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mimyexplore's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Que libro más bonito, que historia tan bien contada. Es un libro que se lee super rápido y terminas adorando a todos los personajes.
lizawall's review against another edition
5.0
This is basically my favorite book of all times. I might be biased because I am maybe a little bit in love with SOJ? Something I like to think about a lot is whether someone could write a book like this nowadays. I know that I could not. You would probably have to be a very good person.
nosaltres_les's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition
5.0
A woman spends a couple of summers in a small town on the coast of Maine. She becomes a part of the everyday life thanks to her garrulous landlady and becomes privy to many of the residents' life stories.
I read this back in college and loved it so much that I still have my copy from that class. I decided to re-read it when my husband and I visited the coast of Maine last month. I might love it even more now.
The narrator, who remains unnamed, is accepted in this tightly-knit community, but she's still enough of an outsider that she's able to see how special it is. The locals just know it as home. They don't exactly take it for granted but they don't realize that it's combination of beautiful scenery, caring neighbors, and colorful personalities make it unique.
This novella consists of many smaller stories and a host of characters that come to life in the pages. The old sea captain who still mourns his wife. The sweet, elderly mother who shines so brightly with an internal radiance that everyone who meets her loves her. The shy older brother with his own, unsuspected story. The woman who is the Queen's twin. The tragic hermit, living alone on her island. No one gets very many pages but I loved them all.
The scenery is described perfectly, and, now that I think about it, may have sparked my desire to visit Maine. Reading it while I was there made it all the more special.
This is a quiet book and won't appeal to everyone. There's not a lot that actually happens. Readers looking to escape to a simpler place and time will love it. I suspect that L. M. Montgomery's grownup readers will be fans of Sarah Orne Jewett.
I read this back in college and loved it so much that I still have my copy from that class. I decided to re-read it when my husband and I visited the coast of Maine last month. I might love it even more now.
The narrator, who remains unnamed, is accepted in this tightly-knit community, but she's still enough of an outsider that she's able to see how special it is. The locals just know it as home. They don't exactly take it for granted but they don't realize that it's combination of beautiful scenery, caring neighbors, and colorful personalities make it unique.
This novella consists of many smaller stories and a host of characters that come to life in the pages. The old sea captain who still mourns his wife. The sweet, elderly mother who shines so brightly with an internal radiance that everyone who meets her loves her. The shy older brother with his own, unsuspected story. The woman who is the Queen's twin. The tragic hermit, living alone on her island. No one gets very many pages but I loved them all.
The scenery is described perfectly, and, now that I think about it, may have sparked my desire to visit Maine. Reading it while I was there made it all the more special.
This is a quiet book and won't appeal to everyone. There's not a lot that actually happens. Readers looking to escape to a simpler place and time will love it. I suspect that L. M. Montgomery's grownup readers will be fans of Sarah Orne Jewett.
sarahanne8382's review against another edition
2.0
In her 1896 novel Jewett paints a vivid portrait of the isolated Maine fishing town of Dunnet Landing. It's more a collection of character sketches than a cohesive narrative. The narrator is an unnamed writer from Boston spending the summer in Dunnet Landing renting a room from Mrs. Todd, the local herbalist. During her stay she visits a series of local personalities and tells each of their stories. The setting is similar to my favorite author L. M. Montgomery's stories about Prince Edward Island and the Canadian Atlantic coast, and the characters were genuine and relatively interesting, but I was really thrown by the lack of an overall plot and found myself quickly losing interest during the sections between some of the more lively stories.
kimball_hansen's review against another edition
2.0
Yeah...What did I just read? I was so lost. But I tried. No one can say I didn't try.
alyssatuininga's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Absolutely beautiful book written in 1896, comprising the novella The Country of the Pointed Firs and eight short stories about the same fictional town in Maine. This has been on my classics list for a while and when I finally looked into it I was surprised to find that the author lived in South Berwick, Maine only a short distance from my house. She was a well educated young woman, that lived most of her life in Maine and published her first book at 18. Her writings focus on women and women's daily lives and work. She lived openly for many years as a lesbian with her partner. Her writing has been compared to Willa Cather who I love and I can definitely see the resemblance. Wonderful book and I am so glad that I finally got around to reading it. I plan to read more of her work soon.
eveak's review against another edition
3.0
I've been moving this book around with me since freshman year of college where we were supposed to read it but ran out of time in the semester ... I'm reading it now because I'm tired of moving unread books around ... and i do like it and think that her writing really is lovely
macieslater's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
finally got around to reading the unassigned parts of this book from my rethinking gender in american lit class! i honestly loved it — it truly encapsulated the idea of finding joy in simplicity and the importance of female friendships.