Catherine Reid
Author of The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables: The Enchanting Island that Inspired L. M. Montgomery
About the Author
Catherine Reid directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Warren Wilson College, where she teaches courses in creative nonfiction and environmental writing: She is the author of Coyote; Seeding the Hunter in Our Midst and of essays that have appeared in such journals as the Georgia show more Review, Fourth Genre, Bellevue Literary Review, and Massachusetts Review. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina. show less
Works by Catherine Reid
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables: The Enchanting Island that Inspired L. M. Montgomery (2018) 172 copies, 9 reviews
Associated Works
All the Ways Home: Parenting and Children in the Lesbian and Gay Communities - A Collection of Short Fiction (Lita) (1995) — Contributor — 55 copies, 1 review
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Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Short biography
- [from Amazon website]
An award-winning essayist, teacher and naturalist, Catherine Reid is the author of several works of nonfiction, most recently The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables. She has taught writing in various venues, including at Warren Wilson College, in Asheville, NC, where she specialized in nonfiction and environmental writing and served as director of the creative writing program. She has received fellowships from the National Endowments of the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the American Antiquarian Society, among others. She gardens and writes in the mountains of North Carolina. - Places of residence
- Asheville, North Carolina, USA
Massachusetts, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables: The Enchanting Island that Inspired L. M. Montgomery by Catherine Reid
This book is a combination biography, textual commentary, and photographs about the love of nature that L.M. Montgomery and her creation Anne of Green Gables have in common.
Any fan of L.M. Montgomery's work will enjoy this book. It manages to weave together the basic facts of L.M. Montgomery's life, from childhood through her sad death, and at the same time evoke happy memories from her novels, particularly the Anne ones.
It's not hard to see that L.M. Montgomery found particular solace in show more the woods, gardens, and landscapes of her home on Prince Edward Island. Passages from her journal confirm that in the midst of any distress, she sought the outdoors. There are some stunning photographs from the island in this book, especially the seascapes. The conclusion of the book becomes ever more poignant as you realize that L.M. Montgomery became an exile from her beloved island after her marriage, a circumstance that likely contributed to eventual overwhelming depression. When combined with her husband's worsening bouts of insanity, the fact that she endured as well as she did is remarkable.
While this book certainly delves into both the bitter and the sweet, it does a good job at keeping front and center the landscapes and restorative power of nature that are right at the heart of most of L.M. Montgomery's work. It inspires the reader to look for beauty in the world and treasure it, no matter what.
***I received an advance copy of this via NetGalley. To be published March 2018. show less
Any fan of L.M. Montgomery's work will enjoy this book. It manages to weave together the basic facts of L.M. Montgomery's life, from childhood through her sad death, and at the same time evoke happy memories from her novels, particularly the Anne ones.
It's not hard to see that L.M. Montgomery found particular solace in show more the woods, gardens, and landscapes of her home on Prince Edward Island. Passages from her journal confirm that in the midst of any distress, she sought the outdoors. There are some stunning photographs from the island in this book, especially the seascapes. The conclusion of the book becomes ever more poignant as you realize that L.M. Montgomery became an exile from her beloved island after her marriage, a circumstance that likely contributed to eventual overwhelming depression. When combined with her husband's worsening bouts of insanity, the fact that she endured as well as she did is remarkable.
While this book certainly delves into both the bitter and the sweet, it does a good job at keeping front and center the landscapes and restorative power of nature that are right at the heart of most of L.M. Montgomery's work. It inspires the reader to look for beauty in the world and treasure it, no matter what.
***I received an advance copy of this via NetGalley. To be published March 2018. show less
This book is not good. It isn't entertaining. The book jacket is definitely misleading, as was the location of the book on the shelf at the library regarding what I wanted to read. Even after I knew it wasn't what I wanted, I thought I might still find some kind of enjoyment in it...sadly, I was mistaken. Reid doesn't write poorly by any means in terms of bare-bone sentences. What goes wrong is the lack of focus, contradictory thoughts and presentation of those thoughts, and an inability to show more decide what this book is about. Hands down, the worst book I have read so far this year, and it is VERY early in the year. show less
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables: The Enchanting Island that Inspired L. M. Montgomery by Catherine Reid
As a little girl, I thought Anne and I were kindred spirits. I still think we are kindred spirits. Doesn't matter where I go there is always a house with a name, a lake that shines and trees that talk to me. So, when I found out that there was a book, The Landscapes of Anne of Greene Gables by Catherine Reid, about to come out filled with the landscapes of Prince Edward Island and the inspiration for Avonlea. I had to take a chance and request to read it! I'm so glad to have been able to show more read and review this book.
