1926: The Blue Castle

Book Name: The Blue Castle

Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Genre: Romance

Year Published: 1926

So, you may have heard of L.M. Montgomery seeing as she wrote Anne of Green Gables, but actually I've never read it... You're probably now wondering, why did you decide to read this, one of her lesser-known works then? Well, there's two reasons. The first one is out of the books that looked vaguely interesting which were written in 1926, this was the easiest to get hold of. I was able to read it online for free, which was a little weird as I had to scroll down the whole web page over and over to read it. But hey, new experiences and all that. The second reason is that she's a famous female Canadian author and indeed the only Canadian on my list which is intended to feature a wide range of countries.
Anyway, The Blue Castle is a romance novel - one of my least favourite genres. It's meant to be for adults, even though most of Montgomery's works were aimed at children. I did find the writing a little simple and very feminine. As most of the books I like are written by men, I purposefully included a number of female authors on my list to try and expand my horizons, but I'm afraid this style just didn't cut it for me. Some of the main highlights were her uncle's terrible, terrible jokes and the over the top sections on how amazing woods/forests are.
On the other hand, the story itself wasn't awful. Valancy (what a cool name!) Stirling is an "old maid" who has a horrifically boring life and no prospects for the future. When she finds out she is likely to die within a year, she decides to leave home, work at the home of the local drunk and eventually asks a man everyone thinks is a crazy lawbreaker to marry her, resulting in her family practically disowning her.
SPOILER ALERT: Turns out the doctor sent her the wrong letter and all turns out ok. SPOILER ENDS
The book is filled with whimsical notions of a better life - Valancy's Blue Castle is where everything is as she wants it to be with a wonderful lover and beautiful rooms/views etc. Through her escapades, Valancy realises that all she really wants is to not be at the beck and call of her mother and be the butt of her family's jokes because she hasn't got married by her late 20s.
Overall then, it's a pretty typical story of a woman rebelling against society in an age when all that was expected of her was to get married and have kids. Not the most original or exciting read, but it had a good flow and due to some of the chapters being only a few paragraphs long it was very easy to delve in and out of. If you like romance books, it's probably your cup of tea though.

Other Books I Considered: Durandal - Harold Lamb; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Books I Read Inbetween: Shouldn't You Be In School? - Lemony Snicket

1960: To Kill A Mockingbird

Book Name: To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Genre: Fiction

Year Published: 1960

So, somehow I got to 26 without reading To Kill A Mockingbird, so I just had to put it on my list. I know loads of people did it for GCSE and often people really hate the books they did for that on account of having to go over and analyse them so much, but people still seem to like this one anyway. (I did Catcher in the Rye, in case you're interested). Anyway it's so popular and yet I had no idea what it was about before I started reading. I'm kind of glad of this as I was able to approach it completely anew and without anyone else's opinion on it.

I really really liked this book. You may have noticed my posts are normally quite infrequent, but this one is less than a month after The Ghost Pirates and that's because I read it in only 10 days (this is really good for me as I'm a slow reader). I was reading it all the time when I was at home, eager to see what happened next and thoroughly caught up in Scout's life. Scout reminded me a bit of myself when I was younger which helped me enjoy her story more I think - preferring trousers to skirts and being friends with boys more than girls etc. 

The racism side of the book was actually really interesting to me. I guess that fortunately it's something I don't have to think about much and I was as disappointed as Scout and Jem when the jury convicted Tom despite evidence to the contrary. It really makes you understand how unfair and ridiculous everything was and it did make me a bit angry too. I really like the way the book is done through the eyes of children. Their innocence makes you realise how stubborn adults can be sometimes.

Anyway, I know maybe you might have been avoiding this book because everyone goes on about it, but it actually is worth your time. It's well written, interesting, thought provoking and has a good mix of suspense and humour. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Other Books I Considered: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane - Henry Farrell

Books I Read Inbetween: Demon Dentist - David Walliams; The Locked Room - Paul Auster; Into the Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes; Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett