By Taylor Jasmine | On June 11, 2015 | Updated May 29, 2023 | Comments (0)
From the 1940 Grossett & Dunlap edition of Anne of Avonlea, the 1909 sequel to Anne of Green Gables:
“A tall, slim girl, ‘half-past sixteen’ with serious grey eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse …”
So began this gentle and much-loved sequel to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Five years have passed since the orphan girl Anne Shirley came to the childless home of siblings Matthew and Marilla , bringing with her all of the joy and love of her generous nature.
She has come back to Avonlea to teach school in the same village school where she herself was taught. Teaching in neighboring village schools are her friends Diana Berry, Jane Andrews, Priscilla Gray, and Gilbert Blythe. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On April 18, 2015 | Updated September 24, 2022 | Comments (0)
From the 1995 Random House edition of A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott, circa 1866, written by under the name A. M. Barnard, and unpublished during her lifetime: “I often feel as if I’d gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom.”
This passionate cry from a beautiful, impetuous young woman marks the opening of an extraordinary novel of obsessional love …
Rosamond Vivian has been brought up as a recluse by her heartlessly indifferent grandfather on a remote island off the English coast. Her only knowledge of he outside world is derived from the books she devours so voraciously. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On March 4, 2015 | Updated September 25, 2022 | Comments (1)
Ship of Fools by noted American short story master and novelist Katherine Ann Porter (1890 – 1980) was published in 1962. The sprawling novel took her more than twenty years to write and was highly anticipated by critics and readers alike. Though critical opinions were mixed, it was the best-selling novel of her career and of 1962 overall.
Set before the start of World War II, it follows the voyage of a group of disparate passengers on their way from Mexico to Europe.
The sprawling story, which Porter originally anticipated would be a novella, was started in 1940. It features large cast of international characters on the German freight and passenger ship, the Vera, most on a pleasure trip from Veracruz, Mexico to Bremerhaven, Germany. There are also more than eight hundred Spanish workers in steerage. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On February 12, 2015 | Updated September 21, 2022 | Comments (0)
The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career (1917) by L.M. Montgomery, description adapted from the 1974 edition, Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Canada: Lucy Maud Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables, wrote this charming autobiographical memoir when she was in the middle of her career.
It is the most complete account she ever published of her childhood and early years as a writer. It originally appeared as a series of magazine articles in 1917, and this new edition is its first republication in any form. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 31, 2015 | Updated January 10, 2026 | Comments (0)
Jamaica Inn, a 1936 novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, is a period piece set in Cornwall, England of the early 1800s. Du Maurier was inspired by a stay at the actual Jamaica Inn, located at Bodmin Moor. Central to the story is a group of “wreckers” — murderers who run ships aground, kill sailors, and steal cargo.
The heroine of the tale is Mary Yellan, a young woman of twenty-three when the story opens. Upon her mother’s death, Mary moves from the farm in Helford where she was raised, to live with her mother’s sister.
Her Aunt Patience is married to a vicious drunkard and giant of a man named Joss Merlyn, who has her completely intimidated. Read More→
Categories: 
Comments: