet reads like real war.

Part of this is the fact that the main character in Farewell was sleeping in a bed and being fed and drinking (a lot) of alcohol during his version of the war. The main character in All Quiet was living in a trench (with dead bodies) and was pretty hungry.

These differences were probably due to the two different sides of the war represented AND the different rank/level of the two main characters.

And part of it is Hemingway's writing style.



There is The Iceberg Theory of Hemingway's writing:

Hemingway:

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

and  Wiki:

From reading Rudyard Kipling he absorbed the practice of shortening prose as much as it could take. Of the concept of omission, Hemingway wrote in "The Art of the Short Story": "You could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood." By making invisible the structure of the story, he believed the author strengthened the piece of fiction and that the "quality of a piece could be judged by the quality of the material the author eliminated." His style added to the aesthetic: using "declarative sentences and direct representations of the visible world" with simple and plain language, Hemingway became "the most influential prose stylist in the twentieth century" according to biographer Meyers.

So, what did I think of Farewell to Arms, this second time through, on its own merit (not comparing to All Quiet on the Western Front)?

My impression, reading it the first time, a while back, was indeed because I was not used to Hemingway.

I loved For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, Old Man and the Sea when I went on to read each of them (after my first reading of Farewell).

And on the second reading, I loved Farewell too.

My favorite of the grouping is For Whom the Bell Tolls. That one is about the Spanish Civil War. No, I am not fond of war, but it is a truly great book.   My second favorite, The Sun also Rises, is about bull fights and drinking and carousing. As I said at the time - who would have guessed I would have loved that book - ?

I am very much a Hemingway girl.

I never would have known this if Hemingway books had not kept showing up on my to read lists. I would not have read the first one and then gone on to read the following three, on my own. I would not have understood that I needed to get my Hemingway Chops and learn how to read his style.

my books - All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) (1929) by Erich Maria Remarque

Wiki notes:

All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front.

The novel was first published in November and December 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung and in book form in late January 1929.

The book and its sequel, The Road Back, were among the books banned and burned in Nazi Germany. It sold 2.5 million copies in twenty-five languages in its first eighteen months in print.

In 1930, the book was adapted as an Oscar-winning film of the same name, directed by Lewis Milestone.

In the spirit of warning me, we now have a tradition:

For Tess of the d'Urbervilles middle warned - it is a tragedy. Just when you think, this time it might work, this time things might be better for poor Tess - remember it is a t-r-a-g-e-d-y.

For Grapes of Wrath oldest said - it is sad. It starts out sad, it stays sad, it is just sad.

As I got ready to start All Quiet on the Western Front my husband said - it is war, war, war.



First of all, I would like to say this is a truly great book.

It is very well written.

Even though it is a translation, it is very easy to understand. The language is NOT stilted or awkward to me (but I will add I am very used to translations now, I have read a lot of them).

This book captures the essence of front line warfare.

There are only slight sections where one realizes the book is about the German side of WWI. The story is sideless, timeless.

It is one of those books that captures an era, but, yes, it is a timeless rendition of war.

Yes, there are gruesome parts. It is front line battle from a very nasty war. Some still say the nastiest war before mustard gas was made internationally illegal.

Like the other books listed above (Tess, Grapes) and Uncle Tom's Cabin which I would put in this same category, I did fine with it. I think because I was forewarned, I was okay all the way through the story.

I read it as a piece of history. I did not picture it happening to anyone I know. It did NOT give me nightmares or cause me to ruminate in any way. I thought about the book in the context of the book only.


On this topic, Sparknotes writes:

The overriding theme of All Quiet on the Western Front is the terrible brutality of war, which informs every scene in the novel. Whereas war novels before All Quiet on the Western Front tended to romanticize what war was like, emphasizing ideas such as glory, honor, patriotic duty, and adventure, All Quiet on the Western Front sets out to portray war as it was actually experienced, replacing the romantic picture of glory and heroism with a decidedly unromantic vision of fear, meaninglessness, and butchery. In many ways, World War I demanded this depiction more than any war before it—it completely altered mankind’s conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence, its battles that lasted for months, and its gruesome new technological advancements (e.g., machine guns, poison gas, trenches) that made killing easier and more impersonal than ever before. Remarque’s novel dramatizes these aspects of World War I and portrays the mind-numbing terror and savagery of war with a relentless focus on the physical and psychological damage that it occasions. At the end of the novel, almost every major character is dead, epitomizing the war’s devastating effect on the generation of young men who were forced to fight it.

If one read Catch-22 and took out all the Who's on First? farcical nonsense, it would be very similar to All Quiet. Two different wars, two different sides, but very similar viewpoints.

I also thought about the last episode of the television series Mash as I read. The statement of what war does to participants that was shown in Hawkeye's mental collapse. I was in college when that episode ran. I remember discussing it with an English professor who was shocked the series did not have a humorous, happy ending. I asked if he had been paying attention through all the episodes. Because like China Beach, I thought the writers held on to the futility and horrors of war on a consistent basis. I thought there a profound point to the ending episode of Mash.

As, I said, this was a most excellent book. Another one that I think should be read by all, even though it is not a very pleasant topic.