"Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty

I've heard a lot about how good this book is, and the HBO series it is based on. So I started listening to it when I had some time to myself (which is hard during lockdown). I had no idea what it was based on, besides a group of kindergarten moms. Since I'll be joining that group next year, I thought why not?

It was FASCINATING. 

PLOT

It starts with a group of elementary age parents getting into a brawl at a school trivia night, and then you find out they are being interrogated for a murder. Throughout the story, you hear gossipy things that the moms are saying about what had happened to lead up to this point (which also helps eliminate which character is dead).

The book then goes back 6 months in time. The main characters are Jane, a single mom of Ziggy; Madeline, the mother of Chloe; Renata, the mother of Amabela (NOT Annabella); and Celeste, the mother of twins Josh and Max. Madeline and Jane meet because Madeline twisted her ankle getting in teenagers' faces for texting while driving. Jane was behind her and helped her when they found out they were going in the same direction. They drop their kids off and go get coffee. When the kids are leaving, Amabela starts crying and said someone attacked her as they were leaving. She then points out Ziggy. Renata flies off the handle and demands he apologize. But he said he didn't do it, and Jane defends him. This begins all the drama.

The next 6 months are told through different perspectives. You find out Celeste is tall, blonde, and beautiful, and seems to have the perfect life. Her husband, Perry, is also tall blonde and beautiful, and very wealthy. However, she keeps thinking about how long she has until she can leave him. It sounds odd, since they seem to love each other a lot.

Jane was only 19 when she got pregnant with Ziggy. It was a one night stand, and she says she doesn't know the name of his dad. When she tells Madeline this, Madeline tells Jane she has a child from a previous marriage. Abigail's dad split when she was a baby, and didn't come back into her life until she was 10. He's now remarried to a yoga vegan organic woman named Bonnie, and they have a daughter named Skye that is Chloe's age. Abigail is starting to listen to what Bonnie says, and wants to go vegan. Madeline is bothered that her ex husband (Nathan) lives in the same school boundaries as her, and that Abigail loves to be around him when he was an absent dad for the first 10 years of her life.

As time goes on, they find out that someone is still bullying Amabela at school. But she will not say who did it. Renata assumes that it is Ziggy again (even though Ziggy keeps saying "I don't want to talk about it" when Jane asks him), and her best friend Harper creates a petition to get Ziggy suspended.

There is also a book club that Madeline forms, which she calls an "Erotic Book Club" even though that isn't accurate. It's more to get the other moms wound up. You learn a little bit more about Jane, and that she worries that Ziggy might end up to be like his dad. It turns out she DOES know his name, which she tells to Madeline. She has also become better friends with Celeste, and tells her the story of her one night stand but doesn't say his name. It turns out the father, whose name is Saxon Banks, was an older man who charmed Jane in a bar and then took her to his hotel room. Once they got there, he turned horrible and abusive. He said awful things to her, and choked her. Once she found out she was pregnant, it was too late. Madeline Googled Saxon Banks, and found out he has 3 other children. When Madeline mentioned his name to Celeste, she found out he was Perry's cousin.

Perry, as it turns out, is not perfect. He is abusive. They have tried marriage counseling time and time again, but each time he says what he needs to say and then goes along his way. Celeste finally goes to see a domestic violence counselor, and Susan encourages her to find a new place for her and the children to go the next time it happens. Celeste drags her feet, but finally gets a tiny 2 bedroom apartment and begins to furnish it.

Madeline finds out that her daughter has been reading about the child marriages and is horrified. Abigail wants to do something about it, and says that she has an idea. Turns out the "idea" is a website auctioning off her virginity, the proceeds going to UNICEF. Madeline and Nathan are working toward shutting it down, and Madeline blames Nathan and Bonnie for not supervising Abigail well enough. Abigail finally decides to take the site down after a man named Larry Fitzgerald send her an email that says he will donate $100,000 to UNICEF if she takes it down.

There is an award ceremony before the trivia night, and when Perry asks about the petition (he works with Renata) and Celeste says "If you sign the petition Perry, I will leave you". They all laugh it off, but when they get home Perry slams her head into the wall.

The day of the trivia night brought about a lot of revelations. Jane and Ziggy are eating at a coffee shop when Ziggy suddenly says that he can't tell Jane who was bullying Amabela because he said he'd kill her. Jane is horrified, but asks if he can write it down so that way he can keep his promise and she can know. Ziggy writes down "Maks". Jane realizes it is one of Celeste's boys that has been psychopathic and attacking the girls in his class. Because now it isn't just Amabela. He also pushed Bonnie's little girl, Skye, down the stairs.
Celeste is getting ready for the trivia night. Josh comes and tells her that it is Max who has been bullying the girls in his class. Celeste knows she needs to get out. Perry picks up her phone, and it's the manager of the apartment Celeste has gotten. He discovers that she is going to leave him.

SO, things are heated at the Trivia night.

Madeline and Bonnie get into a fight because Madeline hates that they live so close. Celeste tells Renata that it was her boy that has been bullying Amabela and not Ziggy, and that she is so sorry and wants to make amends. Madeline works out that it was CELESTE, not Larry Fitzgerald, who donated $100,000 to UNICEF. Perry didn't know about it. When Jane comes out onto the balcony and sees Perry, she freezes. HE IS SAXON BANKS. (I actually gasped out loud when this was revealed.) When Celeste confronts him, Perry hits her. That is the first anyone sees of the violence that has been going on in their marriage. To everyone's shock, it is BONNIE who shoves Perry. Due to the rain, intoxication of the crowds (the drinks were improperly mixed), and the surprise of little calm Bonnie reacting so angrily, Perry loses his footing and falls off the balcony. The people who were around decided that they wouldn't say anything to the police about who did it.

Madeline and Jane both got hurt in the process, and Nathan came to visit Madeline in the hospital. He said that Bonnie had a difficult childhood with an abusive dad. She suffers from PTSD as a result of this, and he thinks this is why she attacked Perry that way. Ed (Madeline's current husband) doesn't know if he can go through with covering up the murder, and was about to go to the police department to give his statement when Celeste calls Madeline. She says that Bonnie came to see her and said she was going to confess. Madeline stops Ed from lying, and he is immensely relieved.

Perry's funeral is one that talks about what a wonderful husband and dad he was. People cry and talk about how they'll miss him. Madeline notices that Celeste doesn't cry.

The school year ends with Renata and Amabela about to move to London (her husband- and many other men- had an affair with the nanny). The children have become friends again, and the parents are working on it.

THOUGHTS

Ok, a lot to unpack here. There was a lot of language in the book, which explains why the show would be on HBO. There would be no other way to accurately represent it.

One thought I had was that you never really know what is going on behind closed doors. Celeste and Perry looked like they had the perfect marriage. Even I was wondering why she was talking about "when the boys graduate, then I'll leave him". But nobody should live their marriage in fear. Jane was judged because of a false accusation, and everything she did was scrutinized after that. They said she had an affair with one of the dads (turned out she started to date the man who ran the local coffee shop... that everyone thought was gay for some reason).

Another thought was how quickly gossip spreads. Madeline even set them up, by creating her "erotic book club". People were SCANDALIZED without knowing what was happening. Once they found out about the nanny having affairs with a bunch of the dads, all the moms had an opinion on whether it was Renata's fault for not watching her so closely. They weren't sure if the teacher was competent because the bullying went on in the classroom.

Bottom line- don't judge. Even though I know I'd be up in arms if someone attacked my child in a classroom, I would not allow a petition to suspend the accused to be formed.

Book Club October 2019 Book- "House of Salt and Sorrows" by Erin A. Craig

This book is a YA retelling of the fairy tale "Twelve Princesses Dancing". In the fairy tale, the 12 princesses go dancing all night and have to get new shoes every day. (I've never actually read the original story, so I only know that.)

In this story, the story opens with the funeral of a girl. She is the fourth sister in a family of twelve to die. Her younger sister, Annaleigh, is the narrator. They are the daughter of a duke, who is also a widower. They have a new stepmother, who announces her pregnancy at the funeral luncheon.

 Strange things start happening at the manor. Annaleigh is not sure that Eulalie (her sister who just died) committed suicide. She investigates with the help of her friend Fisher, and finds out Eulalie had a secret lover. But before she can talk to him about the night Eulalie was going to run away, he falls to his death. She also meets this man named Cassius, whom she takes an interest in.

She and her sisters find a secret passageway to different parties that happen around the land every night.

That's all I want to share right now because there are some crazy plot twists that I don't want to give away. We read this in our book club in October because it is slightly creepy and has to do with death and ghosts. There's also a main character named Camille, which was exciting and *spoiler alert* she doesn't die! Yay! If they make this into a movie it will be a good teen movie. Lots of romance, beautiful dresses (which I wish I could wear sometimes!), suspense, and just enough scare factor to keep you super into the book. The plot twist is mind bending, and it makes you wonder what is real and what is fake.

Book 7- "The Vile Village" by Lemony Snicket

This book was extremely frustrating. The Baudelaires can't find anyone else to watch them, so they are taken to a pilot program of a village taking care of children (after the saying "It takes a village to raise a child"). First of all, where are all the parents' friends? Are they really all dead too? What the heck?

The village is the Village of Fowl Devotees (Oh I forgot to mention in the 5th book, V.F.D. is a secret code that the Baudelaires learned about. However they know nothing about it so they signed up for the village called "V.F.D."Anyway.) because they are obsessed with the crows that roost in their town. EVERYWHERE. The elders in this village have a million rules, including no mechanical tools, no books that talk about breaking any of the rules, and most importantly do NOT hurt a crow. The punishment for breaking a rule is being burnt at the stake. Even though the village signed up for the program, none of the elders wanted to house or feed the children. So they are sent to live with Hector the handyman, who just happens to have all the banned tools and books behind his house. His problem is that he is too skittish around the Elders to speak up to them ever.

