The We Love L. M. Montgomery Week Tag! // Including the Story of How Much Resistance Lead to My Favorite Book Ever

Hello, kindred spirits!

This week was Hamlette's yearly blog party celebrating the love of a fandom! She changes the theme every year and it is always a delight. And this year was all about the marvelous Lucy Maud Montgomery!

And I say was not because I just speak in the past tense all the time (even though apparently I do? Because I keep changing the tense of my lines and it's a bit of a problem) but because it ended yesterday. And I had rehearsals all week. And have you seen my expertise at planning ahead (if you don't know, it's pretty much non-existent). BUT I'm here now. So I'm answering the tag. 

1. Who introduced you to L. M. Montgomery's writing?  Tell us the story!

My mom. When I was little and had just figured out that I loved reading I asked my mom for books. Because even though we went to the library frequently and I could have the choice of anything and everything I wanted suggestions.

In recent years my mom and I have grown at odds in our reading choices because everything she suggests I loathe, but I owe her a lot for what she got me into when I was younger. Nancy Drew, A Wrinkle in Time, Little House in the Big Woods, Agatha Christie, and The Chronicles of Narnia just to name a few. I also just have to thank her for buying me so many books over the years.

Part of that might be because she recommends books based on how old I am, but I don't want to read books of my current age. I want all the MG fiction still.

Anyway, I must have been about 8 at the time of this story (if you forgot which story, it started three paragraphs ago before I broke off into tangents). She suggested the Anne of Green Gables books. I was a little suspicious of how thick it was (yes, because at that time 300 pages was huge). I started...and didn't even make it past the first paragraph before I was bored out of my mind. So I complained and my mom suggested something else. Which were the Wizard of Oz books, which I gobbled up like candy.

Years passed and when I was about 11 I started going through the books we owned. I found Anne of Green Gables, remembered how bored I was, but decided to try it again. Ever since, it has been my favorite book of all time. Some books can only hit you deeply at a certain time of your life. It may be that because I was 11 and Anne is 11 at the beginning of the book it resonated more?

2. What LMM books have you read?

-1-8 of the Anne books (are they called Avonlea Chronicles?). These are my comfort books and I carry 1 and 3 with me wherever I am living.

-The first book in the Emily of New Moon (thoughts on Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). I keep meaning to finish the series because I really enjoyed it, but haven't succeeded in getting copies!

-The Blue Castle. The writing is one of the most breathtaking I've ever read, but I am not a fan of the story.

3. What movies or shows based on her books have you watched?

I am actually specifically avoiding them. I love seeing adaptations because they are a peek into what someone else envisions for a story, but for the Anne books, they are just too precious for me. It is very selfish, I know. Lately I have been interested in Anne With An E because from what I've heard it has a bit of a different storyline?

This explains why this post does not have the plethora of images that it usually does.

Oh, and none of this applies to Green Gables Fables. And I haven't watched season 2 of that yet even though I love it to bits. I need to get on that...

4. Which LMM character is your kindred spirit, the one you'd like to hang out with in real life?

Una Meredith from Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside. She's so kind and quiet which is where all of her deep thoughts are harbored. I would want to be a listening ear to her fancies because I feel like she is usually that person for everyone else.

5. Which LMM character do you relate to the most?  And why?

...is it cliche to say Anne? Or am I allowed because this is my favorite book of all time? I need to stop using that like a "get out of jail free" card...

A few years ago I got obsessed with the first time of being similar to book characters. I don't know why this had never occurred to me before, but maybe it was my gateway into living more in stories than the real world? Anyway, I asked my mom which book characters she thought I was. She said Anne Shirley and Frodo Baggins. I was indignant. The first was because Anne was so fantastic I couldn't possibly be like her, and the second was because Frodo annoyed me. Shortly after that I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test for the first time. 16 Personalities is not always accurate, but ever since that day I have been way more comfortable with myself because, yep, I'm 100% an INFP. And on their website, two of the characters they list as being fellow INFPs? Frodo and Anne. While it is up for debate if those two accurately are INFPs, but there are enough similarities that I started seeing it. (Also, guys I haven't been on that site in a hot second, but when I looked today they list Levin from Anna Karenina as being one? That explains SO much. Like why he's one of my favorite characters of all time and therefore that is one of my favorite books).

Okay, so I don't have really concrete reasons. But I'll try to find some.

-Though introverted, I'm a little chatterbox when around people.

-My imagination gets away from me and I sometimes have a hard time discerning reality from fiction. "Did I make that up?" is a question I have to ask myself a lot.

-I make mistakes continuously.

It also gives me hope that one day I will:

-Actually learn from my mistakes. Because unlike Anne, I tend to repeat them.

-Appreciate nature more and the world around me.

6. Have you ever been to Prince Edward Island?

No, but I wish! I am told that I have been to British Columbia, but that's all of Canada that I have experience with. But then again, I was only a few months old.

7. Who is your favorite LMM heroine?

Picking favorites seems mean. I love how different each of them are. They are all so real to me that it would be like picking favorite humans and that also seems mean. 

I do have a bit of an amusing story to go with that, though. When reading Anne of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley I was so annoyed with Rilla. She drove me crazy and I was not looking forward to her being the protagonist of book 8. Then that "book 8" is my third favorite in the series. Shows you that characters grow and develop.

8. Who is your favorite LMM hero?

*mumbles "as if it's even a question"*

...

Roy Gardener.

Because, yes, I'm so much Anne that I would not see what...who...is in front of me...

GUYS. HIS STINKING FIRST NAME IS ROYAL. I just love him a lot, okay?

9. Do you have any fun merch related to her books?  If so, please share some photos!

I have a boxed set of the Anne books, but they no longer have a box because when I was little we did not have the best system for books and several got tossed about and damaged. And, as I said above. 

From my bookstagram

10. What are some of your favorite LMM quotations?

Hamlette has wonderful questions, I am just terrible at answering them. Especially the quotations ones. I always feel like I have so many but I can never find them, so I resort to pulling them off of Goodreads then don't feel original at all. It's the Anne in me that is bemoaning this travesty.

Like, I can't read a chapter in Anne of the Island without stopping and marveling at the writing or wit. So most are pulled from there.

“October—with a gorgeous pageant of color around Mistawis into which Valancy plunged her soul. Never had she imagined anything so splendid. A great, tinted peace. Blue, wind-winnowed skies. Sunlight sleeping in the glades of that fairyland. Long dreamy purple days paddling idly in their canoe along shores and up the rivers of crimson and gold. A sleepy, red hunter’s moon. Enchanted tempests that stripped the leaves from the trees and heaped them along the shores. Flying shadows of clouds. What had all the smug, opulent lands out front to compare with this?” 

-The Blue Castle

'"Toil not, neither do I spin," finished Philippa. "But I'll learn to do things. You'll only have to show me once. I can make my own bed to begin with. And remember that, though I can't cook, I canker my temper. That's something. And I never growl about the weather."' 

-Anne of the Island

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” 

-Anne of Green Gables

“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.” 

-Anne of Green Gables

"I don't want sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you.” 

-Anne of the Island

'“I do know my own mind," protested Anne. 'The trouble is, my mind changes and then I have to get acquainted with it all over again.” 

-Anne of the Island

“Besides, I've been feeling a little blue — just a pale, elusive azure. It isn't serious enough for anything darker.” 

-Anne of the Island

If you're interested in reading all of the cool posts written this week, check out this master post!

What L. M. Montgomery book should I read next? Which L. M. Montgomery books have you read? Did anyone else dislike something initially that became your favorite of all time? Tell me all of your thoughts!

Thank you so much for reading! And remember, "Tomorrow is another day with no mistakes in it yet."

Chloe the MovieCritic

The "Flaming Hot...Five Reasons Why" Tag // In which MC gets uncomfortable for your Entertainment

Sup, guys.

Because, flames, fire, you know....
I've been wanting to use this gif for FOREVER and now is as good a time as any.

Sorry that it's been a while! How is the shortest month of the year going for you? I had masterful plans for posts in January and thought I was going to hit my 500th post, but, as you can see, that didn't happen. I wanted to embrace my break as much as I could and I started writing tons of different posts but just never finished any of them. Which means it's too late now for the Smashing and Dashing Character Awards 2022. But maybe next year! It means that I have a lot of good content coming in the future. Someday. I just need to finish them. 

I got back to school and classes and rehearsal have been amazing and just completely consuming. It's nice that I wasn't type cast because it is so hard to be a character who is ambitious and disdainful and never smiles until bade to do so. Hard but oh so fun. I'm putting that all aside for the most brief of moments to get this post up.

I may be living the fire side of this up a little bit...

I got tagged. Yes, I have a ton of tags, but this one seems apt for Valentine's Day (which we are pretending this is closer to). Hamlette tagged me for the "Flaming Hot...Five Reasons Why" tag.

This is a very foreign topic for me, and I wasn't planning on doing it, but my sister texted me (from two states away) and said she had seen Hamlette's post and I HAD to do it. So if this is your jam, thank my sister.

When I try to imitate other people...

The Rules:

-You must add the name of the blog that tagged you AND those of the Thoughts All Sorts and Realweegiemidget Reviews with links to ALL these sites.. and use the natty cat themed picture promoting this post. 

-List 5 of your all-time swoon-worthy characters from TV or Film, i.e. crushes/objects of your affection. And do mention the actor or actress who plays them, as you might like James Bond as played by Timothy Dalton and no one else, etc., etc. 

-Add 5 reasons why you love them, in five sentences.

-Link to 5 other bloggers. 

-Add lovely pictures, gifs or videos of those you selected. 

-Oh…and post these rules.

So, first I want to talk about how weird this is for me. Last year, Olivia did a post on if fictional characters were her "type", and let's just say I HAVE NEVER RELATED SO MUCH (especially because one of the characters she listed is one of the characters I included in this post). You should go read that post to save me my pains of typing. I'll type anyway, but still, go read what she says.

Okay, so, something that I don't do is fall in love with fictional characters. Do I get more invested in their own stories than my real life? Yes. Do I generate actual feelings or crushes for them? No, not really. It's very rare if I do. For three big reasons:

-I adopt characters. I think of them as my sweet children. Post on that HERE.

I may or may not have another post like that in the works. One that may include this golden boy...

-I do not have crushes on characters I relate to.

-I am not attracted to characters I ship with someone else.

See, I don't do this. Source

What about when I relate to a character? What about if I am a character 100%? Then I still ship the two characters, but am not myself personally interested in the love interest. I ship the love interest with that version of me, but not the version of me I am living. Apparently not everyone else does this? This is the weird thing? Story of my life. I have a lot of strange opinions on shipping that I will maybe one day write about further.

(Has this developed into if I am interested in someone in real life then I start shipping them with someone else? That's a strange logic you used...)

I say this to myself on a daily basis.

On a related note, I just cannot image myself in a relationship? I can barely handle my life as it is. I am not that much of a romantic person. I mean, once I get behind I ship I am FULLY in (guys, the amount of space my OTP takes up in my heart is unhealthy), but real life I've always been the person to be like, "gross, kissing." Yes, apparently I am 5 at heart.

This is about the level of my romantic soul.
Kat is an Icon.

The final straw was actually that Katie answered this tag, too. I was like, "Okay, if she can, I can." Katie's the epitome of cool and you should go check her blog out.

And I'm probably overthinking this a lot. These characters are people I have not adopted, I don't relate to, and they don't have any romantic interests. You would not believe how long it took for me to come up with this. The way I approach this leaves a select few people, because most fall into those three categories. And then people falling into the right age range narrows it down again. And I didn't want to talk about anyone I'd already mentioned on this blog (for those of you keeping track, that would be Artie and Elwood). When my sister texted me I told her I had thought of two. So she tried to be helpful by suggesting the following: Robin Hood (Errol Flynn portrayal), William Turner, Legolas, Jimmy Stewart just in general, Jess Mariano, Tristan Dugray, and Philip Carlyle. Which are all wrong. So much so. To which I told my sister:

Which means, she and I have very different interpretations

But enough procrastination. Here they are. They are listed alphabetically by the movie/franchise they are from because that's a tiny part of organization I can control.

