The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

This is another of those stories that was simple enough to enjoy as a fifth-grader - but complex enough in theme for me to enjoy as an adult. It examines Puritan culture through the eyes of a complete outsider.

Kit Tyler was raised in the tropical paradise of Barbados by an indulgent grandfather. When he dies, her only options are marriage to a man she doesn't love or a long trip to the cold shores of Connecticut, where an aunt she has never met immigrated with her family years ago. She chooses the latter - having no idea of the culture-shock she's about to experience.

In stern Connecticut Colony, life is all about clean, sober living and manual labor. A woman who shows up in colorful silks, as Kit does, is viewed as highly suspect. She even knows how to swim! Everyone knows only witches can float in water!

But fortunately, Kit is able to meet some like-minded souls. There's an abused little girl, a ship captain's son - and Hannah, the old Quaker woman who lives as a hermit down by Blackbird Pond. Kit's friendships with them make life bearable, but they make her neighbors distrust her even more... Maybe even enough to think she's casting spells about town.

It's when her life is on the line that she discovers where she truly belongs.

Great book, that still has a lot of relevant things to say.

Another YA Saturday Night

I decided to add some more of my young adult favorites tonight, starting with Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt.



Julie isn't your typical teenager. She's quite literate and serious minded - and comes by it honestly; her father and step-mother are college professors and the maiden aunt who raised her teaches at a one-room schoolhouse in the country. That doesn't mean she doesn't suffer through your normal growing pains, though.

This story takes her from feisty primary schooler to high school senior. We mourn her mother's death with her. feel the loss she feels when the older sister she idolizes marries, and enjoy the playground escapades she gets into with her brother and his friend, Danny Trevort. Along the way, we come to appreciate her strict Aunt Cordelia, as she does, and learn about Cordelia's one, true, failed romance. Julie also has a gallant and alcoholic Uncle Haskell, Cordeilia's brother, who always claims to be writing, but who never seems to finish his opus. We learn to pity him, as Julie does as she matures into the writer she wants to be.

Julie's story comes from an era much slower-moving than ours. Its unfolding takes a while. But it's worth it. The ending is perfect.

Jane Eyre

Since Sunday, I've been wondering how long I can stand it before I reread Jane Eyre. I read it once, in high school, and didn't much care for it - despite the glowing recommendation of my mother. She's pretty much a non-reader, but she loves Jane.

I, however, didn't much care for the book, and didn't really care for the movie version I saw once either. Only Jasper Fforde's silly take on it has ever piqued my interest.

However, the new Masterpiece Theatre version has me hooked. I know how it ends - and I still can't wait until the conclusion airs.

More L.M. Montgomery

I had to get around to listing one of my favorite series of all-time sooner or later.

I have been a fan of the "Anne Girl" since a day when I was about 8 or 9. I caught my mom laughing uproariously over a book and it turned out she was reading Chapter II of Anne of Green Gables - the chapter that introduced the immortal Anne Shirley to the world. Well, knowing that something funny was on the way, I slogged through the very-boring first chapter of Green Gables (no modern editor would have let L.M. Montgomery get away with that) and entered the world of Anne.

Shortly thereafter I was introduced to the CBC/PBS miniseries starring Megan Follows. Between the movie (which ranks right up there with the BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice as one of the best film adaptations ever) and, with the remaining seven "Anne" books, I was hooked for life.

Trust me, if I ever have a daughter someday, she's probably going to wind up being an "Ann with an e".

Countless rereads later, I can honestly say I still enjoy visiting Green Gables (and the House of Dreams and Ingleside). I get something different out of the hijinks of Anne, her best friend Diana and her sworn enemy/later beau Gilbert Blythe every time I read them. The later novels in the series aren't just the children's books they're often shelved as (Anne's House of Dreams and Rilla of Ingleside, especially).

