In 2026 and through 2027, I’ll be undertaking a Lucy Maud Montgomery Big Read. The goal is to read her entire backlist of books (including her short stories) over this two year period.
The majority of her books are available from Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg – Lucy Maud Montgomery – if you have problems locating them from your library or other sources.
The Reading Plan is as follows:
Anne Books
Jan – Anne of Green Gables (1908)
Feb – Anne of Avonlea (1909)
Mar – Anne of the Island (1915)
Apr – Anne of Windy Poplars (1936)
May – Anne’s House of Dreams (1917)
Jun – Anne of Ingleside (1939)
Jul – Rainbow Valley (1919)
Aug – Rilla of Ingleside (1921)
Emily Books
Sep – Emily of New Moon (1923)
Oct – Emily Climbs (1925)
Nov – Emily’s Quest (1927)
Pat of Silver Bush
Dec – Pat of Silver Bush (1933)
Jan – Mistress Pat (1935)
The Story Girl
Feb – The Story Girl (1911)
Mar – The Golden Road (1913)
Standalone novels
Apr – Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910)
May – The Blue Castle (1926)
Jun – Magic for Marigold (1929)
Jul – A Tangled Web (1931)
Aug – Jane of Lantern Hill (1937)
LMM’s Short Stories (Project Gutenberg Volumes)
Sep – 1896-1901
Oct – 1902-1906
Nov – 1907-1908
Dec – 1909-1922
If you are interested in joining in – feel free to post about your plan. This is totally low-key and informal. I hope to see some of you join in.
**Image generated using OpenAI and the prompt: I need an image for a LM Montgomery read a long starting January 1 2026 and running for 2 years – all her books including Anne of Green Gables, the Emily series and others will be read – it should be a rectangle image that looks good in a word press blog and should be simple with limited to no text**
On the reading front, I didn’t read as much this as in previous years. My total read count was 273 books and a total of 84675 pages. Which when compared to last year was 66 books and 5144pgs less. But on average, the books I read in 2018 were longer (310pgs compared to 265pgs).
Longest Book Read: Morgan’s Run – Colleen McCullough – growing up in Australia, Ms McCullough is one of those authors that I should have read growing up – the Thorn Birds by her is a “classic” and yet while I have many of her books on my shelf – I’ve never read anything by her. Morgan’s Run was ok (I gave it 2 stars but annotated that I would have given it 2.5) – overall is was too long and needed a good editor in places.
Highest Rated: The Sun Also Shines – Anthony Ray Hinton – it is no surprise to me that this is the highest rated book that I read this year (and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson who features in this was my highest rated in 2017). This book is also my most recommended book of the year – if you ever want insight into why would justice system needs to be reformed – you need look no further than this book – Mr Hinton spent 20yrs on death row in Alabama for a crime he didn’t commit and with no evidence to convict him (and the sheriff who caused this miscarriage of justice is still in a position of power).
Pop some popcorn, sit back, put your feet up and tell us about the movie(s) you have seen this week!
I’ll admit that I still go and see the Disney animated movie every year when it comes out – except for Frozen because for some reason I was a dumbass and just didn’t go…(no heckling allowed). When I was driving home from work Friday night – I was debating going to see Incredibles 2 or Ocean’s 8 – and it wasn’t until I actually got up to the counter to get my ticket that I decided on Incredibles. Mostly because I didn’t know if I was in the mood to deal with a movie that would have a lot of kids at it – especially since I was going to see the 7:30 showing on a Friday night during the first (or second week) of summer holidays. But surprisingly enough, the movie wasn’t sold out and the kids who were in there were mostly well-behaved (aside from an infant who apparently took offense to one of the scenes with Jack Jack).
All I can say after seeing Book Club is that I would love to have a group of friends like the women in this movie – four friends who have seen each other through marriage, divorce, death, through times that were happy and sad. I have a few friends like that but unfortunately, the military has caused us to be spread across the country, which makes it hard for a real-life book club – but I guess a virtual one has potential.
Adrift, starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin is the true life story of Tami Oldhem and Richard Sharp who were sailing from Tahiti to San Diego in 1983 when they crossed paths with Hurricane Raymond. Adrift tells the story of their attempt at survival on a 44-ft yacht that had a broken mast, was flooding and had no food/water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. For 41 days they were adrift before being rescued (don’t worry, these aren’t truly spoilers).
This week the movie i’m featuring is from a series that I wish had had more of the series made into feature films. I found it while I was flipping through the various movies available on Amazon Prime (and coincidently this morning in the doctor’s office, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was playing). My memories of reading these books as a 5/6 year old, are some of my most vivid and I think that the director did a good job of adapting the book to movie and keeping the C.S. Lewis magic.
Annie is one of my all-time favorite movies – i’m pretty sure that the VHS of the movie I had growning up (yeah, i’m so old that I remember VHS) that I wore it out watching it so much, especially the different songs – I would fast-forward between the different songs and just watch them and sing horribly off-tune. There are likely going to be spoilers in this post, but since the movie came out over 3 decades ago, hopefully most people have seen it.
From IMDB:
Dee's Book Blog 