From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)

L.M. Montgomery

Start date: October 5, 2018

Finish date: October 30, 2018

Discussion: Retro Children & YA Books

Discussion leader: Hana

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 18 topics — 775 comments total

Retro Children & YA Books

* Retro Children's Books
By Elinor · 338 posts · 216 views

last updated May 29, 2024 04:27PM

A possible children's book read?
By Carol She's S… , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 21 posts · 27 views

last updated Sep 19, 2025 01:22PM

What Members Thought

Jan 18, 2017 Sankara Jayanth S rated it it was amazing

If the path set before her feet was to be narrow, she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it.

I'm so glad I read this book. What a delightful book this was! What a jolly good time I had while reading and listening to the book. The writing was excellent to say the least, it was beautiful. This is a beautiful story with a beautiful setting and some very beautiful characters. Anne shines so bright that even a black hole would feel guilty about sucking all the light away from a
If the path set before her feet was to be narrow, she knew that flowers of quiet happiness would bloom along it.

I'm so glad I read this book. What a delightful book this was! What a jolly good time I had while reading and listening to the book. The writing was excellent to say the least, it was beautiful. This is a beautiful story with a beautiful setting and some very beautiful characters. Anne shines so bright that even a black hole would feel guilty about sucking all the light away from anything that comes close to it.

I think we all experience the same thing. We resent the thought that anything can please us when someone we love is no longer here to share the pleasure with us, and we almost feel as if we were unfaithful to our sorrow when we find our interest in life returning to us.

Just when I was thinking "wow, there was little no sorrow in this book(not quite true, later on this)", the author slams the reader right in the face and the reader suddenly starts cutting onions. *ahem ahem* But seriously though, there was so much positivity and wisdom in this book that even I, a pessimist, felt fuzzy and cheerful at heart so many times while reading the book. I am personally at a stage in my life where I do not enjoy it anymore, for whatever reasons, I just, you know, live. But this book has spoken to my soul and tried to cheer it up, like your best friend that tugs at you to come play with him/her when you are down in your room skulking over something that did not go your way.

Anne is a 11-year old orphan who is adopted by an elderly brother and sister who live at Green Gables. Anne is talkative(understatement of the century), imaginative(understatement of the century), lovely(understatement of the century), tiring(understatement of the century), trying(understatement of the century), puzzling(understatement of the century), wise(understatement of the century), vain(understatement of the century) and radiant(understatement of the century). I can't properly explain her character, she is a lot of things and all of them are more or less wonderful. There are a few frustrating things about a few characters including Anne, like how she is obsessed with having red-hair and consider it as ugly, or how Marilla holds back kindness and is harsh towards Anne. And there wasn't much in this book about the bond between Anne and Mathew as there is between her and Marilla. Mathew was a very special character personally, his introverted nature and the way he acts around people, I could relate to it all. But the few moments he has with Anne, they were all so beautiful, just like the rest of the book.

I will probably not read the sequels in this series because Anne is now 16 and I'm quite positive I'll have to read about her love interests in the next book and I am not willing to. But if I do, it will only be because of Karen Savage, the narrator of the audiobook I listened too. She is one of the best narrators I have come across on Librivox. Her narration skills are excellent and she does a wonderful job of depicting Anne, the way she says "Oh, Marilla!" is absolutely charming. So I will probably listen to book 2 if there is a Karen Savage audiobook available(I think it is).

I take a bow to L.M. Montgomery, for writing this book and Karen Savage, for narrating it. This book has made me think of happy thoughts, no matter how much my mind tried to be its usual, dull, sad and negative. I usually scoff at people when they come to me with their overflowing positivity about life and tell me not to be sad and negative. But I did not feel that way towards this book even though that's exactly what it did. It tells the readers to see the wonder of life each and every day. *I cringe, because such fortuitous statements don't suit me*. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 10, 2012 Carolien rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2022, classic, children, 2012

I still adore Anne of Green Gables, it is easily in my favourite top 3 books of all time. And every time I reread it, I love it all over again.

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2017 Karen rated it really liked it

A re-read for me. I never did finish this series ( I think I only read through the 4th book). Anyway, I wanted to see if I still liked the Anne books better than the Emily books. I think the answer is yes.

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2017 Amy Chichi Hsiao rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-reads

I'm only writing this review for the sake of audio book. There are two versions available in LibriVox library, and if you're expecting the narrator to play a good Anne, I strongly recommended this version. The tone with vivid emotions is very convincing and entertaining. In addition, those of Matthew and Marilla are petty well done, too.

However, there's a serious flaw in some of the other characters' voices, particularly Diana and Aunt Katerine, two of which should totally switch. Every time I ...more

Like · see review

Mar 18, 2012 Samantha Glasser marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library-has-it-on-audiobook, classics, project-gutenberg, adapted-to-screen

Anne reminds me of Annie and Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis.

Read this book for free through Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45/45-... ...more

Like · see review