I need to balance out the awesomely terrible with the awesomely good, so I'll be participating in the Montgomery Mini Challenge. For it, I need to read four books by L. M. Montgomery that aren't part of the Anne series.
As I've never read the Emily books or The Blue Castle, I figured this was a perfect challenge for me. So, I'll be reading:
Emily of New Moon√
Emily Climbs√
Emily's Quest
The Blue Castle
The Blue Castle is my favourite non-Anne LMM book. I hope you'll like it too!
Welcome to the challenge :)
Posted by: Maria | 16 January 2009 at 08:38 AM
That's a wonderful list. I love The Blue Castle. I've only read Emily of New Moon, but Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest is on my list, too!
Posted by: E. M. | 16 January 2009 at 09:02 AM
The Blue Castle is one of my all-time favourite books. Love it.
Posted by: sassymonkey | 16 January 2009 at 09:25 AM
I know! Everyone loves it so much -- I can't believe I still haven't read it.
Posted by: Leila | 16 January 2009 at 09:38 AM
Great choices - they are excellent books. I remember them well. I adored the Emily series, almost as much as the Anne series. I wished they made a mini series about her as well
Posted by: yabooknerd | 16 January 2009 at 09:49 AM
I have to add my praise for The Blue Castle - it's a wonderful, romantic little story. I've read it over and over - maybe even more times than I've read Anne of Green Gables. I also loved Pat of Silverbush and Mistress Pat. For some reason, I didn't get into the Emily books, but maybe I need to give them another try.
Posted by: Sandy | 16 January 2009 at 10:15 AM
oh! I loved the Emily books...the first one is undoubtedly my favourite.
also, the DID make a mini-series about Emily! It ran for 3 seasons on CBC television...from 1998-2000 I believe :)
Posted by: Sorcha | 16 January 2009 at 10:22 AM
Ooh fun! I do like Pat of Sliverbush, but I have a special place in my heart for Jane of Lanternhill - and that's not just because Colleen Dewhurst was in the movie.
Posted by: delia | 16 January 2009 at 10:29 AM
Ooh! You've picked my four favorite L.M. Montgomery books! I never got into Anne quite as much, but I absolutely LOVED the Emily books as a kid. And as everyone else has already told you, The Blue Castle is awesome.
Posted by: Kristi | 16 January 2009 at 10:42 AM
Yay! But...after you read the Blue Castle, you're going to read "The Ladies of Missalonghi," right? By Colleen McCullough? Promise you will.
Posted by: dangermom | 16 January 2009 at 10:53 AM
I loved the Emily books. They are darker than the Anne books, which may be why some of us were more drawn to them than others.
Posted by: mb | 16 January 2009 at 11:50 AM
Blue Castle! Blue Castle! Blue Castle! I loved that book as a kid.
Posted by: Patti | 16 January 2009 at 12:27 PM
All 4 are great picks!! I also loved Pat of Silver Bush & Mistress Pat, A Tangled Web, and just about all of her short story collections.
Blue Castle is probably my favorite of all of them, though.
Posted by: allie | 16 January 2009 at 02:15 PM
Blue Castle is AMAZING. I love Emily of New Moon but Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest not quite as much. I'll be interested to see how you like them.
Posted by: Maureen E | 16 January 2009 at 02:29 PM
What they said....enjoy
Posted by: Nic Dempsey | 16 January 2009 at 02:39 PM
Wow, seems I'm not the only one, but The Blue Castle is my very favorite L.M. Montgomery book, INCLUDING Anne. And, while I love Anne dearly, I think I identified more closely with Emily, so the Emily books are right up there, too. (And they're the first L.M. Montgomery that I ever read, so there's that.)
Posted by: Lexi | 16 January 2009 at 04:12 PM
I have Along the Shore to re-read -- it's a book of shorts about the seashore, and I adore it. Now, I've read all the Emily's, but never Pat of Silverbush. Could never find it, but will see what I can do. I've never read The Blue Castle. Are you blogging it? I'll see if I can find it and read along.
Posted by: TadMack | 16 January 2009 at 05:39 PM
A Tangled Web and the short story collection Among the Shadows are gloriously dark. Consider switching to A Tangled Web if you start suffering from Emily overload.
Posted by: Lynette | 16 January 2009 at 05:41 PM
I love the Emily books, much more so than the Anne books... in fact, I've read almost all of LMM's books except for a majority of the Anne books! Not sure how that happened. Anyway, Emily has darkness and spooky events and mean aunts and a girl who's setting out to be a writer. Not much wrong there... I loved Anne in the first book, but I love Emily more.
Posted by: kitty | 16 January 2009 at 08:08 PM
Great choices. I think Emily must have been closer to LMM than Anne, because Emily is a writer. It makes the Emily books more real in a certain way and thus more compelling than Anne. Also re Blue Castle, what dangermom said.
Also what Maureen said. The second and especially the third Emily book fall just a little too much into something that hasn't aged as well; a sort of Edwardian sentimentalism. But still enjoyable once you have become interested in Emily and want to find out what happened to her.
Posted by: Margaret | 16 January 2009 at 10:58 PM
Yes! I love the Emily books.
Posted by: Shrieky | 17 January 2009 at 02:57 PM
The Blue Castle is awesome wish-fulfillment romantic brain candy. But A Tangled Web is by far the funniest of her novels, and the only one that features a flapper. (Only, a warning: the book's last line is rather disturbingly racist. In context Montgomery is obviously making fun of racist people, but still. It's kinda weird.)
Posted by: Brooke | 18 January 2009 at 06:44 PM
I've never even heard of The Blue Castle! I'll have to check it out. I love love love the Emily books, even more than Anne (which series, by the way, I thought went on far too long. I liked the first four and after that they got tedious). The Emily books stay on my shelves next to my bed all the time.
Posted by: Shoshana | 19 January 2009 at 03:25 PM
The Emily books are so great, but her collections of short stories are also wonderful--she was a prolific short story writer, and you can see similarities to Anne and Emily in her short stories.
There's also a great introduction by Alice Munro in one of my copies of Emily of New Moon--I bought the edition just for the intro!
Posted by: Margo | 20 January 2009 at 10:02 PM
I think I read the Emily books first by some fluke of chance. I was about a tween when that happened so it was about right time-wise.
I do like them in different ways than the Anne books. Less commitment for one thing.
But, yeah, I went through a LMM stage after the Kevin Sullivan production in '87 and read through all of the ones after Anne got together. And then some of the others and the short stories. After Akin to Anne, the ones with the orphans, I decided I was burnt out and should take a break. That was in the late 80s or 90s, and still haven't come back. Though I think I re-read Emily's Quest fairly recently. If you're watching the miniseries of Emily, it is way different.
Still haven't gone back.
Posted by: babs | 22 January 2009 at 08:42 PM
The Blue Castle is great. It's the kind of book that makes you believe in love again without being overly mushy ;) gorgeous. It's sentimental, but with substance. I LOOOOOVE it. I reserve it for when I'm feeling all alone and depressed--it's a great medicine. If you're a cynic, I don't recommend the book--the romantic in you will come out for sure =D
Posted by: ValancyxBarney 4EVAH lol | 19 February 2009 at 12:36 PM