124. Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Ingalls Wilder. 1932. 238 pages. [Source: Library] [5 stars, children's classic, j historical, audio book]

First sentence: Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.

Premise/plot: Little House in the Big Woods is the first in an autobiographical FICTION series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura Ingalls Wilder is sharing her vivid memories of childhood starting with her Wisconsin years. She writes of Pa, Ma, Mary, and baby Carrie. She writes of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She writes of chores, chores, and more chores. She writes of story and song. So many chapters of this one feature an extra-bonus story. Laura recalling Pa recalling a story from his own past, a story from his father's past, a story from his grandfather's past. This one really does capture many of the five senses--the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, etc. of her childhood. It is a personal story, though probably not unique. She is writing of "sixty years ago," a way of life then past, a way of life falling out of [collective] memory perhaps, a way of life that can only be memorialized (is that the right word???) in family stories. Every family has stories. Not all families pass along the stories throughout the generations. The book is an act of love. 

My thoughts:  The series is not without controversy. I know that. You know that. We've lived long enough that Laura Ingalls Wilder--for better or worse--has fallen out of fashion, out of style. At best she's seen as quaint. At worst, well, a racist. I do think Little House in the Big Woods may be the least problematic in the series. The possible offenders being Ma baking a type of bread called "Rye n' Injun bread" and Pa singing a line in a song with the word darky. (The bread is made from rye flour and corn meal.) 

I appreciated many things about this one. I love all the snapshots of day-to-day simple life. I love the snapshots of special memories--like the Christmas chapter, or the one where they go to visit family and make candy. I love the focus on family, on storytelling, on tradition. I wouldn't say the book is overly faith-forward or religious, yet, I think in some ways faith provides the skeleton--the structure--beneath. 

I do read it differently the older I get. Here is the last paragraph that hit me right in the heart:

She thought to herself, "This is now."
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

Very true to life, in my opinion.

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

123. The Blue Castle. L.M. Montgomery. 1926. 218 pages. [Audio book, Library, 5 Stars]


First sentence: If it had not rained on a certain May morning Valancy Stirling's whole life would have been entirely different. She would have gone, with the rest of her clan, to Aunt Wellington's engagement picnic and Dr. Trent would have gone to Montreal. But it did rain and you shall hear what happened because of it.

The Blue Castle is a giddy-making romance by one of my favorite authors, L.M. Montgomery. I LOVE so many of Montgomery's books, but this one is one of my favorite favorites. One of those perfectly perfect books. For readers who don't appreciate old-fashioned, sweet romances, it may not be exceptional. But for me, it is near perfect! 

Valancy Stirling is the heroine. An uncomfortable birthday is approaching, and she's never been in love, never even come close to falling in love. She hates the teasing she receives from her family because of her unmarried status. Hates it not only because it's rude, but because she longs for love, and aches for a happily ever after. She hates how everyone takes her for granted, how no one ever shows her any real consideration.

So one day Valancy decides to go to a doctor--a man who was not the official family doctor--with her symptoms of heart pain and palpitations. A family emergency calls the doctor away before he can share his diagnosis with her, but a letter arrives in the mail a few days letter, a letter with shocking news. SHE IS DYING. There are two things Valancy decides: 1) she will never, ever tell her family the news and 2) she will make all her own decisions and will start LIVING each day as if it were her very last.

The change in Valancy is oh-so-sudden and oh-so-shocking. The new Valancy has a voice, a loud voice, and a rebellious spirit. She will do things her way from now on. One of the first decisions she makes is that she will nurse a dying relative, Cissy, who is in disgrace with the family. She will keep house for "Roaring Abel." It is in her new position that she first meets Barney Snaith. And it is LOVE. The old Valancy would never have met him, would never have dared talk to him, but the new Valancy? Well, she has NOTHING to lose! So the two become friends--good friends. After Cissy's death, Valancy decides to take a big risk:

"I thought I'd run down and ask if there was anything I could do for you," said Barney.

Valancy took it with a canter.

"Yes, there is something you can do for me," she said, evenly and distinctly. "Will you marry me?"

For a moment Barney was silent. There was no particular expression on his face. Then he gave an odd laugh.

"Come, now! I knew luck was just waiting around the corner for me. All the signs have been pointing that way today."

"Wait." Valancy lifted her hand. "I'm in earnest--but I want to get my breath after that question. Of course, with my bringing up, I realize perfectly well that this is one of the things 'a lady should not do.'"

