Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

★★★ 1/2

"The readers are in love with shipwrecks and terrible disasters.  And they make it sound very tragic...but also...wonderful.  I don't know how they do it."

This novel tells the story of Anne Shirley before we meet her in the Anne of Green Gables books.  I grew up reading the first books and some others and loved the character of Anne!!  It was interesting to think about what Anne's life might have been like - as it wasn't really discussed in great detail in the original books.  It was filled with tragic circumstances, but had a lot of hope as well.  I read the first novel to my almost two-year-old daughter when she was a few months old and plan to read the other books in the series someday.

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani

★★★★

"In the end, the details weren't about beauty or status.  They never had been, for me.  They were about feeling at home in the world.  And Joan hated these details."

A wonderful story about friendship between two women and the challenges they face living very different lifestyles in the 1950s.  I really enjoyed the setting and historical aspects of the story - even though I didn't always like that characters, but they were well-written and interesting.