Here are 100 books that Emily of New Moon fans have personally recommended if you like
Emily of New Moon.
Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. French is my first language, but I learned to master English in my teens. My mother taught me to read early and I became a bookworm in primary school. I began writing personal stories at ten and decided to study literature in the hope of perfecting my craft. Unfortunately, so many of the program’s books felt dull and irrelevant to me. But once in a while, an inspiring work of universal quality would come up, and I began building my collection. The books I recommend here are dear to my heart and motivated me to keep reading and writing.
Farley Mowat once declared: “I never let facts get in the way of a good story.” I have read Never Cry Wolf as fiction many times, even though its author pretended it was factual. As a writer interested in Canada’s north, Mowat’s universe is an obvious choice for me. The inclusion of Inuit characters is also quite appealing. In this book, a naturalist studies Arctic wolves in a makeshift camp in northern Manitoba and deals with the ridiculous expectations of the bureaucrats who sent him out there to fend for himself. He discovers that contrary to public opinion, wolves are not responsible for the decimation of caribou herds, humans are. Some elements are exaggerated for comic effect, and as one of Canada’s best storytellers, Mowat delivers on laughs.
Maxim Gorky, born Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov in 1868 to the low stratum of Russian society, rose to prominence early in life as a writer and publicist. Gorky, who did not have a formal education, became famous in his country and abroad. Writing could not satisfy the rebellious Gorky who soon became involved in revolutionary movements. After a short period with the populist/narodnik movement, Gorky became disillusioned with the peasant class, and, instead, he chose the nascent class of workers as the vehicle for change. It is as if Gorky and capitalism arrived in Russia together. In his view the intelligentsia…
For those who enjoy fantasy adventure, the Faerie Tales from the White Forest series offers a new twist on the traditional faerie tales so loved by young readers.
From devastating curses to death-defying quests, Brigitta and her growing collective of misfit friends face greater and greater challenges when destiny calls…
I grew up in central Arkansas, which means I experienced first-hand the fiction I describe here. The South in these books - its religion, poverty, and beauty, not to mention its capacity for real ugliness - is not simply an atmosphere these authors have used to decorate their sets. The South in these books is a place where real people live, in exactly the ways these writers have described. My novella, Six Mile Store, is my own take on the real South. These are the books that showed me that these kinds of Southern stories are worth telling.
The film adaptations make True Grit look like a Western. It is not.
It is an Arkansas book, and Mattie Ross is an Arkansas character: fourteen years old, tiny, and completely on board with the violence she knows avenging her father's murder will require. She has courage and goal-oriented ruthlessness.
Mattie’s fortitude underlines the gap between what my characters can see for themselves and what they can actually reach. That gap is at the heart of what my novella is about.
There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies, Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces. Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney. Then she hears of Rooster - a man, she's told, who has grit - and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chaney down…
The concept of whether a woman can truly be the subject of her own life has always fascinated me. It was an invisible struggle I didn’t know I had. Until I set out to finish the 54 unmet dreams of my late father, whose life had been cut short in a car crash. It wasn’t until I looked at the world through main character lenses, the kind that just seem to come more naturally to men, that I was able to see myself truly. This is just one lesson from my book. If you’ve ever felt different, remember: you’re not. You just haven’t seen yourself as the main character yet. These books will guide you.
Before I was an author, I was primarily a national magazine copy editor, a job I finally scored after eight years of climbing up the magazine journalism ladder.
I wrote once in a while, but this mostly meant TV recaps by the time I was entrenched in magazines. But one day, an article about a safe-driving activist crossed my desk, and soon I was speaking with him in high schools.
Around the time I checked off “swim the width of a river” from my father’s bucket list, I also read Huckleberry Finn, as the setting seemed only right. I wrote a tribute to it in the second chapter of my book. My dad’s favorite author was Twain, but what I appreciated about him was that he wrote the novel as veiled propaganda. It’s a book that professes Twain’s anti-racism perspective. He just put his cause into a novel.
Kindle Book Award Finalist. Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest Finalist. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
Brigit Quinn has always felt like an outsider. Growing up in a small town where her mom’s pagan practices are the stuff of local gossip, she’s spent her whole life trying…
My passion for mythic stories began as early as the age of five, when my father had me tested and found I was reading over two hundred words a minute. He quickly saw the need to feed my thirsty young mind and placed epic fantasy books (most beyond my comprehension) in my tiny hands. As for my absorption with stories that impact the soul, I'd have to say my strongest interest came from my need for it. That need has shaped me and shaped my writing, much more than any list of qualifications, which include being a licensed minister, a professional pianist and cinematic composer, and now a published author.
I loved Till We Have Faces, but not just for the most obvious reasons, like the story’s content. For me, it was the realization that C.S. Lewis was allowing me to discover the meaning of the story gradually.
The novel invited me into a mystery and let revelation slowly come. I’ve found so many of my greatest ah-ha! moments in life have come this way—not because someone preached a message, or commanded me… Not because a person told me the answers up front… Not even necessarily because outside circumstances demanded it. The much-needed revelation slowly unfolded in my heart and mind as I probed (and sometimes wrestled) for the truth.
I was quietly led and guided to the truth… and that’s exactly what this story does.
Fascinated by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C. S. Lewis reimagines their story from the perspective of Psyche's sister, Orual.
'I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?'
Till We Have Faces is a brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. In this, his final - and most mature and masterful - novel, Lewis reminds us of our…
I have been moved by women’s stories that are buried in time (but not quite gone!) since I was a young girl. As a college student and now professor (I teach writing and gender studies), much of my work is focused on telling hidden stories for the first time and stories where the record needs correcting. This is probably to do with my childhood; I am the oldest daughter in a loving but difficult Irish-Catholic family where women were often shamed for many reasons. When I was 15, I read Sylvia Plath for the first time and knew—there was more to this story, and I meant to find it out.
Likely the origin of my love for books within books, especially those lost or deliberately destroyed, this is the third book in the Emily Starr trilogy, the lesser-known series by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery, of Anne of Green Gablesfame.
In it, budding novelist Emily decides against going off to college in the city with her three best friends to remain on her aunt’s Canadian farm, New Moon, and write. She finishes her first novel, A Seller of Dreams(what a title!), in a fit of creative joy but struggles to find a publisher.
Close to despair, she gives it to her bookish friend Dean Priest, an older man who’s in love with her, asking if it’s any good. Aware that her devotion to writing will keep her from him, he lies that the book is “artificial” and the characters “wooden.”
From the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables comes the story of Emily Starr, L.M. Montgomery's own favourite character, in the Emily of New Moon trilogy.
There are two things in life Emily Starr is certain of - that she will be a great writer and that she and Teddy Kent were destined to be together. School is over and one by one her friends leave to follow their dreams, including Teddy, who goes to art school in Montreal. Emily chooses to stay at New Moon, and though she misses her friends, she knows the path of a writer…
This marks the second time Jesse Francis and I have collaborated to explore an aspect of Prince Edward Island history. Our first book—Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (2013)—won three prizes. We hope this new work, which presents aspects of the history of the Mi’kmaq along with those of French, Acadian, and British colonists, will be welcomed. We think it important to bring together—rather than separate—the many strands of our shared past.
More than 115 PEI women served as nurses in the First World War, and this book provides rich details about their individual and collective experiences. The author carried out meticulous research to gather the nurses’ stories from a wide range of sources and she writes about that service with admiration. Helping to convey the nurses’ varied experiences are a large number of photos and several maps which locate the overseas hospitals and other facilities where they served. Despite all they accomplished, the PEI nurses—like nurses from other parts of North America—were largely greeted by a “great silence” when they returned from overseas. Those Splendid Girls makes an important contribution to the history of women and nursing during the First World War.
Over 115 women from Prince Edward Island women served as nurses in the First World War. They were fullblooded, complex women living in a tumultuous time in our history, doing their duty on distant battlefields. Their courage, and the courage of all Canadian nurses, is saluted in a powerful new book about wartime nursing called Those Splendid Girls. It features many wartime nursing photos from private albums, a 35-page biography section, an index, and bibliography.
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to…
This marks the second time Jesse Francis and I have collaborated to explore an aspect of Prince Edward Island history. Our first book—Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (2013)—won three prizes. We hope this new work, which presents aspects of the history of the Mi’kmaq along with those of French, Acadian, and British colonists, will be welcomed. We think it important to bring together—rather than separate—the many strands of our shared past.
If all you know about Prince Edward Island is that it’s a pretty tourist destination, you will be surprised by this book. The author tells the story of PEI in the 20th century with great flair. Along the way, readers learn about the people, events, and influential forces that shaped Island life over that era. We find out not just about seed potatoes, fox farming, ferry boats, and fixed links, but also about the troubles brought by economic depression, outmigration, and regional disparity. Two world wars also figure into the story. In a nutshell, If You're Stronghearted describes both changes and continuity within the distinctive Canadian province. The book features a wonderful selection of images.
This marks the second time Jesse Francis and I have collaborated to explore an aspect of Prince Edward Island history. Our first book—Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (2013)—won three prizes. We hope this new work, which presents aspects of the history of the Mi’kmaq along with those of French, Acadian, and British colonists, will be welcomed. We think it important to bring together—rather than separate—the many strands of our shared past.
The two authors combine their historical and geographical talents in this book. It offers a wealth of information on a wide range of themes relating to the famous Holland survey of the nascent British colony of St. John’s Island (later renamed Prince Edward Island). That survey, carried out on orders from the British Crown in 1764-65, generated the first fully accurate map of Prince Edward Island, dividing it into counties, townships, royalties, and individual lots that are still in place today. While the Holland survey was an exceptional technical achievement, it—and the subsequent lottery that allocated many of the lots to absentee owners—led to many long-term complications on PEI. The well-illustrated study explains much about how and why the Island’s subsequent history followed the course it did.
This marks the second time Jesse Francis and I have collaborated to explore an aspect of Prince Edward Island history. Our first book—Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (2013)—won three prizes. We hope this new work, which presents aspects of the history of the Mi’kmaq along with those of French, Acadian, and British colonists, will be welcomed. We think it important to bring together—rather than separate—the many strands of our shared past.
Though published more than 60 years ago—and therefore a little dated—this study remains highly useful. Clark opens with the Island’s natural geography and then looks at how its resources were used by the Mi’kmaq and subsequent settlers of Acadian, Scottish, Irish, Loyalist, and English backgrounds. The book’s 155 maps and 16 tables illustrate the distribution of the population by area and origin over time and the evolution in crops and livestock from the early 18th to the mid-20th centuries. Readers wanting more recent historical and geographical essays should check out Time and a Place, An Environmental History of Prince Edward Island (2016), with articles by a dozen scholars. As for PEI’s geology, check out John Calder, Island at the Centre of the World.
This study is one of the first in the field of historical geography to be published in Canada. Written after exhaustive research, it uses a particular approach to the study of historical agricultural geography which concentrates on the use of basic distributional evidence for the description and interpretation of the changing character of any region through any period of time. By the analysis of over 1200 maps, some of which form part of the text of the book, Professor Clark studies agriculture as the dominant economic activity of Prince Edward Island and traces with remarkable clarity through the changing patterns…
This marks the second time Jesse Francis and I have collaborated to explore an aspect of Prince Edward Island history. Our first book—Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island (2013)—won three prizes. We hope this new work, which presents aspects of the history of the Mi’kmaq along with those of French, Acadian, and British colonists, will be welcomed. We think it important to bring together—rather than separate—the many strands of our shared past.
In both English and French, Georges Arsenault has written many books on different aspects of the Acadian history of PEI. This 2019 book is the author’s most recent (French title: Histoire illustrée de l’Acadie de l’Ile-du-Prince-Édouard). It’s aimed at general interest readers and provides an overview of the three centuries of French and Acadian presence on the Island since 1720. Topics addressed include the early settlement period, the mass deportation in 1758, and the subsequent resettlement by Acadians. The author also looks at the role of the Catholic Church, French-language education, the economic changes across time, and the struggles to ensure a vibrant French-speaking Acadian culture on the Island.
Written for the general reader, this book by Georges Arsenault provides an overview of the three hundred years of French and Acadian presence on Prince Edward Island. The author describes the first settlements established on the Island by France, the deportation of the Acadian inhabitants in 1758, and their resettlement on the Island. He also looks at the evolution of the economy, the role of the Catholic Church, French-language education, and the struggles to ensure a vibrant French culture in the Acadian communities throughout the Island.
