Welcome to Litsy!

Soooo far behind on reviews! The #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead read & discussed this over a month ago. But, my viable excuse for this late review is that I only just finished the four related stories!

This was a slow-paced description of life in a small, coastal Maine town in the late 1800s. The semi-autobiographical slice-of-life plot is narrated through the eyes of a writer boarding there for the summer. Through small vignettes, Jewett‘s writing ⤵️

This book was a beautiful, quiet, reflective balm for the soul. A lovely escape from the craziness of modern life, perfect for savoring slowly.

This was a wonderful choice for #KindredSpirits #BuddyRead , @BarbaraJean , and I would never have discovered it on my own. Thank you!

Bonus info I somehow missed before:
There are four short stories related to Pointed Firs (I guess those are the “and other stories” in some editions!). I haven‘t read them yet, but I‘m planning to track them down to read in the next week or two. If you‘ve read them, or want to check them out & report back, please chime in with your thoughts! The stories are:
"The Foreigner"
"The Queen's Twin"
"A Dunnet Shepherdess"
"William's Wedding"

Which scenes or chapters stand out in your reading? What made them memorable or meaningful?

Is there anything else you‘d like to discuss from your reading of this book, or quotes you‘d like to share?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

Reading this as an #LMMAdjacent book, I had my eye out for paralells with LMM‘s other work. What similarities or differences do you see between Pointed Firs and Anne‘s House of Dreams (setting, characters, narrative style, etc.)?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

Pointed Firs largely focuses on female characters—and only a few of these women are pictured in relation to a male character. Did you notice this emphasis on female experience in the text? Do you read this as a matter of perspective (“write what you know”) or a conscious choice to center female experience?

Which characters were most vivid to you?

I‘m sorry this is so late! Busy week + a long class today = late discussion questions! #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

How did you feel about the 1st-person narrator? Did you wonder about her context & who she was? For you, did the lack of info about the narrator contribute to or take away from the story?

Why do you think Jewett chose to tell the story through the perspective of (what I assume is) a semi-autobiographical main character? ⤵️

This is a short look into what life was like just before the turn of the century in a coastal community in Maine. The sketches of different characters and the friendships the narrator cultivates during her stay in the small town were sweet without being overly sentimental.

“In the life of each of us, I said to myself, there is a place remote and islanded, and given to endless regret or secret happiness; we are each the uncompanioned hermit and recluse of an hour or a day; we understand our fellows of the cell to whatever age of history they may belong.”

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

Hello, #KindredSpirits! Today is our check-in discussion halfway through The Country of the Pointed Firs.

🌲How is your reading going? What are your thoughts so far?
🌲What stands out to you from the first half of the book?
🌲Any favorite sections or quotes?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

Just a reminder that the #KindredSpiritsBuddyRead of The Country of the Pointed Firs begins today! We‘ll have a discussion halfway through, on Saturday Feb. 8, then we‘ll discuss the whole book on Saturday, Feb. 15. All are welcome—let me know if you‘re not tagged and you‘d like to be!

I love this book and its sketches of life along the rocky coasts of Maine. ??⚓ Time for a re-read methinks.
Painting "Port Clyde, Maine" by N.C.Wyeth.
#setting #maylovesclassics @Sarah83 @Bambolina_81

This is a quiet book with a series of focused studies on people or places in a small town in northern Maine. #coldweatherislands #serialreader

(current Serial Reader book)

I hustled and read ahead on this, I was anxious to not end 2016 with 113 books read! So this is #114 and I'm happy to close out the year on such a lovely little book, full of descriptions of the old life of Maine. #newenglandahforlife

Such beautiful language, Sarah Oren Jewett gets a lot of mileage out of the story of Joanna in this book. #serialreader #maine

Just like a true New Englandah would do! 😂🐟

The holidays have me off my game! I normally have a schedule in the mornings - husband leaves at 7:20, I don't start work until almost 9, so I take that hour and a half or so and have coffee/breakfast, do some light housework, and read my @SerialReader app. Well, today I have to watch my nephew during the day, so I started work immediately. My day just feels off with no chapters this morning! 😂

Preach, Sarah Orne Jewett! That is a truly excellent point about New England men of the time! 🙌 The quote is from an old sea captain, pointing out to the narrator that the sea trade is dying out as it once was, and it's created a generation of men who would have worked on the sea, but are instead living like nowhere but their little corner of the world exists. Timely.

"Conversation's got to have some root in the past, or else you've got to explain every remark you make, an' it wears a person out." Mrs. Todd gave a funny little laugh. "Yes'm, old friends is always best, 'less you catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of."