One thing I always did wonder was why I found Book #4 Anne of Windy Poplars and Book #6 Anne of Ingleside too be rather flat compared to the others. I found the answer a few years ago reading a bibliography of L.M. Montgomery's work. Although Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside are chronologically Book #4 and Book #6, L.M. actually published those two last - at the insistence of her publisher and long after she'd run out of fresh ideas for Anne. They're actually comprised mainly of worked-over short stories from her early writing career (which goes a long ways towards explaining why the stories suddenly veer off in the direction of some very minor characters in spots.)

Ever since I've felt justified in recommending people read the "Anne" Books in their original order so they don't get bogged down by the weaker books:

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne's House of Dreams
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Ingleside

Reading them in this order also makes the final chapter of Anne of Ingleside that more poignant. You'll know what I mean when you get there.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Epic is about the only thing to say about this story. It's intimidating just because of its size... At close to 1,500 pages, it's thicker than some Bibles. But is it worth it to read the unabridged version? I think so.

There's a lot of information in here that has nothing to do with the plot... but it contributes to the mood. And the plot, itself, is full enough.

I challenge you to name a human emotion that it not found in these pages, somewhere. From compassion to greed to desperation to anger... it's all here.

And, I also happen to love Les Mis, the musical. I wish I could have seen it on Broadway.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Don't ever compare this book to the trashy Demi Moore movie. On the surface, it is about adulterous sex, but don't expect any steamy stuff.

I don't even know how to explain this one. It gets deep into sin, guilt, pride, revenge and love.

Go ahead and skip the introduction, "The Custom House," if you want to. It really doesn't add much to the story, and has little to do with it. Go back and read it once you're done.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

While we're talking plays, I might as well mention my favorite Shakespeare. Again, I have to recommend the movie version. If you haven't seen the Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson version, you need to. It's the movie that made me "get" Shakespeare for the first time and now I'm as nutty a Shakespeare nut as they come.

Anyway, the play:

Beatrice and Benedick have always hated each other. They have a war of words every time they meet.

So, of course, their friends and relatives decide they'd be perfect for each other and come up with a hysterical way to set them up! It doesn't prove too hard to do, of course. Maybe they didn't hate each other as much as they thought they did.

There's a few other plots running through (after all, it is Shakespeare), but Beatrice and Benedick are the reason to read this play. They're as witty and fun as old B.S.* gets.

(* "B.S." stands for "Bill Shakespeare." It's what my old high school English teacher used to call him.)

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand

Actually, this is a play... and perhaps the best story of unrequited love on record. I highly recommend the Gèrard Depardieu film version.

Cyrano is lover, poet and a fighter, but he's just too scared to tell the beautiful Roxane how he feels about her. Meanwhile, he's helping a much more handsome man woo her with the words of love that spring from his own heart. When Roxane confesses she's fallen for the poet, and not the pretty face, Cyrano may have some 'splaining to do.

It's sweet and tragic. Man, I seem to be on a "sad endings" kick tonight. Kleenex anyone?

My Girl Emily

Emily of New Moon
Emily Climbs
Emily's Quest - L.M. Montgomery



I just reread the Emily of New Moon trilogy by L.M. Montgomery, the author best known for the Anne of Green Gables series. As much as I've always loved the Anne books, I really remember identifying with Emily as a teenager. I can still remember bawling all the way through Emily's Quest the first time I read it at age 14 because I thought the romantic misunderstandings between Emily and Teddy were so true to life. With apologies to Emily's teacher, Mr. Carpenter, I had to use italics: the book spoke to me.

Now I find myself wondering what would have happened if she'd married Dean. He was one of the most interesting characters in the series. I had a much different impression of Emily and her younger friends this time around. She seemed much saucier than I remembered her. Anne was a dreamer who found herself in trouble with the adult world often enough, but Emily often gets into her trouble by making snarky comments and defying her relations. Her bohemian best friend, Ilse, is a far cry from sweet, Diana Barry.

Emily's childhood sweetheart (there always seems to be a childhood sweetheart in L.M. Montgomery books) was not exactly the true-hearted Gilbert Blythe either. (Gilbert may have escorted Christine Stuart around Redmond College events for a while, but he wasn't the biggest flirt on Prince Edward Island.)

Supposedly, the Emily books are the most autobiographical of all Montgomery's novels. I believe it. I've read her childhood journals and some of Emily's experiences are taken almost word-for-word from her own.

Perhaps you have to be going through teenage angst to fully appreciate this story, but I still enjoyed my reread. I'd recommend Emily to any young, aspiring writer. Emily's Quest has one of the best writer's encouragements I still have ever read. I have the last words of that wise educator, Mr. Carpenter hanging on my wall, within sight of my computer:

"No use trying to please everybody. No use trying to please critics. Live under your own hat. Don't be led away by those howls about realism. Remember - pine woods are just as real as pigsties and a darn sight pleasanter to be in. You'll get there sometime - you have the root of the matter in you. And don't tell the world everything. That's what's the matter with our literature. Lost the charm of mystery and reserve."

Reading Lists

Someone asked me the other day how many of the BBC's Top 100 books I've read. So, I sat down and made a list:

2. Pride and Prejudice
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
6. To Kill a Mockingbird
7. Winnie the Pooh
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four
9. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
10. Jane Eyre
12. Wuthering Heights
17. Great Expectations
18. Little Women
21. Gone With the Wind
22. Henry Potter and the (Sorcerer's) Stone
23. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
24. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
33. The Pillars of the Earth
36. Treasure Island
38. Persuasion
40. Emma
41. Anne of Green Gables
43. The Great Gatsby
46. Animal Farm
47. A Christmas Carol
51. The Secret Garden
62. Memoirs of a Geisha
63. A Tale of Two Cities
70. Lord of the Flies
74. Matilda
75. Bridget Jones's Diary
82. I Capture the Castle
95. Katherine

That's 31, in case you were counting. A piddly 31 percent. And this is a reader poll, based on a survey the BBC took in April 2003. If you post an"expert's" list of 100 great books, I fare even worse:

2. The Great Gatsby
13. 1984 (Do the Brits spell out the title while Americans don't?)
18. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Winesburg, Ohio
31. Animal Farm
41. Lord of the Flies
74. A Farewell to Arms
86. Ragtime
88. The Call of the Wild

Uh, that would be nine. And most of them I didn't even like all that well. It seems just as heavy on old, white dudes as the first list was on Harry Potter. And The Modern Library's "reader list" seems to have been highjacked by Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard fans. I didn't do a whole lot better on that one:

2. The Fountainhead
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (the "experts" didn't pick this one??? What???)
6. 1984
13. The Great Gatsby
20. Animal Farm
23. Slaughterhouse Five
24. Gone With the Wind
25. Lord of the Flies
53. The Handmaid's Tale
75. The Call of the Wild
77. Farenheit 451
81. The Hunt for Red October (but the movie's better *g*)
91. A Farewell to Arms

I can't believe what books weren't on any of these lists. Where was Pearl S. Buck's "The Good Earth"? Chaim Potok's "The Chosen"? Alex Haley's "Roots"? Heck, if "Gone With the Wind" made the lists than "Outlander" should have too!

Maybe one of these days, I'll have to come up with the definitive "Poohba's Top 100."

Lets get Jane Austen out of the way too

My favorite Austen books:

Pride and Prejudice
I always thought this book sounded boring... until I read it. I was laughing by the time I turned the first page. And then I fell in love with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, just as they're falling in love with each other. What's not to love?

Persuasion
Once I read "Pride and Prejudice," I had to go read all of Austen's books. This, perhaps is my favorite. It's a story for everyone who's ever wondered what would happen if that one special person you let go walked back into your life. The heroine meets up with the man she turned down years before. Does she still love him? Does he still love her? Of course there's a happy ending. It's Jane Austen.