Michael McCandles (played by Christopher Mitchum) 

from Big Jake (1971) 

Shortly before I watched this movie I thought, "everyone has crushes on fictional characters"...and proceeded to find I could not think of any myself for the life of me; then in rode Michael on his motorcycle. This movie is rough because it's about a family trying to rescue a kidnapped child, and Michael is part of that family as he's the boy's uncle. While the rest of his family has hard edges (typically found in westerns) he has a light and jubilant spirit.

He has hope and bravery to make things right again and he is the glue that holds his brother and father together while they search for his nephew. He's smart, knows what he's up against, and knows the assets his family carries: he respects his father and throws in humor, like, "the next time I won't take off my goggles."

(I thought 5 sentences would be easy, but one character in and I'm already struggling with writing too much. I am going to be utilizing correct and incorrect uses of colons and semi colons from here on out.)

Don Pedro (played by Denzel Washington) 

from Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

The prince is charming to his core and that charm holds more weight because he knows when to laugh and when to be serious. He isn't perfect as there is a time where he believes what his eyes tells him and is unjust when it comes to condemnation, but he repents for his hasty movements. 

This gif has both my possible love interest and one of my babies....

His actions are regal and he has loyalty and concern for his soldiers who are all his deepest friends. He helps set up two other couples in this story and is an utter sweetheart. He's also a lonely soul that makes me feel so sorry for him because when times are quiet you can feel the heaviness of his heart, and that comes from more than war and dealing with his brother.

Colonel Fitzwilliam (played by Anthony Calf) 

from Pride and Prejudice (1995) 

A common question is, "who's your favorite Austen hero?" with the connotation that that would be "who would you marry?".  My favorite is probably Colonel Brandon, but I would not be interested in him, because MARIANNE; the answer to the implicit question is Colonel Fitzwilliam. His one purpose in this story serves to tell Elizabeth the details about Mr. Darcy, but I'm always thinking, why don't we see more of him?? 

He's sweet, charming, though obviously we are not at the same level because he "has to marry well". He's got pride and ambition, but he's got a jolly spirit and he would always make you smile with his good humor.

Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams) 

from STAR WARS.

Lando has a sketchy history like Han, but he has smoothed out more with his gained authority. The characters are upset by his actions in the first movie he appears in (rightly enough), but everything he does is for the people he is governing. Once he learns who keeps their word in politics, his motivations shift to fix the mistakes he made. 

He has an epic blue cape, so what's not to love?

He has a strong work ethic because he helped Cloud City become what it was and also ascends the ranks quickly to become a general. He has charm a plenty and loyalty; when the time calls for it, he is the one you can depend on. 

Albert Narracott (played by Jeremy Irvine) 

from War Horse (2011).

What's more attractive then a guy who just really loves his horse? It's adorable. He's willing to work with Joey and do things that people said was impossible or would kill them both in the process. The earnest pleading that Albert does on Joey's behalf is enough to soften the heart of an officer to ensure the best treatment will be given to Joey. I have to stop talking about this movie before I burst into tears out of my love for it, but yes, a part of that is that Albert is fantastic.

And yes, Joey's just going to chill in this pictures, too.

If, IF, I were to break my rules, it would be for: Neal Caffrey from White Collar (because I still haven't really met Kate I'm not shipping them but what makes Neal so lovable is his devotion to Kate, so that cancels that out...). Or Peter Lawford's character, Johnny, in Easter Parade because Peter Lawford. But yay, we're done with this torturous post (fine, that was a little fun...), so I can stop thinking about it.

Overall, my darling Enjolras sums up a question I ask every day:

I'm not that sensitive to the sufferings of many. Named "love". Happy Valentine's Day, folks.

Just like Enjolras is a revolutionary, I'll be one to break the rules and not tag anyone. Because I don't want to shove this on anyone else if it makes them uncomfortable.

I hope you all have enjoyed seeing my squirm, yay. Thank you for reading, though, and I'm impressed if you made it through all my burns and roasts (sorry, had to get one more in with the theme...). Do you guys know any of these characters? How do you feel about them? How often do you fall for fictional characters?

Thank you Hamlette for helping me break out of my comfort zone and actually get a post up!

Do you know what I love? My readers! I hope you guys are all doing well! Take care of yourselves and know that you are fantastic. Ciao!

Chloe the MovieCritic