oh anne-girl..
I hope you had a joyous and healthy Simchat Torah and a nice weekend. If you are off today please enjoy. I am working as we plan to move as much from the apartment to the house as we can today (yes, I pre-published this post). We’ve been living here for almost a month without quite a bit. It’s definitely making me re-evaluate what stuff I need in my life!
The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery : Volume I: 1889-1910
by L.M. Montgomery
I am thankful to the editors Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston for publishing LMM’s journals. My comments as to their editing are for another time. I felt honoured to gain a window seat to Maud’s life and discover the challenges, struggles, joys, and fun that lead to the woman who wrote about Anne-girl. I enjoyed reading of how she grew as a writer.
Perhaps most importantly this past week, I found many of her words a comfort as they are words I’ve often thought but not known how to express as eloquently as she. The words no child really wishes to write: Wednesday Mar 6, 1901 “Life has never seemed the same to me since father died. Something is gone and in its place is a pain and loneliness and longing that is sometimes dulled but is always there… I have success in a growing measure and a keen appreciation of all the world and the times offer for delight and interest. But underneath it all is the haunting sense of emptiness.”
Thank you LMM. Those words were the ones I most needed to read this past week.
In reading these journals I feel a stronger sense of the woman and the time and place who wrote of a little orphan girl. I’m very happy that a story which “was a labor of love. Nothing I have ever written gave me so much so much please to write” would bring such joy to readers over the years. (quote from Friday Aug 16, 1907).
I hope one day to read the other volumes.
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
I felt it could be condensed by half. The studies and stories are good and ones we need to hear, but I felt it was often repetitive.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
I’m quite embarrassed given all my years of “expensive education” that before this book I knew of Orwell as 1984 and Animal Farm. I’m sure somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind I knew he had written more, but it had slipped from my active memory. I forget exactly who or what prompted me to take this out from the library. Wow. The writing within the covers is magnificent and as enjoyable as possible when one takes into account the subject matter.