When the Baudelaires go to Hector's house, he shows them something that he found by the tree outside his house. It is a couplet, written by Isadora Quagmire! The Baudelaires are convinced that they are in the village, and want to find them. They are in charge of all the chores in the village, so they work with Hector. On their first day, they find out the Elders have kidnapped Count Olaf. Which was SUPER shocking.

However, when they go to the courtroom they see that it is not Count Olaf but another man who happens to look like him and have the same tattoo. His name is Jacques Snicket, and he knew the Baudelaires' parents. They wanted to hear from Jacques, but find out the next morning that he was murdered. The detective for the case was guess who? OLAF. He says that the children were the ones who killed "Olaf", which means they were going to be burned at the stake. They are put in prison, because Hector won't stand up for them against the Elders.

The children somehow figure out that the bread and water they have will act as a sponge and help break down the brick on the wall. They work all night on it, and break out using their bench just before they are supposed to be burned. While they are talking about the poems that they had found from Isadora, they realize the Quagmire triplets are hidden in the new fountain in town. They break them out, and find Hector finishing up his invention. It is a self sustaining hot air balloon. Duncan and Isadora begin climbing, but before the Baudelaires can climb up the rope ladder Esme (who was disguised as the new chief of police) shoots the ladder with a harpoon gun. The Baudelaires fall and run away.

This book is super frustrating because they can't catch a break. Nobody stands up for them, they are just pushed around, and they find their friends AGAIN to have them leave. This time they left with a nice (but spineless) man. So it is a lot of the same as the other books, but for some reason it really bugged me this time.

Book 6- "The Ersatz Elevator" by Lemony Snicket

Out of all the books (possibly in the whole series, but definitely so far), I think this one had the most  shocking plot twist in it.

They get sent to some friends of their parents, although "friends" is a strong word. Jerome, the husband, wanted to adopt the children immediately. But Esme, the wife, is such a slave to what is "in" and what is "out" that she wouldn't entertain the idea until orphans were considered "in". (There's a lot of talk of in and out for the next few books, hold tight.) Fortunately that happened right about the time they were kicked out of boarding school, despite being exonerated from the accusations by Vice Principal Nero. They learn that Jerome is very kind, but kind of spineless because he doesn't like to argue. He allows Esme to determine what he will wear, where they will live (a 71 bedroom penthouse!), where they go to eat, all based on her crazy ideas of what is in and what is out. She is planning to have an auction of "In" things, and GUESS WHO THE AUCTIONEER IS. Olaf. How did he find them again? Then it gets really mysterious when he leaves their penthouse and the doorman is told that they aren't allowed to go back to their apartment until he leave the building. But he doesn't leave it for days. Where could he have gone? (Oh, and the penthouse is on the 66th floor but the elevators are "out" so they were taken out). Klaus realizes there is one more elevator door on the penthouse floor than anywhere else. So they push the button and realize it is just an empty shaft. And the shock of their lives happens when they realize that at the bottom of the shaft are their friends Duncan and Isadora. They were put there in a cage. Violet discovers that they can use welding tools to melt the bars. (How does she do that?) While they are heating up the tools and climbing down with a rope made of neck ties, extension cords, and rope, the Quagmires are taken away from their cage.

Now, here is the part that shocked me the first time I read it. They climb BACK up the rope and tell Esme what they discovered. She talks to them and tells them it will be ok. She is uncharacteristically kind, but it all comes to a head when she opens the phantom elevator doors and pushes them down the shaft. Luckily, someone installed a net halfway down. Turns out Esme was working with Olaf the whole time. They knew each other way back when, and she wanted to help take the children's fortune. When she leaves, Sunny climbs up the elevator shaft using her teeth (yeah that's realistic) and gets the rope. They are able to climb down and find out they are in a passageway. Here is the second shocking plot twist. When the passageway comes to a head, they find a trap door. The trap door leads to THEIR OWN HOUSE.  I had forgotten about that when I was reading it this time, so it caught me off guard.

Somehow they make it to the auction and Count Olaf barely escapes. Again. Jerome won't take them because he doesn't want to argue. So he clearly isn't that good of a guardian if he won't even stand up for them. But this one had enough twists and turns to keep me entertained.

Book 5- "The Austere Academy" by Lemony Snicket

This one was one of my favorites. Not only is "austere" a word I can use more often than a lot of the words I've learned from this book, but there is SO much to hate and love here!

Vice Principal Nero (pictured on the cover) is one of the most irritating people I've ever met (read). In many ways he shadows Count Olaf, but in a non-murderous sort of way. He is arrogant, cruel to the students at his school, and severely underestimates the Baudelaires. When they arrive, he tells them that they cannot live in the dormitories because they didn't have a guardian sign their permission slip. Because they don't have a guardian... but that doesn't matter. So they are sent off to live in the nicknamed "Orphan Shack". It has crabs, mold, and awful wallpaper. If they are late for meals (which are served at breakfasttime, lunchtime and dinnertime), they don't get any cups for their drinks. If they enter the office building, they don't get silverware. And since Sunny is too young for any of the classes, she is employed as Principal Nero's secretary. Which is as ridiculous as it sounds. So she doesn't get silverware for any of her meals. Now, as the parent of a toddler I know she will be just fine.

The part of the book that I love is that they make friends finally! They meet two triplets (the third died in a fire), who just so happen to also be orphans, named Duncan and Isadora. They are the heirs to the Quagmire sapphire fortune. Duncan wants to be a reporter, and Isadora a poet. They both have notebooks that they carry around to take notes in. The Baudelaires trust them and tell them about their troubles. Just then, a new gym teacher shows up. Yep, Olaf. He has the children start running laps all. night. long. For about 10 nights straight. The children are exhausted, but Vice Principal Nero won't do anything about it. They finally have to pass a comprehensive exam (and make their own staples, in Sunny's case) or fail out. Luckily for them, their gym teacher will take them in if they get kicked out. Ohhhhh dear. Duncan and Isadora offer to go in their place, using Violet's hair ribbon and Klaus' glasses. They bring a bag of flour along for Sunny. The Baudelaires are able to prepare all night, and pass their tests. Just as they think everything is going well for once, Coach Genghis (Olaf) shows up announcing that they cheated by having someone else run in their place. They see his accomplices (who were well hidden this time, so I can't blame them for not seeing it) loading Duncan and Isadora into a car, and they chase them just for Olaf and his henchmen to escape. It is so hard for the children to realize they lost the first friends they have made in a long time. Luckily Mr. Poe was there, right? (eye roll)

Book 4- "The Miserable Mill" by Lemony Snicket

This is the fourth book in the series, and not quite as exciting as the first 3. First of all, why would Mr. Poe allow someone who was in charge of a lumber mill take care of 2 teenagers and an infant? The adoption/foster system during the time and in the place of the Baudelaires really leaves something to be desired.

The children are put right to work, and don't notice anything suspicious about anyone around them. Which is really too bad. If they were more aware of what the accomplices of Count Olaf looked like then they could have devised a plan. But as it were, they let him push Klaus to the ground twice, breaking his glasses. When he came back, he was a totally different person. They eventually found out that he was hypnotized by the optometrist, who had a brand new receptionist named "Shirley". Yep, Olaf. They don't realize until it's too late that the foreman is one of Olaf's accomplices, as Olaf and his workers are trying to pin crimes on the children to get them kicked out of the mill. The only person who is really nice to them is one of the owners of the mill, Charles. One night, Charles is nearly killed when Klaus is hypnotized. The children manage to escape (with Klaus un-hypnotized), but Dr. Orwell falls in front of the saw and dies.

I'm assuming that by this book the reader knows that Olaf is going to show up, which kind of takes the suspense out of the one big plot twist from the book. It isn't my favorite, because there isn't anything that makes my heart pound or gasp in my head.

Book 3- "The Wide Window" by Lemony Snicket

This book seemed to be longer than the first two, and again Snicket talked about Aunt Josephine's death very early on in the book. It isn't even foreshadowing, because he says things like "Josephine isn't dead... yet". I'm paraphrasing, but you know what I mean.

Aunt Josephine was their third guardian, and I don't know where the inept Mr. Poe keeps finding these people because she was awful. She seemed nice enough, but she was NOT a good person to take care of three children. Being scared of everything, being obsessed with grammar to the point that she focuses on nothing else, and most importantly being willing to give the children up to Captain Sham (AKA Count Olaf again) to save herself doesn't bode well. I'm pretty sure they only lived with her for about 3 days total before she faked her death, and then actually died when Captain Sham pushed her into the lake with the leeches. But I wasn't that sad to see her go, honestly.

But I am sad that the Baudelaires had to leave another place and go to another home. Partially because of crazy Aunt Josephine, but also partly in part to dumb Mr. Poe. He literally sits there and talks to Count Olaf time after time and has the dumbest reasons to not believe the children. It never stops irritating me.

Book 2- "The Reptile Room" by Lemony Snicket

This book is better to read than the first. My favorite part is that the children can actually be happy once in a while. Uncle Monty (or Dr. Montgomery Montgomery) seems like a nice but scatterbrained man. Personally, I would find studying reptiles to be super interesting. But I know Brandon would die. So only one of us would like being in the reptile room.

The way Lemony Snicket writes this book, you find out that Monty dies very soon after it begins. Which is a bummer. BUT, as this is the first time Olaf pops into their lives in a disguise it is a shock. After a while you learn to see the signs. But the children are horrified to find out that Olaf is now Monty's assistant, and don't have a chance to tell him before he is killed. One of my favorite parts of the book is when Sunny releases the Incredibly Deadly Viper (which is a "misnomer", another word I picked up from the books) and pretends like it is about to eat her in order to distract the adults.

One of the biggest paradoxes of the book (I don't know if I'm using that correctly) is that while Mr. Poe is incredibly inept, he also accidentally saves their lives. When he gets into the car accident with Count Olaf and the children, he doesn't even realize that he saved them from being taken to Peru with Olaf to never be found again.

So Book 2 is in many places much less depressing than Book 1, but in other places so so much worse. They had a shot at a normal life with a loving guardian!

Book 1- "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket

As you may know, they have a "Series of Unfortunate Events" Netflix series that just came out. We just watched the entire first season (hopefully the second season comes out soon), which covers the first 4 books. It stuck PRETTY well to the book series. So I decided to reread the books, since it's probably been 15 years since I've read some of them.

The first episode of the series (2 episodes per book), much like the first book, is incredibly depressing. Obviously. by the title. But you keep watching and reading to make sure the orphans triumph over their awful circumstances.

The three protagonists are Violet, a 14 year old girl with a knack for inventing, Klaus, a 12 year old boy who is incredibly bright due to his reading, and Sunny, a baby who has incredibly sharp teeth and likes to bite things.

The Baudelaire orphans find out that their parents died in a fire that destroyed their house, and they were to live with a distant relative named Count Olaf. Turns out he's an awful person who just wants the enormous fortune that Violet will inherit when she turns 18. He is an actor who has a band of actors that follow him in his dastardly deeds. He is cruel, abusive, and nobody seems to believe him. He concocts a giant plan to steal the fortune by marrying Violet in a play, but the Baudelaires figure it out at the last second. 

This counts for a "Book written by an author with a pseudonym" in my 2017 Reading Challenge. I love how Lemony Snicket writes his books, because it is not only entertaining but unique. (AND, Patrick Warburton does an awesome job as him in the Netflix series.) He defines many of the big words he uses, which is actually how I learned many words like "austere" and "ersatz" (two of the titles of books have these words in them). So his style was a way for me to improve my vocabulary.

Everyone should read these!

Book 25- "Clockwork Princess" by Cassandra Clare

I was sad to finish this trilogy of books. It started out super weird, because I knew nothing about what the Shadowhunters were about. But I got sucked into it, as I figured I would.

So as I called it, Tessa and Will ended up together. I only wish that they had spent a little more time together before the book ended. But I was glad that they were able to realize that they were meant together, because seriously it's been the whole point of these books.
And like I called it, Jem died. BUT, his death was a little more complicated than that. Jem was dying because he didn't have the drug that he needed, and the author's announcing of his death was very anticlimactic. I even mentioned that to Brandon. "After 2 1/2 books just like that, he's gone?" BUT, later on they say that he underwent a transformation to become a Silent Brother, who is an immortal character that helps the Shadowhunters with birth, death, etc. That one took me totally by surprise. He came back to help them in their last battle with the clockwork army and the Magister, and then spoke to Tessa one more time. He asked her to meet him on the Blackfriar's Bridge every year, so they could spend an hour talking. I don't understand how he was able to do that, since the Silent Brothers were supposed to cast aside everything that kept them close to their mortal life.
The amazing thing that happened was when Tessa was able to transform into the angel that possesses her necklace. She was able to destroy the creator of all the robots that way, which destroyed her necklace. But that was the only way that they were able to survive.

The epilogue of the book made things very confusing. It talks about her life with Will, and how he died while she stayed the same, being immortal. And every year she went to meet up with Jem the Silent Brother, and they were able to talk for an hour. And then over a hundred years later (because being a Silent Brother means you are immortal), she goes to meet up with him. And when he shows up, he is normal Jem again. Not the one she had met up with. Over that last year, he had found out how to break free of his addiction and to become a normal Shadowhunter again. He went to Tessa and asked if they could have a normal life together. She agreed, and that's how it ended. Ok, how did he do it? And his first thought was to see the girl he was supposed to forget about over a hundred years ago? And is he going to grow old and die now too? What about Tessa?
I wish she would have written another book about Tessa and Will's life after they got together, instead of just the epilogue. That would have made the series complete. But I really liked it!

Book 20- "Rilla of Ingleside" by L.M. Montgomery

I finally pulled out of my Rhett Gone with the Wind funk long enough to read another book before I go out of town. I was a little apprehensive since I did not appreciate the previous book as much and I was worried that this one would be similar. But this one was much, much better.

When Rainbow Valley ended the author made a reference to WW1. I didn't think much of it, because life on Prince Edward Island seemed so remote and not close to the real world at all that it didn't seem likely that something real world would affect it.