"But why--why?"

"For two reasons." Valancy was still a little breathless, but she looked Barney straight in the eyes while all the dead Stirlings revolved rapidly in their graves and the living ones did nothing because they did not know that Valancy was at that moment proposing lawful marriage to the notorious Barney Snaith. "The first reason is, I--I"--Valancy tried to say "I love you" but could not. She had to take refuge in a pretended flippancy. "I'm crazy about you. the second is--this."

She handed him Dr. Trent's letter.

Barney opened it with the air of a man thankful to find some safe, sane thing to do. As he read it his face changed. He understood--perhaps more than Valancy wanted him to.

"Are you sure nothing can be done for you?"

Valancy did not misunderstand the question.

"Yes. You know Dr. Trent's reputation in regard to heart disease. I haven't long to live--perhaps only a few months--a few weeks. I want to live them. I can't go back to Deerwood--you know what my life was like there. And"--she managed it this time--"I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That's all." (127, 128)

Will Barney say yes?! Will Valancy have her one happy year of real living, of JOY?

I adore this book! I love the romance. I love the characterization. I love the descriptive writing!

Favorite quotes:

Valancy never persisted. She was afraid to.

They never knew that Valancy had two homes--the ugly red brick box of a home, on Elm Street, and the Blue Castle in Spain. Valancy had lived spiritually in the Blue Castle ever since she could remember...

Reality pressed on her too hardly, barking at her heels like a maddening little dog.

Dr. Trent was over seventy and there had been rumours that he meant to retire soon. None of the Stirling clan had ever gone to him since he had told Cousin Gladys, ten years before, that her neuritis was all imaginary and that she enjoyed it. You couldn't patronise a doctor who insulted your first-cousin-once-removed like that--not to mention that he was a Presbyterian when all the Stirlings went to the Anglican church. But Valancy, between the devil of disloyalty to clan and the deep sea of fuss and clatter and advice, thought she would take a chance with the devil.

Fear--fear--fear--she could never escape from it. It bound her and enmeshed her like a spider's web of steel.

"Fear is the original sin," wrote John Foster. "Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading."

"'If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you'll never be and you need not waste time in trying.'"

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

This week I read three books.

122. Anne of Windy Poplars. L.M. Montgomery. 1936. 288 pages. [Source: Bought] [4 stars, classic]

Read this if...

• You love Anne Shirley
• You love classics
• You love L.M. Montgomery

80. Spirit-Filled Singing. Ryanne J. Molinari. 2025. 208 pages. [Source: Review copy] [4 stars, Christinan nonfiction, worship]

Read this if...

• You are a church musician

81. Christmas in Wisconsin. Linda Byler. 2025. 240 pages. [Source: Library] [3 stars, Christmas, Christian romance, Christian fiction]

Read this if...

• You enjoy Amish fiction
• You enjoy Amish Christmas stories
• You don't mind all TELL and no SHOW

Century of Viewing #50

1950s

• 1954 White Christmas. I can't imagine anyone not knowing White Christmas, but perhaps there are some out there who do need a summary. Two soldiers-turned-showmen put on a huge Christmas show to honor their former general all the while falling in love with two sisters in show business.

1960s

• 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas. I love, love, love this one! Definitely worth watching every year. LINUS does know the true meaning of Christmas.

1970s

• 1974 Twas the Night Before Christmas. This is a short animated cartoon--musical, of course. I remember it fondly from childhood.
• 1978 Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. Love Big Bird ice skating. SO many great scenes and songs. The main premise is that OSCAR tells Big Bird that Santa can't get down chimneys and so there will be no Christmas. Also Bert and Ernie do The Gift of the Magi, but Mr. Hooper saves the day.

1980s

• 1985 Velveteen Rabbit. I wanted to love this one, but, the animation wasn't for me. But the story is always good.
• 1986 The Christmas Toy. Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy to be exact. This one has toys in a toy room preparing for the new Christmas toy. They know that the child will temporarily at least reject the old and prefer the new. But this one is about the friendship between toys. It's a GOOD movie.
• 1987 Muppet Family Christmas. IF you haven't watched The Muppet Family Christmas do it now, now, now! This one is all kinds of awesome. It brings together the Muppets, the Fraggles, and the Sesame Street gang.
• 1987 Garfield Christmas. One of my favorite, favorite, favorite Christmas specials.
• 1988 Die Hard. A Christmas party goes terribly wrong and it's up to one man and one sympathetic cop to try to save the day.

2010s

• 2012 12 Disasters of Christmas. Don't seek out this bad movie to see how bad it is. Is this the worse movie I've seen this year? NO. But honestly it's not worth your time. So an ancient Mayan prophecy is "coming true" in a small mountain town, but a chosen one is there to put on the five golden rings and save the day. This one has the '12 Days of Christmas' being a song passed down from the Mayans, I believe, as a way to keep the warning alive of the doom ahead. It's weird and also weird. And even without all the end-of-the-world stuff, I have to believe the town is WEIRD and many residents are evil.
• 2014 The Nine Lives of Christmas. A stray cat brings a couple together. Hero-fireman doesn't 'like' cats but a cat has chosen him. Heroine-vet-student loves cats but lives in an apartment with a no-cat rule. As he seeks out her advice on how to care for his cat, they become friendly then friends then roommates when her landlord finds out about the cat. The cats fall in love first. The cats are honestly the best part of this holiday romance.

2020s

• 2024 Team Starkid: VHS Christmas Carols. This is a musical production by Team Starkid. This mashes up three familiar stories into one awesome one: The Gift of the Magi, The Little Match Girl, and Christmas Carol. Everything is 80s themed and all kinds of awesome. HIGHLY recommend.

 

© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Anne of Windy Poplars. L.M. Montgomery. 1936. 288 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence:  DEAREST: Isn't that an address! Did you ever hear anything so delicious? Windy Poplars is the name of my new home and I love it. I also love Spook's Lane, which has no legal existence. It should be Trent Street but it is never called Trent Street except on the rare occasions when it is mentioned in the Weekly Courier . . . and then people look at each other and say, 'Where on earth is that?' Spook's Lane it is . . . although for what reason I cannot tell you. I have already asked Rebecca Dew about it, but all she can say is that it has always been Spook's Lane and there was some old yarn years ago of its being haunted. But she has never seen anything worse-looking than herself in it. 

Premise/plot: Anne and Gilbert are engaged at last! But Gilbert still has three years of school to go, and, so Anne finds herself a job as principal of a school in Summerside. Anne of Windy Poplars gives us an intimate look at those three years. Much of the book provides glimpses into the letters Anne writes Gilbert. But there are some traditional chapters as well.

My thoughts: Anne of Windy Poplars is such a delightful (late) addition to the Anne series by L.M. Montgomery. I love, love, love it. Even if Gilbert himself is absent. (We only see her letters to him, never his letters to her.)

This book showcases what Montgomery does BEST: bring her characters to life. It doesn't seem to matter if we spend two paragraphs with a character or two chapters. I CARE about every character she introduces.

Some of the characters we meet in this one: Aunt Kate, Aunt Chatty, Rebecca Dew, Dusty Miller (cats count as characters, right?!), Little Elizabeth, Nora Nelson, Jim Wilcox, Esme Taylor, Dr. Lennox Carter, Cyrus Taylor, Teddy Armstrong, Lewis Allen, Katherine Brooke, Mrs. Adoniram Gibson and Pauline, Cousin Ernestine Bugle, Jarvis Morrow, Dovie Westcott, Frank Westcott.
 

Favorite quotes:

I have a scratchy pen and I can't write love-letters with a scratchy pen...or a sharp pen...or a stub pen. So you'll only get that kind of letter from me when I have exactly the right kind of pen. 

You know I've always been one to whom adventures come unsought. I just seem to attract them, as it were.  

School begins tomorrow. I shall have to teach geometry! Surely that can't be any worse than learning it. 

Isn't it queer that the things we writhe over at night are seldom wicked things? Just humiliating ones.

I don't like reading about martyrs because they always make me feel petty and ashamed...ashamed to admit I hate to get out of bed on frosty mornings and shrink from a visit to the dentist!

Nobody is ever too old to dream. And dreams never grow old.

I said drenched and I mean drenched.

Oh, no, babies are never common," said Anne, bringing a bowl of water for Mrs. Gibson's roses. "Every one is a miracle."

It seems so strange to read over the stories of those old wars...things that can never happen again. I don't suppose any of us will ever have more than an academic interest in 'battles long ago.' It's impossible to think of Canada ever being at war again. I am so thankful that phase of history is over. 

Nobody is ever too old to wear just what she wants to wear. You wouldn't want to wear it if you were too old.


© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews