One Good Deed - Erin McHugh

Title: One Good Deed
Author: Erin McHugh
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 384
Date read: March, 2013

"One Good Deed" is Erin McHugh's account of how she spent one year doing at least one good deed per day. The 'good deed' in question didn't have to be something big or elaborate - it could be something as simple as calling up a friend to let them know she was thinking of them, handing over a cup of coffee to somebody in need, or even just biting her tongue and letting something go.

While you could read "One Good Deed" in one sitting, it would really be doing it a disservice. To fully appreciate it, it is better read in small doses - a couple of days' worth here, a couple of days' worth there. That way the good deeds never get stale, and Erin McHugh is bound to put a smile on your face while reading it. It's such a breath of fresh air to read an entire book about somebody who's genuinely trying to be NICE - through no ulterior motive, but just because it seemed like a good idea.

Jane of Lantern Hill - L.M. Montgomery

Title: Jane of Lantern Hill
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Genre: Classic
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 288
Date read: March, 2013

For as long as she could remember, Jane Stuart and her mother lived with her grandmother in a dreary mansion in Toronto. Jane always believed her father was dead--until she accidentally learned he was alive and well and living on Prince Edward Island. When Jane spends the summer at his cottage on Lantern Hill, doing all the wonderful things Grandmother deems unladylike, she dares to dream that there could be such a house back in Toronto...a house where she, Mother, and Father could live together without Grandmother directing their lives--a house that could be called home.

I was sick and in the need of a comfort read. This fit the bill perfectly, being one of my favourite LMM books, only surpassed by "Anne of the Island" and "The Blue Castle".

I love reading how Jane grows in spirit once she makes it to Prince Edward Island, and how she makes house with her father and finally comes into her own as she learns what it's like not to be down-trod and underfoot all the time. I wish I didn't believe that relatives like Grandmother Kennedy really existed out there.