“IT WAS CENSORED?!” Rainbow Valley & Rilla of Ingleside Book 7 & 8 Reviews & Summary | Bonus Minisode 4

Today we’re wrapping up our deep dive videos for our newest miniseries covering the Anne of Green Gables 8-book collection by L.M. Montgomery. Anne is now a mother of six, navigating a reality in which herself, her husband, and all of her children exist in World War One Canada. What does this mean for the country, the world, and more specifically, the Blythe family and the small community they live in? We’re here to give you the “411” on these lesser-read books in this series, and answer the question of whether or not they’re worth the read.

In this episode we dive into books seven and eight: Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside - we’ve moved past the well-known perspective of Anne Shirley and are now seeing the world through the eyes of her children, and more specifically, her youngest daughter Rilla. What do we think about the differences, and how do we currently feel about the focus slowly shifting away from Anne and predominantly onto her daughter? Who were our favorite and least favorite characters and plot points? Do we think these books carry on the feminist legacy of the more popular installations, and how did we feel about reading a “war book?”

Check out our kickoff episode all about what the Bildungsroman is, why women and girl’s stories are so important for everyone to read, and how Montgomery expertly uses this book series to critique social and political issues of the early 1900’s, with an emphasis on women’s roles in society. We also provide a bit of context by discussing Montgomery’s life, and the political climate in Canada when this story takes place. 

Coming of age tales can be so much more than simple children’s books. We’re here to discover why! Listen on for our reviews of the final books: seven and eight, our deep dive reactions, and important things we learned about history because of this book. Like where daylight savings time comes from, where the draft is legal, and why several pages of Rilla of Ingleside were redacted until 2010.

And stick around for next week - the final Anne episode where we rank the books and all of the 1980’s movie adaptations! 

Check out our Anne of Green Gables Playlist | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLmUGmwxrZs&list=PLHf5v0KOoZMk43z5cbKp6b9WVMXwsYWki&pp=gAQB 

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Check out these author interviews? ⬇️
Penn Cole talks with us about Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of Split or Swallow! Now a Barnes & Noble & Amazon best seller titled: Kiss of the Basilisk!  https://youtu.be/fknhocSNIKM

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Chapters

• 0:00 Spoiler Free Intro
• 3:40 Rainbow Valley Book Reviews
• 6:57 Rilla of Ingleside Book Reviews
• 9:50 5 Sentence Book Summary
• 15:30 Facts about Rilla of Ingleside
• 27:07 Favorite and Least Favorite things in Anne of Green Gables books 7 & 8
• 1:05:17 Favorite Quotes
• 1:11:20 Anne of Green Gables Fun Fact

Transcript

0:00

And I'm going to read them later and I'm probably going to cry again. Books aren't political, guys. Stop. Give me up. All right. Yeah, that that's why they redacted several thousand words from this book for 80 years. This great book, guys. Read it.[Music] Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast. I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz. And today we are continuing on with our Ann of Green Gables miniseries all about these classic novels. Literally, I cannot believe that today is going to be the wrap-up for the books. So, we still have one episode left after this, but this is going to be covering the final two books. So, we have book seven, which is called Rainbow Valley, and these are by Ella Montgomery, just in case you guys don't know that by now. Yeah. Um, so book seven is Rainbow Valley, which is predominantly about Ann's kids. And then, um, book eight, which is called Rilla of Engleside, which is predominantly about Ann's youngest child, Reilla, who is named after good old Merrila. Who we love. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we're going to be covering these two books. We're going to be giving you the, you know, kind of deep dive rundown on why we think these books are important, why we think coming of age stories, um, for women and girls are important. And if you've been following along since the beginning, you know, we did the kickoff episode that talked all about those exact things. um the genre in general, what the popular books are, why these stories are so important to the canon and just uh to society and life in general. Um we also gave some history about uh Canada at the time politically, Prince Edward Island. Um, and if you stick around today, I do have some more important facts in regards to these two books specifically and kind of the political climate at the time because it becomes very, very relevant specifically in the wrap-up book, book eight. Um, but yeah, so if you're interested in hearing all about that, stick around. The first fiveish minutes or so will be spoiler-free where we'll be giving our spoiler-free uh reviews and star ratings of book seven and eight. But before we get into that, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thank you guys so much for being here on perhaps this fine Friday cuz that's when we release our miniseries episodes. And what a lovely day it is to discuss this, right? Discuss or whatever day it is that you're listening to it. We appreciate you guys taking time out of your day in your book to come and hear what us goofballs have to say. If you haven't yet, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast. And we're also on YouTube, too, so you can come hang out with us there. and Instagram, Tik Tok, we're at Besties and the Books podcast everywhere. And then we do our virtual book club over on the Fable app and that's at besties and the book club. So you can further hang out with us and read with us and comment along in a spoiler-free way. It's great. Yes. Do all the things. So, you know, we wanted to cover the series because we really wanted to do something that was all ages um but really focus on real life heroins that buck conventional gender norms in order to create or critique their social situation. And I just put here in the notes, "And boy did we get it." Yeah. Um, I feel like we got it so much more than I anticipated and I'm really, really excited to talk about it. So, should we just give our spoiler-free reviews for book seven and eight? We should. All right. I think I went first last time, so it's your turn. Okay. Shoot it. Shoot it. Okay. Great. Um, so book seven, we'll start there. Rainbow Valley, uh, by Ella M. Montgomery. I gave this a four star. Um, so this is I gave it a four star because this is basically again a collection of like anecdotal stories, but I liked it a little bit better I feel like just because of the fact that it was at least following Ann's kids. Mhm. So, we were getting kind of like some random stories and it seemed kind of like a little bit patchworky again, but at least like the characters it were people that we are supposed to care about like long term. So, for that reason and because there is a fun love story in there that I really liked, I gave it a four star. Mhm. All right. Okay. What about you? Good for you. Good for me. I'm so sorry, but I'm doing it again. Rainbow Valley three star. Three star based purely off of vibes and my cup of tea. Okay, this ain't it. And so at this point now, it's been a couple weeks since I read this and now I don't remember almost anything that happened. So nothing stuck with me. You know, I just I personally am not a short story kind of gal. You know, I had this problem with Assassin's Blade, guys, the Throne of Glass series. Like even though that's following the same character, I wasn't emotionally invested enough. So, I felt like I was supposed to be emotionally invested in these children and I just was not. Just like whatever that book was in the last episode, too. What was that one? Um, I don't remember. Yeah, you guys see all of the titles. But, you know, we had this similar issue in the last episode where we read one that was more of the collections of short stories and anecdotal, you know, stories. So, you know, it just it wasn't for me. It doesn't mean it's bad. I will however say that I think younger audiences will enjoy it a lot more than perhaps Liz and I did, you know, because it's more relatable to them. So, I could see how different age groups can take away different things. For me, I was just like, eh, I was kind of bored, you know, I didn't really love it. So, yeah, it would have gotten a three stars for me had the love story not been in there. But the love story that what we'll talk about a little bit more once we get into the spoiler section threw it into a four-st star for me because I really liked it and it was just a fun thing to read about. Made me feel good, you know. But otherwise, if it was just a collection of short stories from the children's perspective, I would have been like, three, three stars. Yeah. I mean, I can see why she needed to do