Thread by @lainasparetime

Okay, who's ready for a #LainaReadsAnne thread?

We have just two chapters left and they are my favourite two of the book. The end of this book honestly is just so good. I've read it like four times now.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne spends the next month basically in a blur of activity. Not only does she need to prepare for Redmond, but she's helping to plan Miss Lavendar's wedding! There's a ton to be done, and everyone is very excited.

#LainaReadsAnne Paul is very happy as he already loves Miss Lavendar. He says, "Mrs. Lynde says she thoroughly approves of the match and thinks its likely Miss Lavendar will give up her queer notions and be like other people, now that she’s going to be married."

#LainaReadsAnne Paul rather likes her "queer notions" and hopes she doesn't change at all.

Queer Notions is my new band name. (How many times have I made that joke??)

#LainaReadsAnne Charlotta the Fourth is also excited, as after Stephen and Miss Lavendar come back from their wedding trip, they plan to move to Boston and have invited her along.

#LainaReadsAnne Not only is she younger than when her sisters did, but she doesn't have to leave Miss Lavendar and tbh it's not a bad job for a girl in her time period and situation, all things considered.

#LainaReadsAnne Marilla, though, doesn't think it's particularly romantic and worries Anne is overworking herself.

But when Anne says she wants to be happy about it, Marilla just lets her be. She may be pragmatic, but she loves her girl.

#LainaReadsAnne The wedding is going to be the last Wednesday in August, "in the garden under the honeysuckle trellis" which does sound very lovely.

#LainaReadsAnne It's going to be a small wedding, just Paul and his grandmother, Miss Lavendar's cousins, Charlotta the Fourth, Gilbert, Diana, and Anne.

After, they're going on a trip to the Pacific coast until fall when they'll move to Boston.

#LainaReadsAnne Echo Lodge will become their summer house.

Anne is grateful, as the idea of Echo Lodge being all empty and lonely makes her sad, and even more so does the idea of other people living there.

#LainaReadsAnne Now, a surprise. "There was more romance in the world than that which had fallen to the share of the middle-aged lovers of the stone house."

Anne goes over to the Barry place and stumbles onto Diana and Fred Wright standing together under the big willow tree.

#LainaReadsAnne Fred is holding Diana's hand, "stammering something in low earnest tones" and she's blushing fiercely. They're both too focusd on each other to notice Anne.

After a moment of stunned staring, she turns and hurries home without interrupting.

#LainaReadsAnne I gotta quote this next bit.

"This was succeeded by a queer, little lonely feeling . . . as if, somehow, Diana had gone forward into a new world, shutting a gate behind her, leaving Anne on the outside."

#LainaReadsAnne She thinks after this, she won't be able to tell Diana all her secrets anymore, as Diana might tell Fred. That makes me sad! You shouldn't have to stop being as good of friends with someone because they got a boyfriend. What a bummer.

#LainaReadsAnne Anne also doesn't see what Diana sees in Fred, lol.

And the book throws in some racism with this line, "But how fortunate after all that it is so, for if everybody saw alike . . . well, in that case, as the old Indian said, “Everybody would want my squaw.”

WTF

#LainaReadsAnne Who the fuck thought that was okay????

#LainaReadsAnne The next evenng, Diana comes over to share the new. "Both girls cried and kissed and laughed." As you do.

She's very excited, obviously, but won't be getting married for at least three years, as her mother forbids it until she's twenty-one.

#LainaReadsAnne She says that's fine as she doesn't "have a speck of fancy work made yet" and "Myra Gillis had thirty-seven doilies when she was married".

Anne teases that no one could "keep house with only thirty-six doilies" which I thought was hilarious myself.

#LainaReadsAnne Diana doesn't and Anne has to reassure her it was only a joke.

Which honestly I think makes Diana come off as kind of a buzzkill. Do you really think the basis of your marriage is how many doilies you've made?

#LainaReadsAnne Also can we talk about how it's been like a year since they were judging Ruby Gillis for a boy asking her to marry him, despite her refusal, but we're all excited for Diana?

Ruby is just being slut shamed.

#LainaReadsAnne Then Anne says, "And I think it’s perfectly lovely of you to be planning already for your home o’ dreams.”

And the phrase "home o' dreams" really strikes Anne's fancy and she starts to build one in her mind.

#LainaReadsAnne She picks, obviously, a castle in Spain with "an ideal master, dark, proud, and melancholy" which is very Gothic and I deeply approve XD

#LainaReadsAnne Weirdly, though, a certain Gilbert Blythe insists on hanging around, helping to decorate and such, and she can't get him to leave.

Eventually, she's like "Whatever I'm in a hurry" and decides to ignore him and builds her house of dreams around him.

#LainaReadsAnne Later, when she's alone she thinks about how she's happy for Diana, but she hopes if she ever gets engaged, "there'll be something a little more thrilling about it".

#LainaReadsAnne She says Diana has changed, but is determined she won't.

This whole chapter is very relatable on an aro level, tbh.

#LainaReadsAnne She even ends with saying, "Oh, I think these engagements are dreadfully unsettling things when they happen to your intimate friends."

Aro. Mood.

#LainaReadsAnne And that's our penultimate chapter!! If you enjoyed this thread, pls RT something you liked so other people can find it, and if you want to help keep me in Anne books, my kofi is open.

These are a lot more than my usual book budget, lol ko-fi.com/A0602GN