It was ironic to read this book right after GWTW because Rilla initially reminded me a lot of Scarlett (ugh). She was beautiful and liked having boys fawn over her, and wanted to just have a good time and have her way. She was just 14 when World War 1 broke out. Her brothers enlisted throughout the war (Jem initially, Walter later, and Shirley towards the end of the war), Nan and Di went to be nurses at training camp, and Rilla stayed at home to help the cause from there. The biggest thing that happened was when she was going around the town trying to collect donations. She found a house where the dad was English and had sailed straight to England to fight, leaving the mom home alone when she was about to have a baby. Well, when Rilla showed up the mom had just barely died from a broken heart and left the 2 week old baby. There was a woman there who was watching over them, but not very well and Rilla knew the baby wouldn't make it without some extra help. So she carried him home (in a soup tureen) and raised him herself. She helped to plan a war-wedding (without the father of the bride's permission), began a "Junior Red Cross" movement in their town, and raised many funds for the war. She had a boy who wanted her to wait for him until the end of the war, and she did but was never quite sure what that meant. Sadly, her brother Walter was killed in one of the battles, and that was a devastating blow. Then her brother Jem was reported missing, and her 2 friends Jerry and Carl were both injured. So even when those boys who survived came home, it was obviously never going to be the same.

So as I said initially Rilla reminded me of Scarlett. However, throughout the course of the book she grew in the right way. The war took away her youth similarly to how the Civil War took away Scarlett's youth, but Rilla was a little less dramatic and more realistic about it. She did not pine after Ken (the boy). She didn't allow her losses to make her unkind or hardened. Even when she had to give Jims (the war baby she took) back to his father, she just allowed him to go because she knew she could see him again.

Overall, one of my favorite books of the series! I stayed up too later last night to finish it.

SERIES AS A WHOLE:

Well, I had never read one of those books until August. And I have to say, I am so glad I did. I don't know how much more I will like the movies, but I will give them another shot (without Brandon, of course). I like Anne more and more as she grows up, because she still has her imagination and love of life but she is also much more realistic. And while I wish there were more books told from her perspective I did like seeing how her children were growing up. I am sad about Walter though, he was my favorite boy.

Book 16- "Rainbow Valley" by L.M. Montgomery

Out of the whole series, this has been my least favorite book. It just didn't have the same appeal of the rest of them, because Anne was barely in it. I had really grown fond of her, and as funny as her kids are (and they aren't even the main characters), it isn't the same. However, the book focuses on the Blythe children's friends. They are the children of the local pastor, who is a widower. They get into all sorts of hijinks (shockingly enough), and scandalize the town. It is funny to think of what wasconsidered "scandalous" back then, like chewing gum in public. Now we have people taking naked pictures and nobody bats an eye. But in the process of the story, their dad realizes that he needs to find another wife so his children can be raised properly, and their house be taken care of. How romantic!

Book 15- "Quidditch Through the Ages" by Kennilworthy Whisp

This is another silly Harry Potter book, that is referenced quite a bit through the series. It has absolutely no purpose besides explaining the history of the game Quidditch. But still amusing, and worth the 100 pages.

Book 13- "Call of the Wild" by Jack London

Yep, another one today. When the book is 82 pages long (and I had just read the first half over Christmas break so I could skim that), you can read it really quickly! This is my seventh classic for the year, and it fulfills a Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge requirement- "A book that was previously banned". I had already had this book planned for this year, and when I was going down a list of banned classics I was amazed that basically all books on the list of classics have been protested or banned at some point. As a funny note, Fahrenheit 451 was censored at my rival middle school. So go Venado, for censoring a book about book censorship. 

Anyway, this book is DARK. It was censored because of its bloody and graphic nature. It is the story of a dog that was taken from his master's home in Santa Clarita California to satisfy a gardener's debt (even though it wasn't his dog to bet) and sent to Alaska to be a sled dog for the gold rush. He was beaten into submission and thrown into the dog-eat-dog world of sledding. If you showed a sign of weakness then you would be killed. So Buck became the most aggressive dog and became the alpha dog by killing his competition. He is eventually sold to a man named John Thornton, who was the first man out there to show him compassion. He becomes fiercely loyal to his owner, while battling the wild inside him. He will leave the camp from time to time to run with wolves or hunt, but he always returns. Once he spent 4 days hunting a moose, finally killing it. When he came back, he saw that the Yeehat tribe had come and killed all the men and their dogs, including his beloved owner John. He savagely kills the rest of the hunters from the tribe, and begins hunting with a pack of wolves. From then on he is known as an Evil Spirit among the Yeehat.
This book can easily be applied to men. There are the men who want to do their time and survive, and there are those who want to thrive and dominate. And you need people who are strong like that around you. Because when times get tough, as they were for Buck, you need those who can lead the pack.

Book 12- "Anne of Ingleside" by L.M. Montgomery

Classic #6!

