I like the sound of the Anne Shirley book, I read just about everything written by L M Montgomery. I have an early copy of "Further Chronicles of Avonlea" which I think might be a 1st edition, although it's in rough shape, having been eaten a bit by worms. I often use it in writing classes as a wonderful example of efficnet writing, good characterisation being shown, not told.
I'm currently working my way through a book you won't have heard of. "Razor" by Larry Writer is te story of central Sydney's underworld in the 1920s and 1930s, the two women primarily who were competitors in the prostitution and sly grog industries, whose hired thugs were involved in some nasty fights often using cutthroat razors. The suburb of Darlinghurst became colloqially known as "Razorhurst". difficult child 3's school, the correspondence one which we occasionally have to go and visit in person (two trips there this week, two last week) is right in the middle of it, Woolloomooloo. If you can picture Kings Cross as an eagle perched on the clifftop, Woolloomooloo is tucked into a shore cave just below the cliff. Kings Cross is THE place to go for seedy nightlife, it's loaded with strip joints, nightclubs etc. Think a smaller, seedier version of Vegas. Definitely a place for tourists to visit by day - it's actually quite safe by day. But by night, do not let a woman walk the streets alone there, unless she's carrying a large anvil inside her handbag. If we're travelling to difficult child 3's school by train, we get off in Kings Cross. It's quite a pretty walk.
Woolloomooloo is rough in some places, peaceful and safe in others. A few houses one way or another can make the difference. You just have to have your internal radar switched on. It's definitely working class, the battlers' suburb. We walk past groups of junkies doing deals, huddles of homeless people in shapeless rags. They generally leave us alone as long as we keep moving. They don't want too much attention. There is a cop shop handy, anyway.
It's been fascinating to read this interesting stuff from Sydney history. The reason it was two women who ruled the mobs, was because there was a loophole in the law. It was illegal for a man to earn money from the earnings of prostitutes, but it wasn't illegal for a woman to do so. The two women, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, made a lot of money form drugs also. Drugs, women, grog. We had a minni-prohibition in Sydney at the time, alcohol was not permitted to be served after 6 pm, but Kate Leigh especially ran a number of places ("sly grog shops") which supplied after-hours drinkers and she invested in police pay-offs as well. She could afford to buy good stuff from the breweries, so got regular, higher class clientele. She also populated her sly grog shops with prostitutes (as well as being "on the game" herself) so there was money to be made at every turn. But laws were changed, firearms became very tightly licenced in 1927 and anyone caught with an unlicenced firearm got an automatic prison sentence, so crooks began carrying razors instead. They quickly found that a very sharp razor was more terrifying than a gun, especially to people who relied on their looks for their income.
And where did a lot of the overflow of these crooks live? Woolloomooloo!
A fascinating book.
Marg
happy: isn't that what we all used to call it? and whose kid named it? I can't remember!) and The Associate by Grisham. I also have Sum by Eagleman which I'm not sure I'll enjoy. It is "a captivating collection of vignettes that portray possible afterlives..". We'll see if it captiates me, lol. For husband I have The Gamble by Thomas Ricks which is a history of Petraeus & the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008. I think that will be his cup of tea. 
