Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery

The Anne books are among my favorites ever!  I’ve reread Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island too many times to count.  But some of the books in the series, I’m less familiar with.  I’ve only read Anne of Windy Poplars maybe three times now. 

In this fourth book of the series, Anne and Gilbert are already officially engaged, but Anne is away in Summerside working for three years as a high school principal and Gilbert is a medical student in Kingsport.  Although we are only hearing from Anne, much of the book is written as letters from her to Gilbert.  Anne is older now, in her twenties, and so while she remains the same lovable Anne who is so genuinely and deeply alive in this world and is able to warm the hearts of even the sourest of folks, she also has the beginnings of a calmness and wisdom that isn’t present in the earlier books.  I love that this book basically consists of many mini stories within Anne’s years in Summerside.  It’s a wonderful part of this most magnificent series and, as with all the Anne books, has about a zillion quotes, I simply must pull from the book.