it. you know, she's starting to break us away from just being Ann's story, but you know, hey, which all we learned in the coming of age or buildings Roman genre that is actually part of it is taking the knowledge that you've learned on your journey or that person who you've been following and passing it on. So that's like literally what these two books are about basically. Yeah. Ann is a very minor character. Um, okay. So, book eight, Rillaa of Engleside. I laugh because this book destroyed me. Um, like literally. Uh, five stars. No questions about it. Five stars forever. Um, I feel like this was a great way to wrap up the series, but also was just a really emotional journey. A very emotional journey. Um, and for that, I gave it I gave it five stars. It follows Ann's uh youngest, her daughter Rea, who's 16, and basically her navigating a world that is dealing with World War I. And I had no idea that's what this was about going into it. No clue literally at all about what this was going to be about. And I feel like it was I have some great facts about it that I'll share with you later um that explain a lot, but I feel like this was just a really important book in so many different ways. Um coming of age, yes. Political commentary, yes. Um women's perspective. Um on wartime, yes. And so for all those reasons, five stars across the board. Yeah. What about you? Yeah. Real love of Engleside. We're back, baby. Five stars. Uh, yeah. This was This is the book that the world didn't know that it needed even to this day. Mhm. A book that can teach empathy, remind people of like Yeah. war times, dude. Crazy. I think we're so not the whole world, but you know, here in the States, we can be very removed from things like that. And it's a good reminder of being grateful for what we have. Um, and then also I just really, it was nice because I was able to emotionally connect to cuz I was given the opportunity too. So I loved her character, you know, we it's not jumping around and hopping around different stories, different children, following the one character and I just I guess I need that. I'm finding, you know, it's perspective. Yeah. Five stars. Mhm. And what you know needs to be said, but now that we finished all eight books, um this whole series is spice free. Okay. So, we'll say it just so that you guys know there is no spice. Yeah. Period. And I'd say let's save we'll save the full worth reading, not worth reading the entire series for the wrap-up episode. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, stay tuned for that, guys. I was going to get into finishing up the movies last night, and I just couldn't do it. I just had to like digest this. I was like, I need to talk about it. I need to get it out and then I will go through and like rewatch basically the second half of movie two and then uh movie three. Yeah. That way it's fresh for when we bring that to you guys next Friday. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. So, should we just get into our uh spoiler section? Let's do it. And Green Cable spoilers for book seven and eight. And I mean literally all of them. If you're here, if you made it this far, you guys are in it with us. Welcome. Spoilers are coming for these books. If you're thinking about reading them, you can pause it, save it to your playlist, and listen to these later. But, you know, if you want to do what we do and listen to them, forget about it. Yeah. Then you're safe. Literally in five minutes. Yeah. Okay. So, again, I did this because I find that it is useful. Rainbow Valley, book seven. Ann is 41. So that is her age. I feel like this really helps to put things into perspective for me because sometimes I'm like how much time has gone by? You know what I mean? We don't really know. Um Rilla of Engleside. So book eight, Ann is between the ages of 49 and 53. So like when I was reading it, I didn't realize that she was that old either. So I feel like it really helped to kind of conceptualize it, especially because age back then I feel like was just described so differently. Yeah. Yeah. You're like a old lady when you're 35 or older. Exactly. So it's like they keep referencing themselves as that, but they're like,"Wait, what what age is it? What's going on?" So it's unreliable for us today. Reliable narrator. Yeah. And so that's why I feel like it's useful. So this is basically spanning the ages of 41 to 53 for an specifically. Okay, here we go. Five sentence summary for book seven and eight. It's go time, baby. It's go time. Rainbow Valley is the place at Ingleside that Anne's children, Jem, Walter, Dy, Nan, Rilla, and Shirley, spend most of their days playing, imagining, growing up, and learning life's lessons. It's there that Ria and Walter, the creative, imaginative, and talented writer of the family become incredibly close. One. Look at that, guys. I have a melody. You do? And it's I want to call it a melody. What is the definition of a melody? I feel like it's fine. That's fine. Let's go. Uh there they meet the Meredith children, Jerry, Faith, Una, and Carl, whose father is the minister, but who is barely raising them because he's lived in a days since his wife's passing. They help him remarry to a wonderful woman named Rosemary West, and help Mary, an orphan, get adopted by Miss Cornelia Elliot and her new husband. Two. Hey, thanks because I literally forgot about all of that. That's the only part that I really loved about book seven was the minister meeting that lady getting It took a long time though. It took a long time. I liked it. I liked the yearning and um it was just Yeah, I liked it. No one yearns anymore. No one anymore. He did a lot of yearning. Okay. Uh, Ria is the youngest Ble child, and at 16, she watches all of her older siblings gain purpose and meaning while she wonders what to do with her life. Until World War I starts, and over the next four years, she grows up tremendously as she watches her family, her community, and the world be torn apart.[Music] I just made that up. Very solemn. Very solemn. Yes. Yeah. How do you make a recorder sound sad? Okay. Three. All right. Rela adopts a war baby, Jims, who she raises as her own because his mother died and his father is off at war. She falls in love with Kenneth Ford, who enlists and is sent off. And she starts and runs the junior Red Cross chapter to aid in the war efforts while Walter and Jem are sent to war. Dy and Anne are off at college. And as Shirley grows up and eventually enlists as a war pilot, I lost it. I mean, four. Honestly, this is very fitting because of all the imagery that Walter talks about. The Pied Piper. Did you pick that up? Uh, yes. Yeah, I am the Pied Piper. Okay. Uh, so that's four. All right, last one. The war ends and many local boys and men never return or return maimed or mentally unwell, but Jem escapes and returns home after being wounded and taken as a prisoner of war. Mostly intact but drastically changed. Shirley also survives as does Kenneth Ford who is madly in love with Rilla. However, Walter dies a heroic but terrible death after publishing the war poem heard round the world.[Music] RIP Walter. Literally, I'm like, "Oh my god, am I going to cry in this episode?" Like, I finished this last night and cried for like 30 minutes. And then I was writing my notes this I was writing my notes this morning and crying again. I was like, I can't with this book. It was tough. It was a tough one. Hey, but that's what gives it five stars to me, baby. Yeah. Same. So, emotional reactions, that'll do it. Yes. Okay. So, I have some extra stuff before we get into the things. Great. Okay. I could flute some more if you like. Um, which which I thought were important moving forward into the rest of the discussion just to present context because they were questions that I had that I felt the need to look up. So, I was like the people probably would be curious or find this useful too. Okay. For sure. Yeah. Okay. So, first of all, we're going to be talking, I think, probably mostly about book eight in this episode because not a whole lot happened in book seven. I think what it was doing is just teaching us about the kids so that when they did grow up in book eight, we had some more about like we knew we knew more about them. You know what I mean? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Um, okay. So, facts about this book. So, there's a few different things that I thought were interesting. So, this is just from Wikipedia, but I did verify it. So, Reilla of Engleside is the only Canadian novel written from a woman's perspective about World War I by someone who was still alive at the time that it happened. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Which I thought was extremely interesting. The only one. Okay. It's not like that's crazy to me. That's Canadian. I didn't look up American, but that's like specifically Canadian. But that Yeah, I was wondering. I was like, "Huh, that's crazy. You don't really hear stories from this perspective. Oh, cuz it's the only Because you don't. Yeah. Um, also just a little interesting fact. At some point after Montgomery's death in 1942, publishers quietly trimmed Rilla of Engleside of a few thousand words, removing, among other things, passages containing historically accurate but now offensive anti-German sentiment. So that was also interesting. The trimmed version was the only available in print version for decades until a new restored and annotated edition of Rilla of Engleside edited by Benjamin Lefever. Um, and Andrea McKenzie was published by Viking Canada in October of 2010. So basically until 2010. So I'd be curious. I think probably the version that we read um was the updated version. Yeah. Cuz there's a lot of anti-German sentiment for the time though. You know what I mean? Like it made sense. We're not talking about now, right? You know, um, but it was gone until 2010. So, it was like completely scrubbed from the record from 40 years. That makes sense then of why people don't talk about this book really. You know what I'm saying? Like because it would have a totally different tone if you're trying to pretend that it's not there. Like none of the actual stuff happen. I mean, a thousand words, a few thousand words it said. That's a lot to take out of a book that's like basically predominantly about World War I. Yeah, cuz it takes away the tone. I mean, it takes away the guy that I hate who is very pro, you know, and uh it would it would change the tone of the book a lot. So, you know, we can't as much as history sucks. I was actually talking to my 10-year-old about this because, you know, she's starting to she's in fourth, no, fifth grade, sorry, and they're starting to talk about things that make her uncomfortable, obviously. Um, you know, and I explained to her that these things do make us uncomfortable, but we can't pretend that they're not there. You know, that we're doomed to obviously repeat history if we erase it because we need to know the bad things that have happened. So, we cannot do them again, you know, and it's literally there's that's it's a it's a segment of book banning to go in and scrub these books that historically are accurate, though. Like it sucks that that's what it was, but that's what it is. And it doesn't mean they're promoting anti-German ceme or you know whatever um anti-German sentiment now, but back then that's they they were starting wars with everybody. So hello. They were literally in World War I. Like I Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is the perspect Canadian female perspective. Not every Canadian female perspective, but some. And so it's worth keeping, right? And I think I would want to know if they did that to any male same I'd be point of view pieces. Yeah. And they waited until she died too. So there it was very like cuz we know what did we learn from past episodes. She was not afraid. Ella Montgomery was not afraid to sue her publishers and she won a big lawsuit because they were underpaying her. And so they I don't know copyright laws were probably very different than they are now obviously. And so they just waited till she died and then they were like, "Great, we're just going to take all this stuff out and then it's not going to come back until literally 15 years ago." Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So 2010. 2010. That's crazy. Mhm. That's crazy. So I feel like that's really important to note uh just to put some things into context. The other things that I thought were really important about this book, too, were that it was discussed, I'd say, fairly heavily, heavily enough for me to notice, um, that women were finally given the right to vote during wartime if their male counterparts, you could say, were absent to do so. Um, so I looked that up because I was curious to see if that was actually true or like, you know, if that was portrayed accurately in the book as it actually happened in history. Um, and it was. So, um, let's see here. I just found a little bit about it. Yeah. During World War I, some Canadian women could vote in federal elections, but their right to do so was partial and based on their family connections to soldiers. However, the war period also saw several provinces grant women the vote on a provincial level leading to a broader federal suffrage after the war ended. So, uh, wartime elections act of 1917. So, that is when that was changed. So, the act extended the right to vote to women who were serving in the Canadian Army Medical Corps or who had a husband, son or brother serving overseas in the war. So, the move was a political tactic intended to boost support for conscription which was favored by many of these women. And so that's the draft, just in case you guys were curious. That's what they call it in Canada. Um, so that was accurate. I thought that was really fascinating because if we're talking about women's stories specifically about war, um, that's something that I'm really glad wasn't left out because obviously it's hugely relevant. Yeah. And it wasn't all women. So obviously, you know, we need to make sure that that's very clear. Um, so that was part of it. So then that led me down the rabbit hole of wondering what was going on with the draft. Um, because they talked about that a lot. They talked about conscription a lot in this book. Um, and so I looked up what was going on with that at the time as well. So right now, um, conscription is not currently a mandatory policy in Canada and there is no conscription age because there is no draft. So, it's not, as far as I could find, it's not the same in Canada. Men are not required to register like they are here. Um, technically, we in the United States also don't currently have a draft. Um, but the United States draft ended in 1973. However, the Canadian draft has only been utilized twice. So, conscription has only been utilized twice in all of Canadian history. Once for World War I and once for World War II. Um, so that's very interesting to me that also that was a huge part of the reason why they granted some women the right to vote. Yeah. Um, so there was that. And then the other thing that I looked up which I found pretty fascinating um is they talked a lot about how um they had to like dig up big parts of their property to start planting crops to support the war effort. And this is when daylight savings time started. Yeah, that was so weird, so trippy to like read about cuz I thought that's something that's been around since like, you know, they founded the countries, you know. Um, well, it was found it started on April 14th, 1918 during World World War I. So, that was very accurate. So, um, the way that lady felt about it, I was like, same same. I'm going on God's time. I didn't come along. Like I was like, "Yes, we're still annoyed by that to this day." Yes. Um, so it was a wartime measure. So the Canadian government introduced daily savings time in 1918 to conserve fuel and increase production for the war effort. So that's where it came from. I still don't understand how it matters truly now by moving even then by moving the time an hour. I think it was giving It doesn't make sense when you think about it. You wake up earlier or you wake up later to start another hour of farming. Okay. But it doesn't because they would just have to wake up an hour later. Yeah. I don't know, man. That was You know what I'm saying? And supposedly you're using less resources. I don't know. That's just like a man. Yeah. It's just like a man to make that law, you know? Yeah. You guys get me, right? Like I wake you up until 6 instead of 5, but then you wake up at 8 instead of seven. It doesn't make a difference. Yeah. But I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I was just curious to see if like I think what the reason why I'm saying all these things is because lots of times we can read fiction and think that um like oh okay they're bending the truth to accommodate um the story or which often times happens and is fine. But I think the reason why I wanted to look these things up was because like these are literally all true and are important parts of the story that I'm glad that Montgomery included because I feel like it's uh extremely relevant to what's going on. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So anyways, I think that covers everything. Yeah, it was daylight savings time, the draft, women's voting. Yeah. Oh, which I appreciated throughout this whole series, you know, different mentions of being brought up the fact that women were having conversations about their right to vote, you know, and the struggles and leading positions and stuff, you know, and hey, you know, as sucky as these wars are, I think I I wonder because I wasn't there in that time and I haven't looked that much into it, but um how much of seeing that, oh, women are doing fine without the men there. Oh, the, you know, house isn't in shambles and the whole township is on fire and women are, you know, rising the to power and doing the things they need to do. Oh, maybe they can vote. Oh, maybe they can hold positions. Hey, look at that. I've only been telling you all along. I think that was a huge part of I mean obviously World War I and World War II in general, but I feel like that was a huge part of this story specifically was that Yeah. women essentially had to take everything over. Yeah. And this moved a lot of I guess you could say like as far as women's rights and freedoms, it did move them forward in some ways even in small ways. You know, like we see I don't remember which character it was. I think it might have been Mary Vance wearing overalls at the end. Yeah. Like that would have never happened before or you know what I mean? Things like that where it's just like it's a completely like paradigm shifting event that like affects all areas of society. But I like that it was told from women's perspective because it's very different I think. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, okay. So, what was your favorite part of these books? I definitely went first last time. So, you go ahead. I have like a um like a fun happy golucky favorite part and then I have like my real favorite part. Okay. Um so, I put the minister's love story as my like fun favorite part because it was really sweet. I did love all of the like yearning that went on throughout that whole book, you know. Um I just I loved their little meet cute like out in the Glenn or whatever where they just kind of like bump into each other. It it was just like the whole thing was like magical and lovely and I was like I want their book like there are the side characters that I was like I want to just have their love story book you know a so that was sweet. So that was like my happy golucky favorite part. Um I put on a deeper level I put that my favorite part was really the examination of women's experiences during war. Um because obviously that perspective has been historically underrepresented. And then I also put uh Kenneth returning to Rilla at the end. That was for such a tragic story and overall a book with a really I mean I don't know how a morose tone I guess you could say for a lot of it. It was a nice way for it to end on I don't even want to say a happy note just so much as like not a sad note like a hopeful a hopeful note. Yeah. Um, so I did like that he came home to her and, you know, she was afraid that he would not be in love with her and that it was all in her head or that the war would have changed him too much and he was like even more in love with her and I was like, I love that. That's so sweet. A Yeah. Yeah. Very sweet. So, what about you? What was your favorite part? Honestly, um, one of my favorite parts was that she didn't kill off an Yeah, I don't know if I would have forgiven Montgomery for doing that cuz I was bracing myself. I was tense, but luckily that did not happen. Um, so, and then my other favorite part that I do feel like I want to talk about was baby Jims. not like specifically her and his relationship, but just like the I appreciated her tone um and giving that point of view of someone who is wants to choose a child-free life, right? And people being fairly accepting of it, you know, and almost shocked that she actually ended up taking this baby. And I liked that what she went through with basically raising that child for the next four years was very much like what Merilla kind of did. You know, there was a lot of where she took in Yeah. where is so much like Merilla where she's like, "No, I don't need this. I don't need children. Like, I don't want to do this. I have no motherly instincts. I have no Cuz we don't see that a lot portrayed in our books about females, right? They're all motherly. they all want children and I thought it was very refreshing to read about someone else's perspective and then you know and then she ends up doing it because it's like well what what can we do you know this baby's literally going to die with this grouchy old lady and then her mom his four baby's mom's in her deathbed the dad's at war or the mom's dead in her deathbed so you know it was crazy but I did like that it was kind of like you get almost like a side like what Merilla's internal monologue might have while adopting Ann. So that's kind of how I took it. Yeah. So I really enjoyed that. Just like a I'm not, you know, I have no connection to this baby. I'm just feeding it and bathing it like I would a puppy, you know. And then may maybe one day, but it doesn't matter cuz I'm disconnected to that, you know. And then she suddenly in a moment, you know, has a love for it, but it's still not maternal, you know. It's a different sort of love. And it never was forced. And everybody was very accepting of like, you know, just her making sure it doesn't die, you know. Yeah. And and I just thought it was it was nice. It was refreshing. Yeah. Um Yeah. There we go. Mhm. So, what about your least favorite part? What would you say? Cuz Oh, boy. Howdy. Get the tissues out. There's a lot. Yeah. Um I mean, okay, so I have two. So, one of them was the fact that Merilla only got one short sentence in passing about her death. Like, literally, it was like really talking about her name and about how she never really knew Aunt Miller, who her name was based off of because she had passed before she was, you know, old enough to remember. And that's literally all we get. Yep. I'd missed it. Liz is like, "Uh, what?" And I'm like, "Oh, what? What? What?" So, I didn't love that cuz I do feel like she deserved a bit more fanfare after all of everything that has happened thus far. Yeah. Um, so that was a little odd. Uh, I didn't love that. My least favorite part was definitely Walter dying. I like did not take it well. Um, I Well, I think the part that's hard about Walter, there's a lot of things that were hard about Walter dying. Um, but I think the part that was the hardest for me was that I knew he was going to die the whole time. Like, I just knew it. I was even like I was reading the book at the river with, you know, the girls for girls weekend and I was like, I know Walter's going to die. I know it. I know it. And it still took like several hundred more pages before it actually happened. And so it was just like this knot in my chest like knowing because he's such a lovely character and such a lovely person and Montgomery did such a great job of having him represent like not just the youth but like the creativity and the artists perspective and the dreamers who hope for a better better world and who are unfortunately snuffed out by things like war. And it was really sad. It was really sad. You're going to make me cry right now. I know. It was like literally so sad. I'm like I was crying last night. I was crying this morning. Great. Now I'm crying again. Poor Walter. Oh my god. Yeah. And then I have all these quotes by Walter and I'm going to read them later and I'm probably going to cry again. This is a great book, guys. Read it. Great book. Yeah. Um, but I mean I think that, you know, there was one quote that I'll share right now, not from Walter because I can't. Um, but I feel like it's really relevant and it was one of the main themes I think in this book where says after Walter dies,"Our sacrifice is greater than his," cried Reilla passionately. "Our boys give only themselves but we give them." And I was like, "Yeah, I mean, you know, you could call that a young perspective, but I felt like it was very true because it's like, yeah, we give them like, you know, these women and girls had to stay home and do literally everything and hold the world together while sacrificing their husbands and their sons and their dads and their friends and their brothers. And it's just Yeah. like and they have to live in the world that they're fighting for now without them. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Even if they come back lots of times. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, Walter dying was definitely my least favorite part. Uh what about you? Well, not only that, but you know, the dog heard around the world. The dog around the town. The the dog story. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they have this dog. The boys have this dog. And when they leave for war, he stays at the train station, he refuses to leave. The whole town takes care of him, which is so sweet. They build him a house. I love that like the again the commod camaraderie of like the town coming together and supporting each other for the most part. Um, so they when they heard the dog that night, you know, howling and whining at the moon and then they get news that he died. So that was heartbreaking. I'm like, "No, not the dog." That's crazy. There's lots of stories like that around the world of that happening, you know, anecdotal stories. So, and animals being connected or people even suddenly waking up, you know, at night and feeling like something's wrong but not knowing what and then finding out a loved one passed. It's crazy. We're all connected. It's all connected. Then also, um, I wanted to say a special shout out for I hated the fake death of Ann in Rainbow Valley because I just thought it was stupid. I had to keep rewinding it cuz I was like cuz you know it jumped to one of her sons and he's like going off. He was like temporarily somewhere else and he like walked seven miles back to their home because someone told him that Anne was dying, his mom was dying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The little I don't know. I just hated that whole scene. I was like, "This is stupid. Stop freaking me out." Yeah. I think it was It wasn't that she was actually dying. It