Sue

I am joining the What’s in a Name? 3 Challenge because I had fun with the #2 reading challenge last year.

Between January 1 and December 31, 2010, read one book in each of the following categories:

1. A book with a food in the title: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
2. A book with a body of water in the title: Pontoon: A Lake Wobegon Novel by Garrison Keillor
3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier
4. A book with a plant in the title: The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt
5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: Digging to America by Anne Tyler
6. A book with a music term in the title: The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

By November 30th, 2009 (her would-be 135th birthday) read at least 4 books by Lucy Maud Montgomery that aren’t part of the Anne series.

Jane of Lantern Hill-I adored this book.  In fact, it might be one of my all-time favorite LMM books, after the first couple Anne books.  The main character was wonderful and her development over the time of the book was fun to watch.  The PE Island descriptions in this book were luscious and the way Jane savored everything about the Island, her home, and her garden made me think I need to be more appreciative of what I have.  Totally glad I read this one.

Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea-I like her short stories.  They vary in quality, and don’t all have happy endings, and these stories all related to the ocean.  I enjoyed “The Life-Book of Uncle Jesse” published in 1909 that told of an old sailor whose wonderful stories were published for the world to read.  I also liked “Four Winds” which was the longest and had more character development.  It was about a young minister who falls in love with a reclusive girl with a mystery and then ends with a twist.  I don’t read short stories all that often so this challenge has been fun to find these nuggets.

Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side-I liked this set of her short stories, although they were somewhat uneven.  This should be expected since they were published in magazines between 1897 and 1935, so her style changed somewhat over the years.  There were ghost stories, murderers, thieves, drunks, and redemption stories.  I really enjoyed “The Deacon’s Painkiller” and “Miss Calista’s Peppermint Bottle” because they were amusing and ended happy.  The first story, “The Closed Door”, was weird and “The House Party at Smoky Island” was a good old-fashioned ghost tale.  All in all, lots of fun.

The Doctor’s Sweetheart and Other Stories-These were love stories that ended well, but were very different in their meandering way to true love.  They were written between 1899 and 1935 and only one, “The Parting of the Ways” doesn’t end with the boy getting the girl.  A theme running through several of the stories was that of a woman who thought she wasn’t in love with her man, but came to see in different ways, that she actually did love him.  Some of the stories carried a theme of random chance that happens to turn out well which I thought was interesting for LMM.  I liked “The Finished Story” and “The Garden of Spices” because they were sentimental and heart-warming and “By Grace of Julius Caesar” because it was funny.

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

I just signed up for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap.  It sounds like a fun idea to be a secret Santa for someone I haven’t met yet.  The FAQ’s said our blog doesn’t have to be only about books, so I qualify.  You might want to join the fun but the deadline is November 12, so decide fast!  Merry Christmas!