The pages are beautifully filled with photos of the island, some of them personally taken by Lucy Maud Montgomery herself. The inside snippets from Maud's journals are a delight.
My only dislike of the book is the repetitive nature of some of the journal entries. Even though they are lovely, and show Maud's kinsmanship with the forests, the trees and all the rest of nature surrounding her, the book tends to share the same memories over and over. I feel that the book would have been better served if there were less instead of more of the same and let Maud's words fill the pages simply.
If you are a fan of L.M. Montgomery's and haven't had the chance to visit Prince Edward Island this book is the perfect way to tamper the ache of not having visited. I know it did for me.
I was blessed to read this book courtesy of Timber Press via NetGalley for my honest opinion. show less
The pages are beautifully filled with photos of the island, some of them personally taken by Lucy Maud Montgomery herself. The inside snippets from Maud's journals are a delight.
My only dislike of the book is the repetitive nature of some of the journal entries. Even though they are lovely, and show Maud's kinsmanship with the forests, the trees and all the rest of nature surrounding her, the book tends to share the same memories over and over. I feel that the book would have been better served if there were less instead of more of the same and let Maud's words fill the pages simply.
If you are a fan of L.M. Montgomery's and haven't had the chance to visit Prince Edward Island this book is the perfect way to tamper the ache of not having visited. I know it did for me.
I was blessed to read this book courtesy of Timber Press via NetGalley for my honest opinion. show less
I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The Eastern Coyote is a fascinating creature, and one well worth deeper study. This book, while portending to be about just that, in truth was more about the symbolic nature of the creature than anything else.
The book spent far too much time focusing on [a:Catherine Reid|461319|Catherine Reid|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] and why she wanted to see a coyote, than what the actual show more coyotes were like. While, yes, she was an interesting person and the symbolic value of an animal is a beautiful thing... I would have much preferred a more scientific or anthropological study of the animal in question. In short, I wanted this book to be to coyotes what [a:Barry Lopez|10262|Barry Lopez|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1319321209p2/10262.jpg]'s [b:Of Wolves and Men|743936|Of Wolves and Men|Barry Lopez|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347919044s/743936.jpg|730087] was to wolves.
This book did manage a fair bit, though. Though in a less interesting way than [b:Daily Coyote|3209492|The Daily Coyote Story of Love, Survival, and Trust In the Wilds of Wyoming|Shreve Stockton|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1396743476s/3209492.jpg|3243068] did. [a:Catherine Reid|461319|Catherine Reid|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] did a good job of talking about the designation of Eastern Coyote as a species, and how wolves and coyotes have interbred to a degree in the past. She explained how they managed to carve out a niche and maintain it even in the territory of bigger better predators. I wish it had been a bigger bit of the book. show less
The book spent far too much time focusing on [a:Catherine Reid|461319|Catherine Reid|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] and why she wanted to see a coyote, than what the actual show more coyotes were like. While, yes, she was an interesting person and the symbolic value of an animal is a beautiful thing... I would have much preferred a more scientific or anthropological study of the animal in question. In short, I wanted this book to be to coyotes what [a:Barry Lopez|10262|Barry Lopez|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1319321209p2/10262.jpg]'s [b:Of Wolves and Men|743936|Of Wolves and Men|Barry Lopez|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347919044s/743936.jpg|730087] was to wolves.
This book did manage a fair bit, though. Though in a less interesting way than [b:Daily Coyote|3209492|The Daily Coyote Story of Love, Survival, and Trust In the Wilds of Wyoming|Shreve Stockton|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1396743476s/3209492.jpg|3243068] did. [a:Catherine Reid|461319|Catherine Reid|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] did a good job of talking about the designation of Eastern Coyote as a species, and how wolves and coyotes have interbred to a degree in the past. She explained how they managed to carve out a niche and maintain it even in the territory of bigger better predators. I wish it had been a bigger bit of the book. show less
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- Rating
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