Discussion Post: Anne's House of Dreams

[myr_soleil]

Hi everyone! Welcome to our discussion post for one of my favorite books, Anne's House of Dreams. I hope you liked it as much as I did, and I can't wait to hear what you think!

Comments

[katayla]

1. Did you like the book? Do you like the setting of Anne married, or did you miss having her in school?

I love it! I've been thinking about this book and it seems like there aren't a lot of books that cover the early marriage territory? Or, if they do, it's about JUST that and fraught with drama and angst and all. But, um, I would hope there are some good times in marriage, too!

2. How about those new characters? Leslie, Captain Jim, Cornelia, Susan, Jem, Owen - did you like their addition?

YES. I loved the feeling of Anne and Gilbert becoming a part of this community.

3. What do you think of Gilbert in this book? Is there finally enough Gilbert for you? Do you like seeing what happens after the main couple gets married?Haha, well, I don't know! Can there BE enough Gilbert? But YES. I guess I kind of started answering the second question above, but I LOVE getting to see what happens after the main couple gets married. I love the build up, but I want to see what happens next! When the couple knows they're in love and are solid and

[beth_shulman]

Well, I'm a robot

LOL, I never used to tear up but I do all the time now. I don't know what happened to me.

[katayla]

Haha, I do more than I used to! But it still seems somewhat rare.

(Actually, you know what really gets me? The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books.)

[beth_shulman]

(Really? Why?)

[katayla]

I think it's how much I relate to them? I don't need to relate to a book to love it, but . . . well, I'm roughly the same age Anne is in this book (I suppose I'm actually a little older), but I've never been married. I've never had kids. I don't live in the same period or even the same country.

So there's a bit of a distance there. I don't think it interferes with my enjoyment, but it does change my emotional involvement. Whereas with the Sisterhood books . . . i was a teenager at pretty much the same time they were. It sounds like they'll be my age in this new book. So there are more experiences in common, even if I've been lucky enough not to go through the specific tragedies in those books. I can still relate to the teenage angst, you know?

[beth_shulman]

Ohhhh. I understand that. I just always think of them as pretty light, even though they're probably not, because they have happy endings. Which is weird. I wonder what I'll think when I reread them, before the next (?!?!) comes out.

[katayla]

That makes sense! I think that also gets to why I like (liked?) them so much because I like angst, but I want my happy endings, too!

[empressearwig]

SotTP makes me sob like a little girl. Especially the first book, Carmen's convo with her dad? I always have a crying headache after reading it.

[katayla]

YES. Like I just commented to beth_shulman, I can't exactly relate to the Anne books? I love them--probably more than the Sisterhood books, if I had to choose--but my life isn't Anne's.

But the Sisterhood books? Yeah, I've been there. Maybe not the specific tragedies, but all that teenage stuff. And, yeah, like that conversation! My parents are married, so the circumstances are different, but I know what it's like to have that kind of relationship with a parent.

[empressearwig]

Yeah, a lot of the Sisterhood stuff is universal. But man, I've had that conversation with my dad so many times and it never gets any easier to read.

[katayla]

Yeah. :( I think a lot of the stuff I relate to is Lena and Tibby and their . . . almost self-defeating tendencies? Hiding yourself away so you don't get hurt. Etc.

(And BEE! I don't really relate to her at all, but OH. Some of her stuff.)

[spyglass_]

I agree with what you're saying about the Sisterhood books. I feel like there are parts of all four of the girls that I can relate to. Obviously I relate to some of them more than others, but part of the beauty of them is that so much of them has been relevant to my life at one point or another.

I always related to Lena the most, and then Tibby. I think that's part of why I have such strong feelings on Lena/Kostos. Carmen's conversation with her father always gets to me, too. That, and Bee in the second book, learning about her mother.

[katayla]

I always related to Lena the most, and then Tibby.

Same. And then Bee is pretty much my opposite and Carmen is in this weird place where she's neither my opposite nor do I relate to her much? But even so, Carmen certainly still makes me FEEL. And I did relate to her more in the fourth book (for all my negative feelings about that book in general).

[beth_shulman]

Carmen's story was the only one I liked in the fourth book. I love her.

[empressearwig]

These books make me cry way more than average. Maybe it's because we live with them for so long? I don't know. But I distinctly remember the first time I read Rilla and yeah. Sobbing mess, was I.

[katayla]

I mean, they make me very sad! And I do often tear up at *spoiler* in Rilla! But mostly I guess I just don't express my sadness by crying?