was like literally he was like six or something. So like one of his little friends had been like, "Your mom's going to die." And it freaked him out. And then he ended up walking home in the middle of the night by himself. Yeah. Yeah. Which is like so dangerous. Yeah. I mean, maybe not totally back then, but like Yeah. I mean, it wasn't great. I mean, animals. Yeah, that's true. Animals get eaten by animals. This is before the war started. Okay. Falling down a ravine. Falling down a ravine. Yeah. All the Oregon Trail kind of tight. I was just like, I don't know. I just didn't find the necessary context in it that I was like, I could have done without this, you know, whole chapter. For sure. Well, there was another thing, too. This one bothered me. It wasn't really a fake out death as much as it was just like a miscommunication, but I'm sure that happened all the time back then. It was in book eight. I can't remember who it was, but they got a phone call or a telegram or something that one of their loved ones had died and then they got a call back and they were like, "Oh, just kidding. He's fine." Yeah. Yeah. It was one of the like husbands or something that one of the girls married. I'm like, "Oh my god." Like imagine like having to take so long. Yeah. Well, they're getting letters from Walter. No, not Walter. They got letters from Jim after they thought he p he disappeared, right? Yeah. Yeah. He was that was like haunting basically. Yeah. Yeah. That was crazy though. Jim's note. Oh, that was crying too. Mhm. His last note to them where he knew the pied piper. Not Jim. Walter. Walter. The Pied Piper he saw. Yeah. On the field. Oh, dude. I have that in my quote section, just in case you guys. All right. Who was your favorite character? Let's spen things up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, Walter was one of my favorite characters. Um it was tied dur for these books between him and Susan. Um oh yeah I felt like Susan had such a great perspective um and represented such an important type of person in this situation. Um and I actually have a quote that's really important about Susan that I'll just share right now because I feel like it's applicable. So, you know, Susan's been their housekeeper since, you know, be before like the first time Ann was pregnant, I think, right? Yeah. Um and so she's been a very consistent character this whole time. She's very proper. She's very, you know, quote unquote god-fearing. She's um you know, just she kind of keeps her head down and does her work and whatever. Well, you know, once this whole war starts, she takes on this very kind of different role of doing whatever needs to be done to kind of maintain the household, maintain society, like do her part, you know. And u I put here the quote, Susan standing on a load of grain because she's helping out now in the fields. Susan standing on a load of grain, her gray hair whipping in the breeze, and her skirt kilted up to her knees for safety and convenience. No overalls for Susan, if you please. Neither a beautiful nor a romantic figure, but the spirit that animated her gaunt arms was the self was the self. Same one that captured Vime Ridge and held the German legions back from Verdon. I don't know how you say that, but basically it's like this imagery of like this I think she's supposed to be around 65 at this point in time. Gay-haired woman, you know, standing on this pile of grain out in the fields with her hair whipping behind her. And it's like this idea that she and her work and contribution is just as important to this war effort and to this um just everything, you know, as all of the soldiers fighting. Um I just I loved that part. And I feel like Yeah. So that kind of made I feel like Susan one of my favorite characters for sure this time. Yeah. Yeah. What about you? I'm a simple lady. I loved Reilla. It's great. Yeah. Loved, you know, loved her coming of age story and seeing her growth and change and evolve. Yeah. Yep. Mhm. Um, least favorite character. I just put Susan's cranky ass cousin. I don't remember her name, but she was so annoying. I was like, "Oh my god, just get out of here." Like, she was basically like the naysayer. Like, no matter what was happening, like, okay, yeah, things are looking real bad, you know? like at times like things are not going well, but it's like what good is it going to do to just like rub it in constantly that everything sucks, you know? So, that was kind of like I can't remember Susan's cousin's name, but that's who I put. What about you? Yeah. Um, for me, uh, the German sympathizer guy, that cranky old guy, you know, he's super annoying. Obviously, there's people like that, but I did love when Susan ran him off dramatically when he came to propose to her. It was so good. So funny. I love it. And then then we find out he started like kind of toning it down a little bit, you know, about the German sympathizing. So yeah, it's crazy. I love how she was like I just went into such a rage that I just like Yeah. She like literally chased him off their property like get away from me. Like have you no um self perception, whatever the word is. I don't know. Self-awareness. Literally self-awareness. Of course not. That's just like a man. Yep. Exactly. I I was a little sad and I get it because Miss Cornelia is getting quite old, but it did make me sad that we didn't see very much of Miss Cornelia in this book. I feel like she would have had a lot of opinions, you know? I feel like Susan almost kind of took her place a bit. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So, let's see here. So, let's just get into this. What would you like? Did you find anything particularly relatable now versus like you know as a young girl or are there things as a young girl that you think that you would have found more relatable literally relatable for all ages in that in of Engleside specifically you know Rainbow Valley like I mentioned I think it's a little bit more relatable for younger audiences but um yeah this one literally both like I said it's a good reminder of like what we could be going through um what we always have the potential to be going through again. And this book specifically of Engleside is a perfect example how everybody of all genders, ages, um you know, walks of life can benefit from stories like this because it teaches us what? Empathy. Everybody's learning empathy during those times, you know, and how to come together as a society and work together. Mhm. Even if you don't want to because we hear about that, right? You know, doesn't want to take on this, you know, child in a in a tin bowl or whatever it was, you know, she rises to the occasion. Soupine. Yes. Um Yeah. No, I mean, she's 16 years old. The last thing she wants to do is take on a war orphan. Like literally, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Susan doesn't want to do daylight savings time. Like we still don't either. You know, darn it. They mention things like not being able to bake with butter or sugar because they have to ration it. Um you know, it's like those are just, you know, the smaller things, but you know, obviously that seem very small in comparison to sacrificing your family members. Um, but I feel like yeah, it is I feel like it it almost reminded me of like a Dear America book because a lot of it was told from the perspective of Rilla through her diary entries. Um, and I feel like that was interesting. So, yes, I think in that way since it was told through the eyes of someone younger, it would still be relatable to a young person reading it. Yeah. Um whereas if it was all told um kind of I think a little bit more just like I don't know from a different perspective like Ann's for example now that she's in her early 50s it might have been harder to relate. So yeah. Yeah. I I think this would be useful for everyone. I don't know that I would have gotten the same things out of it had I read book eight specifically as a kid. But I think that's what's great about books like these is that if I would have read it as a kid and then now I could have gotten a lot out of it just differently. I think kids of younger age groups, junior high, high school could benefit from that. I was actually watching um a Tik Tok of a teacher that uh did in a a class, what are they called? It's like an activity where she actually drafts her students. you know, if half of them got drafted just to show them what these times were like, you know, so I mean, you could read this book instead, but you know, she she drafted half the students and then like a handful of them didn't come back. So, they had to like sit with all those emotions and what that would feel like, you know, cuz at first it's like kids joking, aha, you got drafted, you know, like that. And then it gets heavy cuz there's a whole lesson, you know, a week-l long lesson building up to this and about it. So it's showing like also how we can take these stories and learn empathy and hear different plightes of life and what people go through. So I thought it was really well done and I think all age groups could benefit from it. Yeah, same. I also something I also thought it was really interesting that like I definitely learned more about World War I from reading this book and doing like the bit of research that was prompted from this book for me to do than I learned from school all completely from school. Um so I thought that was really interesting too. I'm like oh okay so I could have learned more from just if my teacher would have just handed me this book and been like read that. Yeah. Like that's crazy to me because it's just delivered in such a way that is relatable and digestible by young audiences. And I think as a girl too, that brings a whole another thing cuz sometimes it's hard, right, when you're like learning this history and literally none of it is from the female perspective. Um, I think that can make it extra hard to absorb, learn, relate to because we're kind of like, okay, we're learning about all of the war things that are happening, but what about all of the women who are literally running the countries back at home? Like, yeah, I've never heard about any of this, you know? Yeah, same. I What do What do you picture when you What are women doing during war? They're sewing things in the World War II. You know, those pictures. That's it. That's all I have like really remember hearing about, you know, oh, you know, they're so and they were and they were sewing, but that wasn't it. Everything they were doing so much stuff Yeah. is happening and it's like not to I and that by talking about these women's stories, it does not diminish what the men are literally over there doing and sacrificing their lives. It doesn't diminish that. It just shows the entire picture. And there's nothing wrong with showing the whole picture. No, absolutely not. It's helpful. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, how would you say that these books made you feel? You said you didn't really connect with book seven. Yeah. Yeah. I would say same for me, aside from the love story, which made me just feel like happy golucky inside. You know, it was very light. Yeah. Um, so we'll specifically focus more on book eight, how that made us feel, and if there were any particular literary devices that were used. um to elicit these responses. Did you have anything specific to say about that? You know, like we'll talk about all the buildings, Romans, and everything that was going on in there. Um but obviously symbolism and um these anecdotal little stories too that help us relate to different people, age groups, characters, everything. Yeah. I feel like that is at the end of the day what I think after finishing the series, Ella Montgomery is like really good at is she's using all these different people and their different perspectives to like show you, I think, a more well-rounded picture like what we were just talking about of what is going on at the time and in that way using that to critique what's happening or to tell a wider political story. So, you know, cuz it's like we have the the twins who are off at college, right? So, it's like they're contributing to the war efforts, but their dad won't let them go overseas to help in any other capacity, you know? Then you have who's helping from home and, you know, who started this like Red Cross group that she's helping in her way. Um, and then obviously you have, you know, all the boys, Jem who's always wanted to be a soldier, you know, growing up to essentially, you know, rise up really quick in command. And then Walter, who did not want in any way, shape or form to contribute to that kind of ugliness in the world, but felt compelled to, you know, for to try to make the future better, you know, essentially. I think that's what his perspective was. Um, and it also showed the pressures that, you know, the men and boys had to go even if they weren't forced to. It was almost like this wasn't mandatory, but it became in a way because society, social pressures. Mhm. Yeah. It was like this um, you know, he said he just couldn't live with himself anymore. I can't live with myself. Well, you would have survivors guilt if you did. M you know or just like you know your country is calling you to arms and you don't go right and like things were progressively getting worse. Yeah. Wasn't looking good. So I think that that was really useful showing all the different perspectives and then yeah Susan an older woman who's never really felt the need to get super involved in politics or anything like that who goes full circle and becomes very involved and interested in politics. Um, you know, I I loved just all of the different stories that get tied together. It actually made me really excited because we talked about um reading Little Women on the podcast and it made me excited for that prospect just because of the fact that it kind of joged my memory because I haven't read that in a really long time either and that happens during the Civil War. So, I feel like again, we'll get women's perspectives of um something important that we don't really see very often. Yeah. Mhm. It made me feel really sad. Like truly, it made me feel really sad. I'm glad that we read it and but it did make me feel super sad for humanity. Yeah. In general. Yeah. I know. when he when um Jim's back and he's like, you know, and hopefully we'll learn from this and not be doing wars again. And it's like, well, 20 years later, you're fighting with the same people. Sorry. LM Montgomery's uh son went to war, World War II. Oh my gosh. I did find that out in my research as well. Yeah. And over and over again. And still here we are. Wars going on. It's, you know, if women were in charge, this wouldn't be happening cuz we're not stupid. Okay. Sorry. There I said. No, like literally, we were trying to pick a movie to just brighten the mood. We were trying to pick a movie to watch during Girls Weekend. And so, we had everyone write down their pick on a postit, fold it up, and put it into a bowl so that we could pick one. And then once we picked one, we made sure to discuss it to make sure that everyone was like, "Okay, watching that movie right now." Yeah. And so, I'm like, is this how we would handle stuff? I think kind of we probably would. Yeah. Yeah. Um because again I think that goes back to that quote that it's like men are sacrificing themselves but women are sacrificing essentially everyone else. And it's just I think it gives you a different perspective for sure. Yeah. Um so next up, how did Ella Montgomery use Anne's children and their growth to address important societal issues at the time? I think we already have discussed pretty much all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Especially, you know, women's right to vote and the voting move movement. I love that they're outspoken about that, you know, when they find out, okay, great. Well, Jenny, who got married in 5 seconds, I'm I'm not using the right names, but like she, you know, and then he went off to war now gets to vote. Meanwhile, I'm in charge of the Red Cross and like doing all this other stuff, but I don't get to vote because I'm not married to a man. You know, it's like these are the conversations that are important to make sure we are representing and it's a good reminder that guys, we've only had the right to vote for what, hundred years. Yeah. Not you don't think they can try to take that away again? Come on. Yeah. It's especially good for the younger age group. I mean, I feel like we really were taught all of that stuff in our education. Um, but I just don't know how much of that is going on right now to this day. I don't really think though, like yes, we are taught that, but I don't think we're taught how tenuous it is and how um uh circumstantial it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I I mean, we were talk about like women's suffrages and like those movements, but we're not and we're not and when it's the thing that I talk about with us millennials all the time that I think the reason why we have such issues with realizing that it's the year 2025 and not the year 2000. It's because when we talk about when we were in early 2000s watching movies and film that was in the '60s and it was still some of it would be black and white, very chippy, you know, as my daughter calls it, very grainy. It looks so far removed even though that was only 40 years prior. You know, we're 25 years away from the beginning of 2000s. So, because we had such a huge jump in technology with even just film, it feels so ancient that black people were segregated, that slavery was a thing, that women couldn't vote just within a hundred years ago, you know, for women's voting. And because we see these old timey films, it's like in the 19 it was like literally basically silent films, right? And they just I mean literally at the end of this book, they just went to go see the first movies, remember? Yeah. They're talking about Yeah. They're going to the first movie. They're talking about a car and like I loved seeing all of that too, like the progression of technology just in that short like four years. Um, and people are against cars and they're running them off the road and stuff, but it's like that is so short of a time in our human history that all of these technological progression and advances have been made and social that we forget that I think as as a society