This is the sixth book of the "Anne of Green Gables" series. It is written in a different style from how the other books are, in that 1) it is not written entirely from Anne's point of view and 2) it is a series of short stories told from each child's point of view.

At the end of the last book, Anne had just had her second child, Jem. He is the first one to live though, so he's the oldest in this book. At the beginning of this book, she's had 4 more children! Twin girls and 2 other boys. And, she shortly afterwards has another girl. I will say that it's really interesting how they don't even discuss pregnancy in this story. The author merely hints around it, and doesn't let Anne or Gilbert even tell the other children. I know that pregnancy wasn't celebrated as much back then, but it is interesting to "see".

Anne has some imaginative children (shocker, right?). I could see myself in Nan, one of her twin girls. She would always be caught up in a fantasy of her own, wandering through their yards pretending that she is someone else. I did that for YEARS, even in middle school when I would wonder what it would be like to be at Hogwarts. One time she got herself so worked up over a neighbor she had never even met that she was terrified when she actually had to go visit them. And the neighbor just turned out to be a nice old widow.

Overall, the children are normal kids learning about life at that time, even if they are a little bit spirited.

I felt like I related to Anne the most in this book, out of all of them. At the beginning of the book, Gilbert's Aunt Mary Maria came to visit for 2 weeks and ended up staying for months. She was overly critical, rude, and a martyr any time anyone would disagree. Towards the end of the visit, she was driving everyone crazy, even her nephew. But he was too loyal to turn her away, and it caused a little bit of a rift between him and Anne. Ultimately she got offended when people found out how old she was (through a huge surprise party that Anne threw) and left, but it was well overdue. I can't see someone in either of our families overstaying their welcome like that because they're more sensitive to our needs than that, but I could see Brandon not wanting to turn his own family out even if they were here too long.

At the end of the book, Anne was worried that Gilbert didn't love her anymore. He had barely noticed her, and wanted to go to dinner to see his old flame the night of their wedding anniversary. Not like I was worried about that, but it was nice to see that she was wrong and that he was just worried sick about a patient, and just overworked in general.

Book 11, "Anne's House of Dreams" by L.M. Montgomery

I am trying to power through as many books as I can this week, since I start my online Master's degree next week! That will seriously limit my reading time.
This is classic #5 for the year!

This is the 5th book in the Anne of Green Gables series, and while I enjoyed it  I think it was the saddest of the books so far.

It starts out very pleasantly, with Anne and Gilbert FINALLY getting married and moving across the island so that Gilbert could start his medical practice. They live in a little house with a few neighbors, that Anne automatically befriends (of course). However, there are a lot of struggles between the Blythes and their neighbors. Not that there was any animosity, but every character had their dark past. And it seemed like Anne and Gilbert had avoided many of those tragedies, until their first child died shortly after being born. That just ripped my heart right out. Just this week some people whom we love dearly lost their baby when he was born too early, and so this was especially tender for me. Then they had to deal with having to bury her (which in and of itself is a horrifying thought for a parent). Then the man that they became good friends with passed away right at the end of the book. However, he was over 75 years old and missed his sweetheart who was lost at sea over 50 years ago, so he was happy to go.
Thankfully, for my heart's sake, Anne and Gilbert had another baby before the book ended. Otherwise it would have cast too dark of a shadow over the book for me. But even with all that said and done, I still really enjoyed it. And I hope that the next few books live up to it as well!

Book 10- "Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux

This not only fulfills my classic requirement, but it is a Modern Mrs. Darcy 2016 Reading Challenge book! "A book published before you were born". I mean, most good books were.
So I have Phantom on the brain right now. I and some girls around here are going to Miami to see it in a few weeks, and for some reason I hadn't thought of reading the book! So now between that, seeing the play, and listening to the music I am obsessed.
The author of the book writes it as if he is investigating the incidents of the Opera House, especially the time the chandelier came down. This made me wonder if it was based on myth so much that I asked Austin (our European official in the family), but he quickly squashed that.
But anyway, there is ONE glaring difference between this and the play. In the play, it is more of a romantic and exciting story (albeit the romance is lopsided) between the Phantom and Christine. Raoul seems to be a secondary character. And the Phantom seems to be a mysteriously handsome character beyond the mask. That's why I was explaining to Brandon that they didn't pick Gerard Butler for his operatic singing voice:

In the book, he looks like the living corpse. Even around his mask, he is terrifying. He has golden eyes that glow like fire in the dark, and he is only seen when he wants to be seen. He seems to be somewhere between the living and the dead. I think if they did that, it would lose a lot of the audience that is not as into the musical aspect.
But in the book, there is no budding romance between Christine and the Phantom. She seems to love him when she can only hear his voice, but as soon as she sees him she is terrified of him. She does not find his interest in her fascinating or mysterious. She does it because she pities him, and she is afraid of what will happen if she turns him down.

