Day 6 – A Book That Makes You Sad

        (Big Spoiler Alert – If you haven’t read Rilla of Ingleside and want the story to be a surprise, don’t read any further!)

I could pick a number of books for this challenge and I’ve decided to pick two!  My first choice is:

This book came immediately to mind because I am presently reading it.  Because it is set during the First World War, the reader is able to look into a family and a community, and see how the war affected them on an on-going basis.  This was actually fascinating and made me better understand people’s willingness to fight for freedom and the continuation of the life they valued.  There weren’t misguided; they truly felt that they were preserving a way of life that was more valuable to them than their individual lives, sacrificing themselves for others.

However noble their actions were, it was truly sad when one of Anne’s children was killed.  While I wished for the “happy-ending” in this last book of the series, I was glad that Montgomery chose to make it realistic.  It brought home the realities of war in a way that was very effective.

My next choice is:

A story of an “outlier” priest in France, who does not conform to the expectations of society or of his religious colleagues.  He attempts to fulfill his job to the best of his abilities but is continually misunderstood and, at times, undermined by the people of his community.  The priest’s “aloneness” and his inability to share his feelings of inadequacy and suffering, drew me right into his story.  Very sad, but very worthwhile reading!