now because we see these old films and then we remove ourselves. So then now it feels like well that wasn't that long ago. Oh, it was 30 years ago that you went to high school, you know. Well, and I think that we have this assumption, I think we're kind of taught this in school, too, that like quote unquote progress is linear and it's nothing. It's not. And so, I think that that is this is a really good reminder of that, too. just that yeah with things like women's rights for example and where we are today and now it's not like we fought for this thing you know like let's just use the right to vote for an example or the right to own property or to open a business it's not that we just like fight for those rights and we get them and then we just have them because they can very easily as we've seen recently be taken away and so I think that that's another important thing to remember and I think that That is um it's just it's really interesting to read books that are written this long ago because they're talking about it back then too. Mhm. And it wasn't even a blanket like you got to vote now. It's like well you can vote but only because it politically benefits us. Exactly. To have you still vote because you're voting for your man that's there and we want whatever that vote would be, you know. Exactly. So it's not even for our benefit or to hear our voices, you know. And then it's just giving you a little bit at a time because it benefits the powers that be. So yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Books aren't political, guys. Stop. Give me a break. Yeah. That's why they redacted several thousand words from this book for 80 years. Yeah. Oh, and dude, trigger warning. There are words, you know, that we do not use anymore. But again, these were the times that it's it was what it was, you know. So, there are some racial slurs. Yeah, for sure. I think specifically, was it Rainbow Valley or was it this one, too? It was both. Do we have anything more to say about any of the female characters um in this book and anything that they represent? You know, I wrote down Susan, Reilla, Mary Vance. Um you know, any of those characters. I feel like we've kind of already covered it. an was pretty much all but absent I feel like um she was kind of like the you know mourning stressed out mother in the background and that's about it I felt like for most of this book. So it which is very like what rules tone would be as a teenager. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's when that's the age that you're kind of like disconnecting from your family in a way, you know. I could see that for sure. Yeah. Um, but I feel like we kind of talked already a lot about the female characters and how they're so different and important. Yeah. Standing up to the status quo. I mean, even the mention of one of the boys, I think it was Walter, who they're mentioning that he's not a religious boy. He doesn't go to church, you know, things like that. How you can have a family that's supportive of all one another, but they have different beliefs, you know, which we don't get a lot of representation of that either. For sure. Mhm. Um, do any of the characters exhibit characteristics similar to those we value in the popular books we read today? Yeah. Yeah. All the things we've talked about. Absolutely. Um, yeah. I feel like it's the same thing, you know, it's like we're able to have the characters we have now because they're they're built on, you know, all of this history of strong female characters. um not just an as we're seeing, but a whole bunch. You know, if we were to sit down and make a list of all the female characters that were impactful in this series, the female specifically, it would be very long. Um and I think that even if they just show up for a book and they're not even any, you know, present anymore in any of the rest of the series, um I think that they're all there intentionally and um that Ella Montgomery used them to represent a very specific thing. So, I really appreciated that about this series. Yeah. In a world that we've always been told as women, this is the life you're going to live. This is the personality you're going to have. This is the wife you're going to be. This is your life. It's so refreshing, great, necessary to have books like these that show all different types of way of living. Mhm. For sure. Yeah. So, I agree. And another reason why more people need to read it and be given it as a choice. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, any more coming of age stuff that you wanted to talk about? Yeah, I mean, we're constantly getting like conflict re resolution. Um, specifically with this book, uh, Ria's growing up and maturity. um seeing her gain the understanding and perspectives of other people that she might not, you know, like at first, but then hearing the full story. Yeah. All those things. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. So, we haven't talked about it yet, so I feel like we should talk about it now. So, you were cracking up because of the ending. Yeah. Okay. So, and I think that this makes perfect so it makes perfect sense to me. So basically throughout the book, Rilla, so when Ra was little, she had a lisp and, you know, she kind of mostly grew out of it by the time she was, you know, older, but every once in a while it kind of come out when she's, you know, feeling nervous or having like an intense emotional moment or whatever. Um, and so at the end, you know, you have this super like very serious moment where, you know, she's thinking that Kenneth has forgotten about her and he knocks on the door and he sees her and she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. And, you know, he loves her and she loves him and then what does she say at the very It's like the last the last line in the book. What is it? She says, "Yes, yes. Yes." Yeah. Yeah. because he says, "Is that myilla?" Whatever he says. And she says, "Yes." And that's the last one. I just wasn't expecting it, you know. Listen, it's not cuz of the speech impediment. I have a problem. I used to have a problem with my RS, you know. I had gone through speech therapy as well, and they'll come out every once in a while. So, it was just cuz I wasn't expecting it, you know, and that was that was how the series ended with a, you know, so like what different tone just changed real fast. Yeah. You know, for me, I think, and maybe I'm thinking too much into it, but it's like my kind of like literary brain comes out and like my thought is, you know, the whole point of this is that Reilla starts off being this very, you know, kind of surface level, a little shallow. She's a teenage girl, you know what I mean? It's like her interests are she's not really sure like I, you know, do I want to date this guy? Do I I think I want to have like multiple boyfriends. I don't know. Do I want to go to college? probably not, you know, it's like that's kind of her vibe. And then she goes from that and is violently shoved into essentially becoming an adult in a very very short period of time in a very serious way. Um, yeah. And I feel like Montgomery put that in at the end to kind of show us that underneath there there's still a child. Yeah. Like she still has a lot of growing up to do. And just because you're forced to endure all of these things that shove you violently into responsibility and adulthood doesn't mean that underneath it all, you know, you're still a young person who deserved to have that time. And I like to me that's what it represented. Yeah. Um is that that's beneath, you know? Yeah. Mhm. So I liked that it ended that way even though it was a little bit jarring. Like I will admit it was jarring cuz I was like really? Okay. Okay. And then I thought about it for a second and I was like, "All right, I feel like Yeah. And I was listening to it, so I was like, whoa." Yeah. So, it was unexpected, but yeah, sitting back and listen like thinking about it critically. Um, also a full circle moment back to kind of the light-hearted tone of Ann of Green Gables, you know, and bringing it back and just like, you know, life goes on and we can go back and in a way we'll be changed will be different, but it that little yes can mean a lot. Yeah, I think Yeah, I think that it was intentionally put there on purpose to make us stop and think about it. Yeah. Yeah. And look it, we're talking about it. So, hey, there you go. Good job, Montgomery. Great. Yep. So, are you satisfied with the ending of the series or do you want to hold off on answering that until next next week?[Music] Your call. Um, I say let's give a very brief and then we can dive into it later. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Like we can explain why more in the final episode just when we kind of rank everything. But yeah, me too. I'm happy with how it ended. Yeah, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied as well. More to come on that. Yeah, because I do have stuff to say, but that's good enough. Yep. Okay, you want to get into the quote section? Get your tissues out. Let's do it. Oh my gosh. Okay, I just have a few. Um I highlighted like the whole book. So, yeah, you're going to have to limit it cuz we're keeping them very long time today. All right. from Rainbow Valley. Being frightened of things is worse than the things themselves, which I feel like had a lot to do with also the second book that we're talking about as well. Oh, absolutely. It's a good little life lesson. Our imaginations, like Walter has, you know, can run away with you cuz he's talked about that a lot. Yeah. What do you got? Um, the body grows slowly and steadily, but the soul grows by leaps and bounds. It may come to its full stature in an hour. From that night, Riabl's soul was the soul of a woman in its capacity for suffering, for strength, and for endurance. So, that's describing her after Walter dies. Wow. Yeah. There's those moments in life where you know you've changed. Yeah. And that's what that is. Mhm. Yeah. All right. From still Rainbow Valley. It is never quite safe to think we are done with life. Like we're done. We've done life. Mhm. So, in saying that we're done growing, which we've talked about, I feel like on every episode, you're never done growing. No, you always have more to learn. Yes. So, sorry if you could hear my dog snoring. Geez, I can't I can't. Maybe later on the playback I'll be like, "What is that?" Um, it must be a horrible thing to be a mother in this war. The mothers and sisters and wives and sweethearts have the hardest times. Yeah. cuz yeah especially I don't want to say especially then you know I haven't gone through it in a current state per se but where technology and messaging and news was so slow yes you couldn't know every time you get a letter you know they're waiting for these letters to come from their soldiers or maybe a newspaper article something guess what happens as soon as they're done reading it okay now I know I have to wait another week. What's going to happen in the week? What's happened in the week since they sent this? Yeah, literally. Yeah. Are they still alive? They were alive when they sent this. Are they still alive now? Can't imagine, you know, where news comes so fast to us now, too. You know, like having everybody gather around listening to the newspaper. Yeah. Now we take it for granted. Now we're overloaded and burnt out. Yeah. You know, exactly. It's like we know too much. Too much news. Too much news. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Really crazy. Mhm. Okay. This is from of Engleside. She wanted to be alone, to think things out, to adjust to herself. Mhm. Yeah. Um, is the agony in which the world is shuttering, the birth of some wondrous new era, or is it merely a futile struggle of ants in the gleam of a million million of sons? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was a good one cuz it's I limited myself, so that's all I wrote down. Okay. Well, we'll finish the quote section with uh I feel like we have to give Walter his moment because Yeah. I I will say it was hard not having the poem that he wrote. I really wanted to hear it. You know what I mean? And the fact that she did not include it. Um because before he died, you know, it was published all over the world. Um, and so I would have liked to know what that said, but I get why she left it out cuz, you know, it's we don't need to know, but I would like to know. Okay, so in his um letter that he's writing to her that for the night before he died, Ria, the piper will pipe me west tomorrow. I feel sure of this. And I'm not afraid. When you hear the news, remember that I've won my own freedom here. Freedom from all fear. I shall never be afraid of anything again. not of death, nor of life. If, after all, I am to go on living. And life, I think, would be the harder of the two to face, for it would never be beautiful for me again. There would always be such horrible things to remember. Things that would make life ugly and painful always for me. I could never forget them. But whether it's life or death, I'm not afraid, real. And I am not sorry that I came. I'm satisfied. I'll never write the poems I once dreamed of writing. But I've helped to make Canada safe for the poets of the future, for the workers of the future, a dreamers, too. For if no man dreams, there will be nothing for the workers to fulfill. The future not of Canada only, but of the world, when the red rain of Langerark and Verden shall have brought forth a golden harvest, not in a year or two, as some foolishly think, but a generation later when the seeds sewn now shall have time to germinate and grow. So, it's like even Walter, like I mean, how old is he at this point? Probably like 18, 19. Yeah. like he's realizing that like if he came back just because of the type of person he was, he would just never be the same and all the things that he valued in this life would be diminished for him. I think like he's realizing that, but then I think he's also like what a what an interesting and like advanced way to think as someone so young that he's realizing like things are not going to be better when this war is over. It's going to take a generation for things to improve. Um, I was like, that's so like wise and insightful. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Oh, Walter. Yeah.[Music] So, obviously I think I could speak for both of us when I say this was a positive contribution to the cannon through and through and through and through. Oh, yeah. Should be a sign in school. The fact that it's not as crazy. Um, and then do you have any critiques specifically about book seven and eight other than Merilla got one sentence and that's it? Yeah. Nothing nothing else we haven't discussed honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think we've pretty much talked about everything. Do you have any additional bonus questions for me? No. No. I think that uh I'm going to hit you with a fun fact if you're ready for it. Yes, I am. Okay. I didn't look this up. Well, I did look it up, but I was inspired to look this up. So, there you go. Um, I noticed when I was watching these movies with my daughters, um, that the continuing story, you know, we were looking at it, we're like, "Oh, they're all the same actors." So, that's the third movie cuz it was a miniseries, you know, originally, right, shows and they clumped them together. So, the continuing story, everybody's aged quite a bit and they're all the same actors, though, which was crazy. So, what do I do every time I'm watching something? I open IMDb. Yeah. And I'm looking up stuff. Um, so the first Anna Green Gables film was released, the one that we all know and love was released in 1985, which by the way, dude, those movies like have stood the I don't know if they've been remastered cuz I um bought them on Amazon. I was like, dude, it's so crisp. It looks like it's filmed now as like a you know, time piece or whatever they're called. They must have remastered it cuz the DVDs that I have are still pretty like grainy. I think fuzzy. Yeah, cuz I Yeah, I didn't remember having that reaction at your house. So, maybe they were digital remasters. They look really good and obviously they capture my the attention of my 10-year-old and four-year-old. So, we're good. Yeah, definitely watch it, guys. Will recommend. Um, we'll talk more about that later, though. But, so the first movie was filmed and released in 1985. A a an goalie Ann of Aanly 1987 and then the continuing story was not filmed and released until 2000. I didn't realize it was that much time that went by. Big gap. Okay. Yeah. Mhm. So, unless I'm wrong, but that's what IMDb said and they know it all. So, hey, it's crazy. I'm curious to see what that's all about cuz I only got like 15 minutes, I want to say, into it and I was very confused. Very different. Yeah. So there you go. Well, I feel like that wraps up all of the books, books one through eight. If you are curious about what we think about the movies that Ashley was just talking about, the ones from the 80s and apparently 2000, um, and you know, if we think that it's necessary or beneficial to read the whole series, just some of the series, and then have us rank all of everything, then tune in next Friday for that final wrap-up episode to the whole series. But otherwise, we're closing the books. Those that seems crazy. Well, we got to rank them next week still. So, yeah, but like as far as deep dives goes. Yeah, this wraps it up. Wrap up's pretty lighthearted of an episode, so come back for that for sure. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite I was talking too fast. Anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast, including YouTube. We're at Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. And then outside of our Friday miniseries, which is this quarter will be ending next week. We post every Tuesday, even during the series. So, there's that. And uh we'll renounce if we haven't announced it yet, the wrap-up episode. We'll be announcing what series four will be quarter four. So definitely stay tuned. Let us know. We'll be posting on Instagram as well, the announcement. And that is Besties in the Books podcast on Instagram, too. So that'll be a big one. You guys will be excited about it. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. All right, you guys. We'll see you next Tuesday and Friday. Friday. Bye.[Music]