 Erik (because that's the Phantom's name? They have never mentioned it) is a mastermind of trap doors and torture, and he is a ventriloquist. Which explains many of his tricks. He also sang angelically, which drew people to his voice. He was shunned from society because of his looks, and so he eventually retreated into the cellars beneath the Opera House.
By the end of the book I felt badly for Erik. Yes, he is a psychopath and a murderer, but it makes you wonder what he would have been like if he hadn't been on the run all his life. He just wanted to love and to be loved, because not even his parents loved him.
One mystery is the mysterious figure in the book. He pops up a few times and the author makes a bigger deal out of it than it needed to be by saying the government said he couldn't discuss the figure. Who was it?!
I REALLY liked this book. I think they should do a version of the movie that is exactly like the book. It would make an excellent thriller. There was a scene I read where he follows Raoul home that gave me the chills. Raoul kept turning off his lamp and seeing these two golden eyes watching him. About 3 times he tried to scare off the eyes, but it didn't work. Why was that scene not in the play?! That is just great acting waiting to happen.

Book 9- "The Princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald

So, when we were little kids we watched this movie about 300 times. It was THE, BEST. For some reason I just remembered it a few weeks ago, and so Brandon and I watched it one night while playing card games. Man, it was not good quality. We were just laughing the whole time at the poor animation (it was made in like the 80's or some time around then), and how the big strong main characters (back then) were really just 7 and 8 year olds. Good times!

I didn't know it was based on a book, so I checked it out from the library. I wish I would have read it before watching the movie! It followed the plot pretty closely, but is a little darker (as is to be expected with many European children's stories). And reading it made me realize just how funky of a plot it was. It would take too long to describe the whole thing. But it is only 250 pages, so a quick little read!

Book 8- "The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast" by C.S. Lewis

This book fulfills another book for the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2016 Reading Challenge! "A book you've been meaning to read".
I remember I started this book years and years ago (how sad is it that I can say that now...) and I really enjoyed it but I think I went back to school and forgot to bring it with me. Well, I just read it all the way through. It is a FASCINATING book. Lewis is a genius.

I read the letters from Lewis that was in the back of this book, before "Screwtape Proposes a Toast", which explained a lot of how I was feeling. It is so confusing to read the things that Screwtape describes as disgusting, horrible, etc. and realize he is talking about the good in the world. And to read him describing a person as idiotic, moronic, simple, and realize he is talking about God. And the things that he glorifies are the things that we shun in life. He discusses many different virtues and vices, and it is so believable to think that this is how the devil and his minions communicate about how to best tempt us.

They cover issues of "Love" vs lust, gluttony, satisfaction, charity vs unselfishness (Charity is the "bad" virtue, while Unselfishness is the "good" facade of an issue that really sews seeds of resentment), the social aspect of religion vs the spiritual aspect, repetitive prayers... they really covered everything. And the final battle was over making sure that Wormwood's client never felt like his prayers were being answered, and that he never felt that he could really endure to the end. As it were, the client was killed in an air raid (WWII), and when he saw Wormwood he immediately turned away and was welcomed into heaven. You've never wanted the main character (Wormwood, not the client) to fail so badly!

I recommend this to everyone. If you don't believe in Heaven or Hell, you will still find it an interesting take on the good and bad in the world. If you do, this will seem pretty real!

Book 5- "Last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper

This book fulfills another Modern Mrs. Darcy 2016 Reading Challenge! "A book you previous abandoned".
I have been trying to finish this for FOREVER. I had 6 renewals, and my last one ends in a few weeks. Granted, I had about 15 books out at that time, but it still has been a long time reading this.

This book personified why I have the goal to read 20 "classic" books this year- because they are SO hard for me to get through. There is just something about the writing style, how wordy the books are, that make it impossible for me to really understand. But I pushed through, and it is quite the plot.

I initially became interested in this book because I was reading a website that said "7 baby names you didn't know were made up!" I rolled my eyes thinking they were going to be dumb names like 'Renesmee' from Twilight, but then "Cora" popped up. Turns out while its root is Greek, Cooper used it initially for this story. Now, I could be wrong, but that's what I read. So I decided to check it out. When I was about 20 pages in, I really hoped that I wouldn't regret having Cora share a name with this fictional character. But she was smart, kind, resourceful, and rumored to be SPOILER ALERT the first femme fatal that is of mixed race. Yep, she died. But she died for not giving up her morals and going to live with the Huron (enemy) chief as his wife. So, you go, fictional Cora.

There is a massacre halfway through the book, and it begins with a native killing an infant. I absolutely cannot stand that. Many of the classic books I have read involve some heart-wrenching scene with a baby and it makes me tear up every time. But beyond that, it amazed me to think that things like this happened. There were (and are) people who are that inhumane, and bloodthirsty, and so savage that the sight of blood (that the warrior spilt by killing the baby) that it riles them up into a frenzy and causes them to attack hundreds of people. It makes me grateful for the time that we live in, where those things are not as common. And relatively unheard of, in the United States.