“That’s JUST like a MAN!” Anne’s House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside | Book 5 & 6 Reviews & Summary | Bonus Minisode 3 Artwork

Besties and the Books Podcast

We’re Ashley and Liz, two real-life besties who’ve loved books since we first learned to read, so naturally, we started a podcast! We would say the rest is history but in actuality, it's just the beginning. So come join us in the next chapter of our lives as we introduce ourselves, and laugh our way through the world of books with a focus on Fantasy, Romantasy, and Dark Romance. Of course we have love for all book genres, but those are our absolute favorites!

Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!

YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Podcast Platforms
@BestiesandtheBooksPodcast

Liz
Instagram | TikTok
@TheRealLifeVeganWife

Ashley
Instagram | TikTok
@AshleyEllix

Email bestiesandthebooks@gmail.com

All Episodes

Besties and the Books Podcast

“That’s JUST like a MAN!” Anne’s House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside | Book 5 & 6 Reviews & Summary | Bonus Minisode 3

September 05, 2025 • Besties and the Books

Send us a text

Today we continue on with our newest miniseries covering the Anne of Green Gables 8-book collection by L.M. Montgomery. We’re officially into Anne’s adult years, and we’re here to bring you the answer to the question we’ve all been wondering since we started this journey… is it worth reading past book 3?

In this episode we dive into books five and six: Anne’s House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside - we’ve moved past the well-known initial trilogy into Anne’s life as an adult, and the tone has definitely shifted. What do we think about the differences, and how do we currently feel about the focus slowly shifting away from Anne and to other characters, including her children? Who were our favorite and least favorite characters and plot points? Do we think Anne helped pave the way for our favorite FMCs of today? And what literary devices does Montgomery use to critique women’s roles in society?

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 books five and six, our deep dive reactions, fun facts about this timeless classic… and a special bonus section entitled “That’s just like a man!”

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

Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!! (And sometimes Friday!…)

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

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

Need more ACOTAR in your life? Cook your way through Velaris with the help of Chelsea Cole and her cookbook A Feast of Thorns & Roses. Check out our author interview here! https://youtu.be/fjzmqd-x3OA?si=kNJ4D9cxvUjhp-Ik

____

Shop bookish apparel worn in this episode!

Ashley is wearing “Women of Maas World Tour” from @caffeineandcurses | https://caffeineandcurses.com

Liz is wearing a black “I am in the depths of despair” Anne of Green Gables Tee from Amazon | * https://amzn.to/472WzSp

Any link with an * is an affiliate link through the service Magic Links and is eligible for a commission to us with no extra

0:00

That's just like a man. I'd be like, "If I look old and haggarded, it's because I had your six kids, dude." I was like, "I can tell you personally, hot dogs are very slippery. I did not know that." And that's the end of the news article. Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast, guys. I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz. And today we are continuing down the path of Green Gables la and such a beautiful place it is. We are covering Ann of Green Gables for our mini episode series if you've been along for this journey. Um today we are going to be covering books five and six. I can't even believe that we're here. It's crazy. So that is uh Ann's House of Dreams, book five. And then book six is Ann of Engleside. So I did write those down and make notes for myself, but I didn't use them. I wanted to see if I'd be able to do that from memory. It's hard to remember them all, though. I will definitely say that. Um, if you guys have been following along for our many episode series, you know, we kicked it off with kind of some context about where um, you know, this book takes place, Prince Edward Island in Canada predominantly. Um, a little bit about Lucy Ma Montgomery, the author. Um, and just kind of like a little bit about Canadian politics, just, you know, some surface level stuff to give you guys some context for coming of age novels, why stories about women and girls are so important. And then we got into books one and two, three and four, and now here we are today. Here we are. We're going to let you guys know like are these worth continuing on the read. Yeah. You know, because it's the first three that are the most popular, right? First three or four. First three, I think most people that I've talked to at least, myself included, typically it's like I think the original three are kind of seen as the kind of mains. Yeah. Um, and I I would say I have only met one person so far that I've talked to who has read past book three. Yeah. So, yeah, we're here to tell you, is it worth it? Is it worth soldiering on and reading all eight? Um, so, you know, stick around if you want to see us cover um these. We'll have our spoiler-free reviews in the beginning of each book so that you guys can get our star rating, our basic spoiler-free sentence reviews. Um, and then, you know, we still have books seven and eight to cover. And then we're going to be doing a wrap-up episode where, you know, as per usual, we rank all the books, talk about the8s movies, and kind of do like our general wrap-up. Um, and oh, I did want to ask you, how is your daughter doing on her Annie Gable's journey? Has she did she finish book one? Like, how's that going? She hasn't done anymore. Yeah, she did. Uh, no, I don't remember now. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I went to download it on her watch cuz she has an Apple Watch for, you know, activities and stuff and it won't let me download any Audible or Libby or anything like that on her watch cuz she has to be 12 or older. So, she's 10 and I don't want to change her settings. So, I don't know if anybody has any recommendations cuz she really wants to listen to some audible book, audio books. Um, but I don't know what else to do other than put them on the iPad, which that's more cumbersome and everything. So, I'm not really sure what else to do. She obviously has the physicals, but you know, it's wonder more tricky for her. So, yeah. Yeah. I was just wondering the other day how she was doing cuz I know she was pretty into it. Yeah. There has to be a workaround for that cuz it's obviously like kids under 12 want to read, too. Yeah. So, yeah. What do you guys have? I don't know why. Yeah. I mean, I get why because there's a lot of books, you know, but it's like they don't have a kids audio app. I don't know. So, I can't find anything that has let me cuz I tried a bunch of random apps and nothing was letting me download it for her. Super annoying. So, we'll see. Well, you know, we wanted to cover this because it's good for all ages. We really want to reiterate that it's good for all ages. So, yes, great for kids, but also really great for adults, too. Um, so we'll be talking about why as we continue on for sure. Um, you know, and then we also wanted to just kind of talk about, you know, these were written in the very early 1900s till about the, I want to say early 30s. Um, and so we really wanted to talk about how important it is to tell women and girls stories, but then also how, you know, these characters have helped inform, you know, a lot of the characters that we read about now and that we cover now. Um, and that's very important. So, we'll be getting into that a little bit more, too, in this episode. Um, but before we get there, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here. Yeah, thank you guys so much for being here, taking time out of your day and your book to come hang out with us and see what we have to say about these books. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast, including YouTube if you haven't yet. And then also check us out on Instagram and Tik Tok at Bessies in the Books podcast everywhere except for the Fable app, which is Besties and the Book Club if you want to join our virtual book club over there. It's free app and it's fun time. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Okay. So, should we just kick it off with our spoiler-free basic star review for each of these books? So, let's start with book five, which is called Ann's House of Dreams. You want to go first? You want me to go first? Sure, I'll go first. Okay. I just have one thing to say before we kick this off. You go first then. I thought this was important. No, it's okay. You could go first. But I just um important information because I was curious about this. So, I thought maybe you guys would be wondering. Um, okay. So, Ann's House of Dreams was published in 1917 and this covers when An is the age of 25, 26, and 27. Okay. So, I was curious about that because I feel like once we start getting into these books later, like later years, I mean, all of them kind of um skip years, but these skip bigger spans of time. So, I wanted to specifically address that. So, we're talking about mid20s here. Okay. Yeah. So, give us your star rating on Ann's House of Dreams. Five stars for me. I enjoyed this book not because it's a sweet, silly, fun time, but it addresses a lot of important issues and it does it in such a way that is often times um not utilized. So, it's giving a different perspective on where's Ann's headspaces going through things, different people that she interacts with in her life, and I appreciated these stories that were told. Yeah. So, yep, for sure. Here we go. Um, yeah, five stars for me. I'm not going to say this officially until we get to our wrap-up episode, but this is definitely a contender for probably my favorite book in the series, for sure. Um, so if you're curious if you should read after book three, my answer at this point would be definitely. That way you could get to book five. Yeah. Um, I loved this book for the same reasons. I feel like it introduced really impactful characters and I think that it also as an adult woman was more relatable. Mhm. Um, would I have loved it as much reading book five when I was 12? Probably not. But I think that now from the age and perspective that I'm looking at it, the topics that were brought up and the characters and their stories that we got to learn about, you know, not just an but all of her friends and people around her were really valuable. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. So, five stars. Solid. No questions. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then for the next book, so um let's see now I'm blinking out. Ann of Engleside. Okay. So let's see. That one was written in 1939. So I did want to point that out because there was a significant break. So the last one was 1917. Then we're jumping all the way forward to 1939. Um which I think is pretty relevant in telling in the storytelling style for sure. Um, in this book, Ann is between the ages of 34 and 40. So, we skipped between 27 and 34. So, I feel like that's also important to say. So, we're looking at mid30s to 40 or so. Um, okay. So, what did you rate Ann of Engleside? I feel bad, guys. I feel bad, but for me as a person reading these books and comparing them to the other ones, oh, dare I say three stars, I did not enjoy this one. Primarily because the constant point of view shifting um between mostly her children. So, I could see how like for my younger daughter, I think she'll actually like this book because you're kind of getting those life lessons again that some of her children are going through. And it's something that like one of her daughters, like my daughter literally just went through one of these things that the charact So, I was telling her about that. I was like, "Oh my gosh, like look at she just went through this." So, I think it'll be it's not it's going to be a five star for some people for sure. You know what I mean? It's just a three star on my vibes. It just wasn't for me, but it doesn't make it bad. However, I did find the writing style more chaotic than it usually is. So, I don't enjoy the chaos in those types of situations. So, that's what I have to say about that for sure. I mean, 20 years, 22 years in between the last book and this book, you know what I mean? I almost Okay, so I'll just start with my star rating. I gave it a four star because I still feel like the writing was good. Um, it wasn't my cup of tea either. I think that so far, I don't know, it'd be a tie between probably book four and this book that um I liked the least. Yeah. Um I don't particularly enjoy I love a multi-pov. What I don't like is when it's almost feels like an amalgamation of anecdotal stories that are kind of like patchworked together without a consistent like throughine story. Yeah. And that's how this felt to me. It felt very like just kind of random things kind of put together because it was I mean in this book we watch and eventually end up with six kids. So what it is is it's um basically just like yeah stories about her six kids navigating growing up um and just like little like how she used to get into you know like when she fell off the fence or when she and Diana were scared of the haunted woods or just like those little anecdotal stories that I think we really really enjoyed when we were getting to know an and it almost felt like a little bit grasping at straws to me to almost like 20 years later bring it back to that original vibe and it just fell flat for me with like a bunch of different kids. So, I didn't feel like we fully got to know one in particular kid. So, it was just hard for me to like get into cuz I was like, "Wait, wait, who are we following now? I'm so confused." And I have to like go back and look and or listen and be like, "What's happening?" You know, and there's different ages, so you have to be like, "What perspective, you know, is this coming from?" And it's not that she wrote in the proper tones, but we just didn't have I didn't have the emotional connection and then I felt like we got Ann at the end finally and you know, we'll talk about all of that. So, yeah. So, a little disjointed. Um, I felt disconnected from it. Yeah. Kind of same. The reason the reason why I didn't rate it a three star was because I did feel like it was almost like kind of a throwback. So, I feel like if you were younger age, you would have liked it. So again, um, and I feel like the writing was done well. Like I don't feel like it was bad writing. It just I feel like as adults, whereas the last book, Ann's House of Dreams, was super relatable, I felt like this was almost like as an adult, I was kind of like, I've made it through this many books and this is not relatable to me at all until the end pretty much. Yeah. As far as going past book three, right? So book four, we were kind of like, I don't know, like, you know, take it or leave it. I enjoyed it, but you didn't really love it. Book five, excuse me. We both gave five stars. So, that's definitely worth a read, you know. Definitely. Definitely. I honestly think you wouldn't have to read book four if you start reading it and you don't love it. You're not losing too much context. Like, you'll catch up enough. Um, five definitely. I feel like you could probably skip um, you know, book six if you struggled with those same things we struggle with, you know. Yeah, I think that's what makes this series a little bit unique, too, is just the fact that like I don't know that it's necessary to read them all or to even read all of them in a particular order. Um, and so maybe we'll talk about that on our wrap-up episode, like we can have a little section of like which ones are, you know, vital, which ones aren't vital, which ones could you skip. And I mean that way once we've read books seven and eight as well and we can give you guys our opinion on those, we can kind of let you know if we think that it's worth continuing on past book five. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. But just a little tidbit for those that are reading right now and like hm interested, not interested. There you go. Yeah. Yep. Um so should we get into our spoiler section starting with our five sentence summary? Let's do it. Spoilers coming up, especially with the flute. Okay, if you don't want to listen to spoilers, go on get. Okay, here we go. The five sentence summary, and this will be clumped together for Ann's House of Dreams and An of Engleside. Let's go. Anne and Gilbert get married in a lovely ceremony at Green Gables and then move to a small, beautiful seaside house in Four Winds Harbor, Prince Edward Island, that they nickname the House of Dreams. A there we go. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Gilbert spends his days building his growing medical practice and getting to know the neighbors with Anne, who takes a particular liking to Captain Jim, an elderly sailor and keeper of the lighthouse who lost his true love years ago. A single and sassy woman named Miss Cordelia who lives alone and stays up to date on all the local gossip. and Leslie Moore, a woman of 28 years trapped in a lovely lovely marriage, a loveless marriage with an abusive man who came back from a sea voyage with a brain injury, leaving him with no memories and someone who must be taken care of constantly. I only say that with a laugh because it's like so such drama, you know what I mean? Yeah. Was that two or three? Now I forgot. That was two. That was two. Okay. Okay. Throughout the course of their years at the House of Dreams, Anne and Gilbert witness Captain Jim have an epic novel written about his life before he passes away by a man named Owen Ford, who ends up marrying Leslie after Gilbert encourages her to take her husband to Montreal for brain surgery, where his memory is restored. And it is realized that her abusive husband actually died at sea. And the man she knows is actually his cousin who returns to his previous life, leaving her free. And also, Miss Cordelia marries another unlikely suitor from town who appreciates her strong will and independence. Celebration dance to lose that baggage. Yeah. Right. Oh my god. For like 10 years, she was taking care of him, right? Something like that. 10 or 15. Yeah. When you told me she was only 28, I was like, "Oh, thank goodness." Because they were treating her like such an old maid. And I was like, "As they do." Yeah. As they do. Okay. So, that's three. Okay. An and Gilbert lose little Joyce, their first baby, after only a day. And after much mourning, Anne has a second child, James, who they name after Captain Jim. Leslie and Owen buy the house of dreams. And Ann and Gilbert moved to Glenn St. Mary to a beautiful, larger estate that they call Engleside with their lovely housekeeper, Susan. H no rhyme or reason to me. Four. Ann and Gilbert go on to have five more children. And Jim, Walter, Nan, Diana, Shirley, and Rilla all grow up like Anne did in their own enchanted version of Green Gables, um, which they call Rainbow Valley, while Ann and Gilbert navigate the complexity of parenthood, 15 years of marriage, and aging. I'm fine. Oh, yes. So, it was a wild journey there for a little while and then it just kind of it, strangely enough, I feel like it kind of calms down once there's six kids in the picture. It's like the story to us calms down even though it's crazy for them, you know? Yeah. It's not as emotional as the other book, the first one. For sure. Okay. So, why don't we just kick it off with our favorite and least favorite parts? Yeah, let's talk about it. All right, you go first this time. Okay. So, my favorite part um of both of these books was Leslie and Owen's love story. I freaking ate that up like so much. It's like just to kind of like paint a picture if you guys are listening and you know, you haven't read this and you're kind of considering it. You know, Leslie is this Yeah. 28-year-old woman who's married to this very abusive man who goes off to sea, I don't know, to do something. Not sure what. Um I don't even know if they tell us. And um suffers a brain injury and basically, you know, returns home from the sea voyage as kind of like what do they describe him as like having the brain capacity of like a small child basically. Um so he requires like care all the time and has no memories of his previous life. And then, you know, here's good old Gilbert over here who's like, "Hey, I feel like medicine has advanced enough. Let's see if we can get him some brain surgery." And dude recovers and is like, "I'm not your ex-husband. I'm his cousin who looks the same." And she's like, "Oh my god, I'm free." And then she can marry the person that she truly loves. Yeah. What a journey. That's crazy. Yeah. What a journey, man. That was crazy. That was definitely my favorite part cuz it was very like I don't know just like dramatically romantic, you know. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. What What about you? Well, my favorite part and least favorite part are combined. So, why don't you first talk about your least favorite part and then I'll talk about both. So, that's interesting because I feel like I know what you're going to say. Um, so my least favorite part was, you know, Ann losing baby Joyce because it was super sad. But I say that because it was sad and I didn't obviously like that for her and for Gilbert. You know, it was very tragic. But at the same time, you know, I put least favorite question mark because I feel like, you know, in whatever year I said that was 1917, to show that kind of perspective, unlike a woman going through that circumstance and also grieving and acknowledging it instead of just brushing past it or being told not to talk about it or get over it, whatever. Um, I feel like it was really Ella Montgomery really gave it the attention that it needed and deserved and to do that in 1917 I think was really really cool and really important and smart. So least favorite part cuz it was very sad but still not like my least favorite part for any other reason, you know. So what about you? Yeah, so exactly that. It's my least favorite part and favorite part because she included it. So, yes, trigger warning for, you know, infant loss and pregnancy loss. So, it it was as somebody who went through a late term loss, too. I felt very seen. And I think I mean I think almost everybody I mean we I think all of us know somebody who has been affected by this and especially seeing the older generations who have talked to me in their elder years for the first time about a pregnancy loss or infant loss that they had that they didn't feel like they could ever talk about. To see Alma Gamry talk about this in 1917. It's just one of those things I wish more people could be able to read it because not only is she going through this horrible thing that unfortunately happens often enough, um she calls out toxic positivity in a way, you know. Um Merilla is putting that spin on it that sometimes we don't want that spin on it, you know. Well, you'll have another child. And it's like, no, but I want this one. An says, you know, I will always think of her. She will always be in my heart. And it's, you know, allowing an to go through grief and not to the point that she'll become that forever, but allowing her that space to grieve and talking through it with Merilla and other people around her. Having that open communication can make a world of difference for people going through these losses. And it's just a representation. That was my favorite part because so often times we're told of so many things in life, just get over it. like it's fine. You know, I think of that awful best friend in um Princess Diaries who's like, "Oh, you're still mad about your dad dying? What? It's been two months." You know, it's like I can't stand her. It's like that. It's like, "Shouldn't you be over that by now?" And it's like, "No, I shouldn't be." And we should be allowed to talk about this through open spaces. So, I really appreciated LM Montgomery writing her story the way that she did. Yeah. and the inner monologue of, you know, inner and outer monologue because like you said, she was talking to, you know, Miss Cordelia, she was talking to Leslie, she was talking to Merilla, you know, about these things. Like just to be able to have a really thorough I feel like recounting of the situation as opposed to just like a this happened now we're moving on or the story fast forwards once, you know, quote unquote Ann is better or whatever, you know? I feel like no, we like watched it play out in the time necessary for, you know, Ann to process the information too. So yeah. Yeah. And she even, you know, mentions after having six kids, you know, that she still thinks of that one, you know, and that never goes away completely. So yeah. Well, yeah. Someone refers to um, you know, the baby as not by her name. And I remember that specifically where she was like that, no, that was Joyce. like that was her name and I was like, "Yeah, it it was very like real and I appreciated it too." Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So, what about your favorite character and least favorite character? Oh, well, least favorite character. This one was easy. Um, what's the freaking husband's name? The real one. I'm going to say, you know, what was his name of the girl that the brain injury guy, but it's not the cousin. It's not his fault. I don't remember. I don't remember his name. I pushed it out of my brain, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So, he finds out that um what's the girl's name that you like? Sorry, I'm terrible with names. Miss Cordelia. Okay. So, Cordelia, so Leslie was 15 or 16 years old. Her her dad dies. her mother. You know, back in the early 1900s, it was women couldn't have jobs most of the time. You know, they had to pick up side things. What do you say? Sometimes, depending on where you live, sometimes you can inherit the property. So, she inherits it, but she can't afford the taxes and to maintain it. So, she's and she has other kids too besides Leslie. So the this man who is an adult man finds out that she has um her bank loan through her his dad and threatens to repossess the house or foreclose the house on them if he doesn't allow her to marry Leslie a 16-year-old. So, you know, my first honestly re reaction was be like that mom. I can't believe she agreed to that. And then I had to check my misogyny, guys. And I'm like, no, this woman was probably also only 30 and left with all these kids and nothing to be able to do other than be homeless, you know. And it's not okay that she accepted his proposal to get, you know, through it, but it was kind of like, what was a girl to do then, you know? So, I reassessed who I was mad at. And I'm like, cuz I'm obviously mad at the guy, but I was definitely like turned real quick against the mom. And I was like, "No, no, no, no. This is that man's fault. He manipulated the system and used it to marry an underage woman." You know, obviously back then the rules might have been different, but doesn't matter. She's 16. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it was terrible. Absolutely terrible. I hate him with a passion. I'm glad that he died. Poor Jim accidentally bringing the wrong one home, but he was like bludgeoned and disfigured also. Well, and they said that like even when they were both normal and doing well, they looked like twins. Like they said that like they look like twins cuz people were saying like how did she not know that was her husband? And it's like, well, if they literally look like twins, look like twins and then also beaten up a little bit. And so it was also hard cuz they were like, well, he's nicer now, so it's like, okay, I guess, you know, at least it's like a double-edged sword. Yeah. Cuz she's like, well, at least now he's not abusive, but he's like someone I have to care for 24/7. And we're married. And back then she was like, I can't just leave him. Like what? Yeah. So she felt very obligated to stay with him. So yeah. So, he's definitely my least favorite character. Yep. I love that though, like shifting the blame like because it's funny that you say that because when I pictured her mom, I pictured almost like the mom from from Titanic. Yeah. And I feel like, you know, like when I was younger, it was definitely always like I looked at the mom like, "Oh my god, what a b- word." You know what I mean? Like, but then it's like you think about it cuz that was the same time like the Titanic was happening like at the same time this was 1912. Yeah. Exactly. It's like, well, no. Like, if if women can't own property, women can't open businesses, you know, women can't even have a bank account, like literally, what are your options? Yeah. I mean, and 16 wasn't that unusual back then to be married. So, it's kind of like, okay, well, you know, and at least he comes for money and, you know, even though nobody really likes him, okay, I guess this is probably my best option. She's going to be forced to get married in the next couple years anyways. But yeah, it's like it's important to challenge ourselves, you know, just like you did and say like, is the mom really the one to blame? You know, same with Titanic when I watched it again recently. I was like, is the mom really the one to blame? Like she's not great, but at the same time it's like you have to have some empathy for the situation. It's more complex and like really at the heart of it like patriarchy and misogyny are what's to blame. You know, he didn't need this guy did not need to. He just saw a hot girl and was like, I want to tame her. Cuz that was the thing. She was a free spirit as well. So, he's the problem. It's him. 100%. No excuses. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah. Um, that's funny. I obviously really disliked him as well, but as far as like characters that we had to deal with a lot that I hated, um, I put I didn't even look up her name because I was like, I don't care. I'm not going to look up her name. I'm just going to say definitely Gilbert's aunt for sure. I think the only reason why I chose her instead of one of the other characters that was obviously worse is because of the fact that like we just had like half of a book where we had to listen to her. So, she was just there. The other guy, it's like we had to hear about him because it was important to Leslie's backstory, but dude was dead. So, like, you know what I mean? Like, we didn't have to like or when we thought he was alive, he was like essentially someone who was never actually present in the story. We just knew of him. Yeah. So, we didn't have to like listen to him talk 24/7. I was like, "Oh, dear Lord, you're so annoying." We had no resolution. She just finally left. Yeah. She left of all things because they threw her a birthday party and pointed out how old she was. And that's that was the final straw. She was like,"I'm getting out of here." Yeah. So, she was definitely my least favorite character for sure. You go first. Who was your favorite character then? Oh, Miss Cordelia was my favorite character for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Is that the Just Like a Man lady? Yeah. Yeah. My favorite. Yeah. We'll take a moment to talk about Miss Cordelia here. So, Miss Cordelia is, you know, this woman that Ann meets one of the neighbors to her, you know, house of dreams. Um, Miss Cordelia, do you know how old she is? I was just thinking that. I'm like, you know what? She's probably only like 40 at the most. At the most, I would say, cuz that's how everybody is. Yeah. And the narrator was like, "Not like a man." And it's like, "It's probably only like a 40-year-old." Yeah. So, I would say I would estimate probably between the ages of 35 and 45. Okay. This woman. Yeah. And, you know, she's never been married. She doesn't have any kids. She refuses to get married, you know, until she eventually does to a man who gets her, right? Presumably. Um, and you know, she kind of she's just like this lovely woman who kind of just lives her life the way that she wants to. She's very independent. And her kind of like catchphrase that she says all the time, she'll tell she'll tell a story and then she'll say,"That's just like a man." And it just had me and Ashley cracking up so much because it's just such a I mean to go back to LM Montgomery writing this in that time like how bold to include a character who you know is going to call out these behaviors even in times when it's just kind of comical and silly. Yeah. Like but just to say like that's just like a man. Yeah. It's just it was like oh this is so us. It's our new catchphrase guys. That's just like a man. That's just like a man. Yeah. And it could be anything. It could be anything. Like literally anything. So, well, it's literally idiot boys making rash decisions most of the time, too. So, we we can relate hard over here. Well, just to use an example, you know, when they found out that um you know, Leslie's actual husband died at sea, she you know, she's like, "Well, that's just like a man." Yeah. Die at sea. That's just like a man. As he does, as they do, die at sea. So, it would be stuff like that, too, which was just so funny. So, fully appreciated, Miss Cordelia. You know, it's inspiring. A bonus section at the end of this episode. So, stick around if you want to hear that. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. But it's helpful in times of annoyance, you know? Like, h it's just like a man, you know? Yeah. Cuz it's like, you know, they do these things. It's just like, come on. So, she calls it lightens up the mood. It does. It did. Instead of being like rage, then I can just be like just like a man. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. A little simple dummy. Yeah. It just kind of like it's like there was actually now that you're saying that I have a quote that I'll share now instead of during the quote section um that really really described Miss Cordelia just in general. And I was like, "Okay, Miss Cordelia personated the comedy that ever peeps around the corner at the tragedy of life." That's how she described her. And I was like, that's not us, though. Yeah. I was like, that's a perfect description of her character. So, yeah, she's the comic relief, but in a way that acknowledges Yeah. what is really going on on a deeper level. And like, what a smart way to write that character, I thought. Mhm. Yeah. It was funny. Yeah. Uh, one of my I don't have the exact quote, but one of the first times that we get the just like a man quote, she's talking to an about the different, you know, people in town and stuff and talking about how um, one of the girls, her father, you know, yeah, trigger warning, but commits suicide by drowning in or right, what did he drown in like their the well, the well that they have the family uses like just like and doesn't have the decency to take himself over to the ocean across the street that's just like a man drowning himself in the well because it's like so like you get this trauma dump but it's like so funny to call out how ridiculous of a choice that was for him to make cuz idiot boys making rash decisions drowning himself in the well the family had to dig a new well and then she goes on and it was a bad well and they had to move so it's like fully ruined their lives great thanks yeah just in case it wasn't bad enough I'm going to make sure that I make your lives inconvenience as well, you know. Oh my god. So funny. Yeah. So, there we go. So, would you say that Miss Cordelia was also your favorite character? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's who I had down for sure. For sure. Yeah. She was the best. Yeah. Okay. So, we added this in um I don't even know maybe last episode, but what would you have found most relatable as a young girl versus an adult woman now? Like in these two books? Oh, definitely. You know, Ann's um infant loss for sure was the most relatable for me, especially as someone who has gone through that. And then um versus as a young girl, yeah, I could have actually I probably would have enjoyed some of those stories in book six, you know, like I talked about for my daughter, just the different types of personalities that her children meet, you know, in particular the girl that um you know, keeps having friends that are just like pathological liars. I know. you know, just breaking her heart cuz she's an imaginative child, too, just like Ann, but these people are taking it too far, you know, these kids. So, those kind of stories. Um, there's a lot of talk of mortality throughout all of these books, honestly. And I feel like for both me as a child and as an adult, they're very helpful and important to discuss in such a way that you don't feel impending doom. Yeah. existential crisis. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an acknowledgement but not like there's no like moral framework really like tied up in it. I feel it's more like a matter of fact acknowledgement of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about you? I mean I would say that yeah book five in particular was really relatable like I said to us as adults now for sure. I don't know that I would have found it super relatable or entertaining as a kid. I might have struggled with it a little bit. Um, but I feel like, yeah, as far as, you know, them meeting Captain Jim and then him passing, but having his story, you know, like memorialized in this book, like I feel like, yeah, to go back to your, you know, um, themes of mortality. I feel like that was a good example of that. And Ann just kind of like experiencing, you know, loss in a different kind of way than she had in her younger years. like obviously like losing um why am I blanking out on Matthew? Yeah. Was like a very important part of her childhood adolescence. But like this is different. She's experiencing it differently um with you know the perspective that she has now. So I found that relatable. I also found it relatable, I think, in book I think it was in book six where she's talking about how fast time is starting to go. You can see the shift in book six where she's now in her mid30s. Like she's the age we are now in book six. Yeah. Um whereas she's more like mid20s in book five. I feel like, you know, in book six, she's grappling a lot with that idea of like, what does it mean to age? What does that mean for my marriage? What does that mean for life in general? Um, yeah, time is moving quickly. She's watching Merilla get a lot older. Um, I think that all of those things were very relatable to me just like, and again, I don't know that I would have appreciated that at all as a kid, but like now I'm like, "Wow." Yeah. like all those things that she's noticing. I'm appreciating the progression of her character now that we're kind of matching up in age. I think that's really cool. Like we've watched her grow up and now I'm like, "Huh, okay." Like we're experiencing like at this point in time, maybe not very similar things cuz it's different time and she's got lots of kids and everything, but still there are there are themes in life like the passing of time getting really fast that are relatable, I think, to a lot of people in our age range. Yeah. Yeah. And seeing her do have the same kind of internalized things that a lot of us face too with getting older, you know, being in marriages for a long time and the struggles. They may have like full struggles, but just like the insecurities that come with being married for I think they're on 15 years or something like that almost, you know, and calling that out and like, you know, does he still love me? Do I still love him? Like what are we falling away from each other? you know, and we've had all these kids now what? So, a lot like having those conversations um and eventually having them together, you know, it's very important to be able to discuss these things with our spouses because, you know, he says to her, she asks like, "Do you still love me?" And he says, "Oh, I didn't think that you needed with words. I thought you knew that like you're my entire life or whatever." And it's like, "No, we do need to hear these things still, you know, we do." and having that communication if you can before it gets to the point that she was, you know, feeling as bad as she was and uh projecting onto other women her insecurities. Um it's important to have these conversations and always keep those lines communication open because it's not it's not the same. I think in a lot of relationships, people just, you know, it's like, oh, your mom's always going to love you, you know, possibly I'm generalizing, you know, because people have, you know, different situations growing up, but like, you know, it's always going to be that unconditional love. But I feel that in spousal relationships, relationships with significant others, it's something you do always have to kind of work with. you know, maybe one of the partners doesn't and maybe you maybe both don't need it, but most people need, you know, some form of acknowledgement and, you know, what is the the love language? So, some some of us need words of affirmation and the gift giving. If those things start stopping and you're just going into work and you're just yeah becoming roommates, then it can affect our mental health, our relationships. So being able to talk about that and saying your needs is important. So we'll see what happens in the next book, but it seems like they talked it out enough. Yeah. And I appreciate I appreciate Gilbert. I feel like his character is unique because it's like I feel like as Miss Cordelia would say, he is just like a man in a lot of ways, right? It's like, you know, he when an you know is spiraling out because, you know, she has it's their anniversary. It's a wedding anniversary. He seemingly doesn't remember. He hasn't said anything. She bought a new dress. He doesn't comment on it. You know, he wants to actually like meet up with one of his old ex-girlfriends who's visiting in town. And he invites Ann. They're all invited, but he's like on their anniversary. Ann is like freaking out cuz she's like like does he even love me anymore? Like what's the deal with this? Well, it's like turns out all along, you know, Gilbert just um is exhausted because he's worried about this sick patient that he has who doesn't know if he's they're going to make it, you know, so he's distracted. He didn't mention their anniversary because the gift was late and he didn't want to bring attention to it. So, he's hoping an forgot until it gets there in time. He noticed her dress and he noticed how beautiful she looked in it, but he didn't say anything cuz he's like assuming that she knows that he thinks that she's beautiful. So, why does he need to say it all the time? So, it's just these little things that are miscommunications or just slight things, but they end up Yeah. talking it through. And I like that Gilbert is very like open and honest about it and is okay with just talking it out and doesn't get like defensive about it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. He's definitely And it's another reason why men should be reading these stories, too, because it's another perspective. And as much as we hate miscommunication tropes, this one was important to show how to overcome those things and how and it didn't last more than a day. Yeah. Really, I mean, she was having these feelings of getting older and their relationship, you know, changing and evolving and then this happens, you know, compiles comp whatever the word is um compounds and then has which a lot of us go through. You have these the little things, you know, building up and then something big happens and then you can talk about it. It was handled really well. I thought so. Very relatable. Um I feel like these books would be a little bit more relatable for those of us who are a little bit older, but might still be enjoyable and entertaining to read if you're young. Yeah. Well, see, but most of this book is young. That was like three chapters, you know, maybe with Ann. It was mostly not her. So, that was like our little treat back to where she where we want to be. So, you know, we say I don't know if you want to read this book or not, but it still had stuff in it that was good, you know, for sure. Yeah. So, it just depends what you want to prioritize on your giant TBR stack. Um, but yeah, and it's a good reminder for all of us, you know, even, you know, for me to my husband acknowledging when he looks handsome and not just saying it in my head, you know, and that's why I say it would be good for guys to read too to say no, we always need to keep those compliments up and acknowledgements. But I did hate that he was just like, "I'm just hoping she doesn't just like a man." Like, just say, "Happy anniversary. Your gift's coming. Please." Exactly. God, I'm stewing all day. I'd be so pissed. Like, just tell me. I'd rather I know postal stuff happens, you know? Come on. Yeah. They're like bringing it in by like horse and buggy. Like, yeah, especially back then. Yeah. Gosh dang it. Tell me my dress is pretty. I love that she changed. Well, fine. If he's not going to see it, then I'm changing. Yeah. She wore like her funeral dress, like her black like Yeah. I was like, I love that. Yeah. Mhm. So, yeah. So, how overall would you say that these two books made you feel? And were there any particular like literary devices that Ella Montgomery used, you think, to aid in us feeling the way we feel? Yeah. You know, kind of like we all talked about, it made me feel seen. It acknowledges a lot of things that are, you know, happening in these adult years. And she uses these literary devices of showing the characters going through these internal monologues and external monologues to go through these changes and adjustments and um you know even just acknowledging the societal issues of the times of this man marrying this teenager you know and calling out the issues in there and the manipulations that were going on. So yeah, like that's bold in the early 1900s. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I feel like this was very like that's what I'm kind of realizing. Very Ellen Montgomery and the way that like she's using the multiple POV and like the different characters, specifically mostly female characters, to critique the times. Yeah. And to challenge women's roles. And that's very obvious with Leslie. That's very obvious with Miss Cordelia, you know. And then in um you know book we get away from that and I think that might be why we didn't connect with it as much and that was definitely more about the kids. But even so I did like the witch lady though. the witch lady that yeah who wasn't but basically you know the town's people have these like witchy feelings about her because she was what staring at the moon one night or something or singing to the moon and she's a widow so you know she just lives with her mirales and her cats living the best life honestly she's all happy and you know silly and she's not the ideal expectations this child conjured up because she's not a witch you know she's just living her best life but I I love that she's like, "Oh, I heard your parents are bringing you up sciency or something like that. How do you like that?" I think that's great. And I just thought that was an interesting call out as well because that was unusual. Yeah. And even though they are going to church and they do have religion involved, they also believe in science. Yeah. So, yeah, I enjoyed that. Well, yeah. I mean, that woman even she was a very minor character, but yeah, the witchy lady. Um, she even acknowledges cuz someone, you know, makes a comment about Yeah. like seeing her like talk to the moon or like some some one of the reasons why they thought she was a witch. And she was like,"Well, why shouldn't I? Who cares?" Yeah. And I was like, "Oh, I love that." Like what? And then she's like she has a cold, so she's like wearing like a wreath of something, you know? And it's like so funny. I love it. So So yeah, I think that, you know, to me now that we're this far along in the series, I think that that's kind of one of her main objectives, Ella Montgomery's main objectives is Yeah. showing us all these different ways that women can exist in society and using that to critique the boxes that all of them are placed in. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely. Mhm. So, how did Ella Montgomery use Ann and her growth to address important societal issues? So, I'd say like basically that's it. I think that, you know, an is like she's not a passive observer, but she kind of is in a lot of ways. And I think that that's an interesting way that the author is able to make an kind of the center of the world, this world, you know, but then also tell a lot of different stories at the same time, not necessarily with like Ann's like one perspective of them, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely agreed. So, let's see. Yeah. Do you think it was typical for girls and women to be portrayed this way in popular literature at the time? Probably not. I mean, I'm not an expert, but like this seems pretty like I don't want to say like in your face, but it's pretty obvious. Like, I don't know that it was she meant it to be super secret when you have someone literally saying that's just like a man every like 100 pages. I don't know that um you know that was necessarily subtle. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah, it's unfortunate that it's not, you know, a signed reading, but it makes sense because misogyny. Um, and then yeah, do we think that an or any other characters exhibited characteristics similar to those that we value in popular books today. So, you know, with our heroins that we read about in our romanty books. Yeah, of course. Yeah, sure. I mean like like you just said I mean it's more in a lot of the fantasy things and stuff that we read it's more subtleties you know and pulling from representation to this fantasy world into our world. This is very obvious you know discussing all the different themes and everything that are going on. I think that's something that's really unique and I was thinking about this a lot just because we've read Spark of the Everflame recently and covered that um just this idea of you know men as supporting characters right it's like Luther is arguably you know in Spark of the Everflame that series one of the you know best in my opinion supporting characters you know supporting MMC's for you know this really powerful woman character I feel like Gilbert is that for this time in the way that was available. Yeah, if that makes sense. And I think that that is important to bring up because you know he's not supporting her to go into battle, right? Like what he is well six kids that is kind of a battle on its own. I can't even imagine. Um but I think what the author is doing is she created a man like Gilbert who's very kind. He's understanding. you know, he seems genuinely just like a good person. And while he may not be present in the background all the time supporting Ann's um endeavors, he is though. You know what I mean? It's like in the story, we might not be reading about Gilbert telling her, you know, like you should be doing this or this is great or go do this, but like he is supporting her as a person in whatever she really wants to do and he has ever since they met. that's important to address that, you know, Ann Gilbert is in the background, you know, really not stifling her down. Yeah. Mhm. Which I think would probably be very common back then. Yeah, for sure. For sure. For sure. He'd be best case scenario. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, literally, really? Yeah. Gilbert, we love you, Gilbert. What's the worst that he's done so far to her? Make her move from her smaller house to the giant mansion estate. And then they end up one of her friends buys it as a summer home and they get to go visit it. Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh darn. I know. Darn Gilbert. That guy didn't tell her her dress was pretty and then when she told him he was like, you're right. Yeah, I shouldn't say it. Yeah, I should have said it. Um, so, okay. Okay, so let's bring it on back to kind of the reason why we've been covering these because we wanted to talk about coming of age novels, the buildings Roman specifically about uh you know females lives. Um so did we notice like how that was used in these two books in particular to kind of like move the plot along or was there anything that you wanted to like call out as far as that goes? Oh, definitely. I mean we're we're seeing the different stages. I actually really appreciate because a lot of times, you know, we're looking up the definitions of buildings Roman and everything. It's focused on pre-teen and teenage years, maybe a little into adulthood, but this is like the full It shows how we're not done growing. No. You know, at 18 at all, you know, and something that like I cannot stand that we're told at 18 years old to pick something that you want to do until you're 80, you know, at this point. What's the retirement age now? 75 or something. Like at 18 years old, you don't even know who you are outside of your home yet. I'm not the same. You know, I might have similar personality traits, but I've grown so much in the last even 5 years, you know, 100%. And so I think that it's so important to show the different transitions of even an you know and that it was cute that she was still like she refers back to some of her childhood wonders and she still has she's still who she is at her core but you know she's decided to have six kids when before she was didn't even want to get married. So she's adjusted and changed as and accepted her changes, you know, and so it shows how building Roman is not done at 18 years old and you continue to grow and she's going to continue to grow if we get I don't know what the next books cover if they just switch completely or if we still see Ann's perspective, but you're not you're not I mean how many of these old you know what do they call them? um not hags but like spinsters you know who are getting married you know at 35 and it's like okay come on you know they still have their whole life ahead of them it's crazy so yeah I mean I I picked up on that too the exact thing that you were saying where I was like you know to yeah go back to the definition being basically like an adolescent kind of journey I really appreciate that we got yeah we got Ann's adolescent journey but then we got her college journey And then we got her early 20s newlywed journey and you know now we're getting her you know new mom journey and I feel like all those different iterations like yeah you can be who you are at your core but you're going to be a different person through all those different stages of your life and I do appreciate that a lot. Um also another part of coming of age tales um that's important is that oftentimes they'll take this knowledge that they've learned and they'll pass it on. And so I think that's what a lot of book six is about. Um because it's not just about the kids going through their like anecdotal issues or whatever, but it's about an walking them through it. Yeah. And doing, you know, guiding them. It's about an guiding them. Um and I thought that that was really special also. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Um so here's the question. Are you excited to read the final two? I sure. I don't know what they're going to be about. I don't either. I have no idea. I'd say if I'm being honest, I'm least excited about eight because it is of Engleside, I believe. So, that's her daughter, one of her daughters. So, you know, but that's being judgmental. It could be great. Yeah. Yeah. Change my mind. Ella Montgomery. I know. Yeah. I'm excited, too. Mostly because Yes. I have no idea what to expect. Um, you know, all that I know about it is just based on the titles. Yeah, exactly. Um, so yeah, curiosity for sure. Excited to see where this goes. I am scared. I'm scared for Merilla. I'm scared for AON. Quite frankly, these are these are rough times. Medicine's progressing with with the thanks of Gilbert. But, you know, it's like we're getting, you know, up up to that life expectancy of the early 1900s wasn't great. 60. Yeah. Um, honestly, I was expecting us to maybe lose Merrila in the last book. So, the fact that we I was Yeah, I was like, did I miss it? Cuz they're not bringing her up that much. She's going strong still. So, yeah, I am a little afraid for our characters. I don't know how Montgomery is going to choose to wrap this up. If that's going to be with maybe an crossing the Rainbow Bridge, I don't know. Um, but that will be sad if it indeed happens. Um, you know, we did lose a main character, Captain Jim, from book five, and that definitely made me cry. That was quite sad. Even though it's like he literally died in the best way possible. Yeah. Which I appreciated, too, because so many of these deaths that they're dealing with, like, you know, horrific and die too young, you know, he was it was it was one of those elderly passings that's like, well, he wanted to go this way and he did. So, that's nice. He literally went elderly man reading in his bed. the story of his own life that gotten written about it. Like come on, you know, there's no better way to go. Um, but that being said, like I said, I mean, if a character that we've only known for one book is like a tragic death. And I mean, even, you know, with why can I not remember his name? Her basically her dad who dies in book one. Yeah. Uh, Matthew. Matthew. I can't remember his name. I don't know. Um, maybe I blocked it out when I was a kid due to trauma. Now I can't remember it. Um, even Matthew, we knew him for such a short period of time, all things considered, and that was uh really hard, too. So, I feel like we'll just have to go into it and see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. So, do you have some quotes? Oh, yeah. Obviously, we've harped on it a lot. Just like a man. Be prepared for us to hear us say that all the time. I also have um Oh, well, yeah. So, I already talked about that one. Um, so covering book five. I'd like to add some beauty to life, said Anne Dreamly. I don't exactly want to make people know more, though I know that is the noblest ambition, but I'd like I'd love to make them have a pleasant time because of me. To have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born. A, it's beautiful. Sometimes just like being and existing and calling out beauty can be enough, you Yeah, we talked about this, you know, amongst ourselves and also on the podcast a little bit too, just about this idea that sometimes, you know, you don't need to lecture to people to get them to change. I think that's what she's saying. I'm not necessarily trying to change the world by telling people what to do and how to live. I'm just going to do the things that I think are right to bring myself and others joy and just let the chips fall as they may, you know? Yeah. And I love that perspective. It's great. Mhm. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so my first quote is uh as a lot of my quotes are by Miss Cordelia, our favorite character. I'm not hankering after the vote. Believe me, said Miss Cordelia scornfully. I know what it is to clean up after the men. But some of these days when the men realize they've got the world into a mess they can't get it out of, they'll be glad to give us the vote and shoulder their troubles over on us. That's their scheme. Boom. That boom is in my opinion like literally to have that in a book back then like how impactful even now like you said a mouthful lady and it's still relevant in so many ways. Yeah, I like that there's been several characters at this point now talking about women's rights to vote and hold power and their struggles. You know, it's like this isn't a new idea, guys. You know, this has been going on before even these books. We've been trying to dismantle the patriarchy and make it more equal since the dawn of time. Yeah. And we're just act we're just act asking for equal rights. We're not asking to be the ones in charge now, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you got I couldn't live where there were no trees. Something vital in me will starve. I can relate to that because I do not like the desert. Yeah, I don't like them. I can feel that. I just need that. I need some kind of trees around me. Not deep, but relatable. So, this is another one. It was Eve ate the apple, Miss Cordelia. It was uh she says, "It was a he creature that tempted her," retorted Miss Cordelia triumphantly. See, it kind of is like the the man forcing the mom to say yes to the proposal. Yeah, exactly. It's like you want to blame Eve, but who tempted them? Yeah. And there's more going on there. Yeah. It's not as simple. It's not as simple. It's not simple. It's not simple. Here's another light one. Thank goodness we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are and be thankful. Yeah. Miss Aunt Mary Maria. That was her name. The aunt I didn't like. There we go. Blocked it out. So here, yeah, because this was one of my quotes. Um, from it's just like a man. I can tell you what is the matter with Mrs. Ble. Susan had answered grimly. She has got a bad attack of Aunt Mary Maria and the doctor cannot seem to see it even though he does worship the ground that she walks on. Isn't that just like a man? So basically like Ann is miserable because she has this miserable woman, you know, um Gilbert's aunt staying with them and she's just saying like for some reason Gilbert cannot seem to understand that that is why Ann is in a bad mood even though he literally worships the ground that she walks on. Isn't that like Yeah. It's so true. It's just like going about his business not understanding what's going on. Yep. Yeah. Uh, here. We're moving on to book six. For me, I cracked up and wrote this down. Nobody approves of murder as a habit. So, they're talking about one of the wives who killed her husband and everybody in town knows it. Didn't prosecute it. But she's like, you know, she had had enough. He was um abusing her or something like that. Well, like nobody likes that she did it, but you know, nobody approves of murderous habit. It was just one and done. It's like fine. It was just so nonchalant. So, it was a funny reflection on the times as well. It was pretty funny. Yeah. Um, Ann always liked to get up early and catch that mystical half hour before sunrise when the world belongs to the fairies and the old gods. She liked to see the morning sky of pale rose and gold behind the church spire, the thin translucent glow of sunrise spreading over the dunes. the first violet spirals of smoke floating up from the village roofs. I loved that because it's like such a good example of like just the imagery in these books, but also like how I feel and one of the reasons why I wake up at 5 every day cuz I too enjoy that. Yeah. A It's good reminder to stop and smell the roses, you know. Yeah. It's not what the world holds for you, it's what you bring to it. H that was nice little motivational quote and uh writing the coattales of that one. A man mayn't amount to an awful lot but you sort of miss him when he goes talking about someone's husband dying. I'm like oh my god. Okay. So here's a another deep one. Well that was life. Gladness and pain. Hope and fear and change. Always change. You cannot help it. You had to let go. Let the old go and take the new to your heart. Learn to love it and then let it go in turn. Spring, lovely as it was, must yield to summer and summer lose itself to autumn. The birth, the bridal, the death. Yep, I wrote that one. It's kind of Yeah. What these books are kind of all about. Going through the seasons of changes. Yep. Turn and face the changes to changes. We'll end on that one because I feel like I had that one written down, too. And that's just a good summation. I feel like where we're at right now for sure. So good. Totally. So overall, would you say that at this point in time we see, you know, let's just look at it as books one through six as a positive or negative contribution to the canon? I positive. Positive in all accounts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Do you have any critiques other than what we've already mentioned? I do. All right. All right. hear it. And I will say obviously it's a sign of the times. We still hear it today and we're still trying to dismantle these kind of comments and ways of thinking, but I didn't love Gilbert's attitude at the end when he was kind of discussing the ex-girlfriend. Do we all do it? Yeah. But still, I just didn't love it. Um I didn't specifically like the comments where he was like,"Oh, well, she she got fat. Glad you didn't." Right, right, right, right. I forgot about that. Yeah, that wasn't a like a man. But specifically because he's like,"That girl got fat. Glad you didn't. She's also looking old. Glad you don't." It's like, "Well, then if I go gained weight or looked old, would you not love me anymore?" Yeah. Yeah. So, am I on a timer here? Like, then that would have ruined all of the stuff for me of like, you know, the apologies and doing better. And then if he goes and says that, I like, "Well, cra." Well, it's sad cuz you know she's agreeing with him. I know, right? Gh. I'm so glad that doesn't happen to me. But it's like, girl, you're 35, you know, but like, hey, and you've had six kids. Good for you, I guess. But like, gez, I don't know. I'd be like, if I look old and haggarded, it's because I had your six kids, dude. Yeah. Can you like glad you didn't like it? Those comments bothered me and it just felt out of character for him, too. So, yeah, a little bit for sure. Um, didn't like that. But hey, just like a man. That was my only critique I found though. Okay. Yeah. Um I mean, other than the critiques that we've already talked about, just as far as like, you know, the multip with all the kids and all that kind of stuff, I didn't really have any particular um critiques that I found about this. I definitely, you know, I briefly just kind of like looked it up and did see that because of the big gap in time, a lot of people feel like the tone in book six is just so different that it feels disjointed. So, that seemed to be a major critique of book six, for sure. Mhm. Like I get I think and that's why I'm scared for the next two books, but I think this was a gentle sendoff to let us know Ann's journey is going to be wrapping up for us on you know how much more she discusses her because it was minimal. So it's like it's like the gentle goodbye, you know, to follow her children. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I'm so amazed. I hope that it's handled in a way where we have closure though. Do you know what I mean? Like that's all I could really hope for is that like you know what an epic story and just knowing so much about Ann's life. Like I really hope that we get the sendoff that we deserve and it's not just like nothing. I don't know. I'm sure honestly like all jokes aside, we're probably going to just end up with like a you know and they retire and live happily ever after for them. You know, hopefully maybe. Or she could rip our heart out. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah, I have a fun fact for you guys. Okay, so I think I may have mentioned before that I actually picked up a book at Barnes & Noble a while back called Blue Castle that was in the horror section. Yeah. Then realized it was by Ella Montgomery. Okay. I was like, "Wait, what?" Like, and had to do kind of a double take. I don't know. I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if it's true horror what it is, but I thought that this was interesting. So, The Blue Castle, a bestseller and one of Montgomery's adult novels, was banned by some libraries for featuring an unwed mother and undressing religious hypocrisy. This makes me more interested to read it. It was turned into a very successful Polish musical. Wow. Wow. There you go. How interesting. Yeah. All right. So, even more reasons, I feel like maybe to add it on to our unpopular books by popular authors series or something like that. You know, obviously it was a bestseller, but unpopular as far as just like in the, you know, like I don't well known. Yeah. So, that's my fun fact for you guys today about the um Ellen Montgomery universe. Okay. So, yes, now it's time for our bonus section. called That's Just Like a Man. That's Just Like a Man. Or is it? Or is it? Yeah. So, basically, we thought it would be fun um to come up with Yeah. just some kind of like a funny news story, something from a book, just like something anecdotal, and then the other person has to guess if that's just like a man or not. So, would you like to go first or do you want me to go first? Doesn't matter. Okay. Why don't you go first? I'm curious. Great. Okay. Okay. So, this was a based off of a Tik Tok story I heard one time. So, I had to change like, you know, everything around to not give anything away. Yes. Okay. So, the family is on vacation. One of the significant others goes up to the other significant other to ask if they packed their swimsuit for them. Okay. Later on, that same significant other asks the first significant other, did they ask their toothbrush for them the next day? Then they asked, "Hey, did you pack a dressy outfit for that reservation you made for us to the packer?" Okay. Just like a man or no, I'm going to say just like a man. That's just like a man. So away was like literally like asking if they packed an outfit for the reservation that they made. Yeah. That the packer made. Yeah. That the pack that is just like a man. Just like a man. Like listen and I want I know some people that's their love language to pack for the significant other. I staunchly and firmly will die on my hill that I will not be packing for my husband. And he has finally stopped asking if I would cuz he just tries it. I might just see if she'll go for it this time. I got to pack for myself. I got to pack for my kids. I got to make the effing reservations. I'm not packing for you because then you end up with problems like this asking like a third child in this family cuz it was it was a nuclear family. Um if they packed their first of all, you have eyes, right? So if your significant other packed for you, go use them. Go use those eyes, you know. So, um, that was my, uh, yeah, rage, rage against the machine moment, just like a man. That's hilarious, you know. But I will call out my dad in a positive way. They pack for each other, which I think is actually really sweet. So, sometimes he packs for her, sometimes he packs for him. It just like they're very last minute packers. It's comical, but they'll definitely like, "Okay, I'm home first. Let me pack for you." And he knows, you know, everything that my mom likes. So, I love that two-way street. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. I would never let my husband pack for me. Um, he also does not ex No, he does not expect me to. That would actually be like a funny experience. Maybe it's a lot of high stakes. Yeah. Like station for one night. Maybe I'd allow it. Well, no. It just be funny to do it like just as an experiment. So, you're not actually like going and taking that stuff. You just see what they would pack for you. It's actually kind of funny. Yeah. Um, and my husband doesn't expect me to pack for him at all. So, I would love to see like what pack like makeup and like skin care and stuff they pack. Exactly. Ken would literally take everything and just dump it into the suitcase. Hey, it's not unlike what I do for myself. Yeah. You know, honestly, I do have to give some credit where credit is due because there was one day where we were going to do like an event and I was working all day and I asked him if he could bring me I think I asked for like short Uggs, some tall socks and a beanie or something like that. I don't know, like a jacket maybe. And Kanan brought like all the right stuff. Oh, that's good. Yeah, I was like very surprised. I was like,"Wow, everything matches. It's like all cute." That's good. Yeah. Hey, that would be fun to do though. Yeah, that would be super fun. Like basically pack for a one night outing, go and just see what happens. Maybe we'll have to do it for science because I would they pick something that I would think I would want to wear or would they pick something that they would want me to wear? I'm curious about that, too. Depends. You know what I mean? Like, you know, cuz sometimes what guys like, "Oh, I love you in that like old holy high school t-shirt." You know, they just love it. They eat it up. It's so random. You know, that was cute. It's like I had no idea that was my laundry day. Great. Yeah. Okay. So, mine is a news story and then there's a couple people that they quote. So, you have to guess if the quotes are just like a man. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. So, we all heard about this, but I looked it up because it was funny. Hot dog spill shuts down highway. Okay. In Pennsylvania commuters worst nightmare. Okay. This comes from AP News, so it's legit. A truckload of hot dogs spilled across a Pennsylvania interstate. Get ready for a hot dog although to hit you guys again. Friday after a crash that briefly clogged the heavily traveled artery in both directions. I love all of the like artery. Like all the clogged the arteries. Yeah. Crews were stuck with a job they did not relish rolling up the scattered tube stakes for disposal. This is not real. It is real. I love it. Relish. Okay. Like literally, it's on apnews.com. Okay. It's just it's one of their journalists having a good time. Like I love it, you know, for sure. So, quote, "Once those leave the truck and hit the road, that's all garbage and it's still pretty warm." Shrewberry Fire Company chief said. Okay. So, that's one quote. So, once these leave the truck and hit the road, that's all garbage and it's still pretty warm. Okay. State police said the tractor trailer had an unspecified mechanical problem on Interstate 83 a few miles north of the Maryland line. As morning rush hour was wrapping up, causing it to push into a passenger vehicle. When the truck scraped along a concrete divider, its trailer was ripped open and the contents scattered. Four people required medical attention for injuries that police said were not life-threatening. So, we can laugh about this. Okay. A frontend loader was used to scoop up the hot dogs and drop them into a dump truck. So, the cop said emergency crews couldn't help but see the humor in the situation and um this person got a photo of a hot dog team or themed t-shirt from their daughter. This is other quote. I can tell you personally hot dogs are very slippery. I did not know that. And that's the end of the news article. That's just like a man. Oh, he was cracking up. Like I love that they're like going to ask literally this is the police chief, okay? Or the fire the fire chief, sorry, the fire chief. They're going to ask him to give a quote and the one he comes up with is I can tell you personally hot dogs are very slippery. I did not know that. Hasn't boiled a hot dog a day in his life. Just like a man. Just like a man. I was cracking up like so much. Also the visual cuz this guy's wearing a hot dog shirt. you said t-shirt thing and he's like picking up the hot dogs like and they're so slippery he like can't catch them like fish almost but he didn't realize that only a man would go out there and try to like scoop them up also I was laughing so hard so yeah if you guys want to send us in any anonymous stories I guess and then we have to guess if that's just like a man let us know yeah that'd be great we'll use it for next week's episode for sure for sure so I think that that pretty much covers Is everything right? Do you have any last things to say about Anna Green Gable? Seven or six, five, and six? I'm like, which ones are we 8, 9, 10? Yeah. Nope. We're good. I'm good. I feel good. Me, too. I feel good, too. Good. All right. Feel good. I hope you guys feel good as well. And if you feel great, make sure to hit that like button. Leave us a little comment if you are reading this journey with us. And like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcast, including YouTube. But you guys, we'll see you next Tuesday and Friday. Okay, bye.

People on this episode

Ashley Ellix

Host

Liz Wilson

Host