Little Women & Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott

 

Title:  Little Women

Author:  Louisa May Alcott

Narrated by:  Jennifer Woodward

Publisher: Saga Egmont

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 11 minutes

Source: Checked out from Hoopla through the Kewaunee Public Library

 

Title:  Good Wives

Author:  Louisa May Alcott

Narrated by:  Lorelei King

Publisher: Audible Studios

Length: Approximately 9 hours and 11 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.

What is a positive book that improves your mood when you read it?  Little Women is just such a book for me.

Little Women is the story of the trials and tribulations of the four March sisters.  Meg is the eldest and is beautiful and caring. Jo is independent and fearless, Beth is musical and timid, and Amy is artistic and vain.  The country is in the midst of the Civil War and their father is gone having joined the Union war effort.  The girls and their mother, Marmee, and housekeeper, Hannah, work to keep their household going and to help their community.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was great on audiobook and both narrators were very expressive and a joy to listen to. The first audiobook that I listened to ended at the middle of what I think of as Little Women.  I had to go and get Good Wives separately to finish the story as the girls grow older and marry.  This is originally how the books were published, but most modern editions have both books packaged together as Little Women.

·       This book was the July pick for the Back to the Classics Book Club at the Kewaunee Public library.  We enjoyed it.  It’s an overall happy book which we discussed at book club is rare for a classic novel. We watched and enjoyed the 2019 adaptation of the novel.

·       As an adult with every reread, I am struck by Marmee’s talk with Jo on how she has a bad temper and how as an adult, she has had to work hard to keep her calm appearance and keep her anger in. It is so interesting and it provides such a depth to Marmee’s character.  She is a great mother who supported her daughters to become great women.

·       I loved how the sisters had their disagreements as all sisters do, but they support and love each other.

·       Amy and Jo spar but are a lot alike.  They are both passionate about their art and want a different life than the traditional pathway of marriage for females at the time.

·       I’ve read this book many times in my life, and I have loved it every time.

·       This novel is based on Louisa May Alcott’s real life and family.  At times now, I get real life and the novel confused. 

·       I loved how they help the immigrant Hummel family and give them their Christmas dinner.  The Hummels are a poor fatherless German Immigrant family.  I love the Christian message of helping the “stranger” in our midst.

 

Overall, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is an uplifting and timeless classic that is well worth a read, or multiple reads.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

 

Title:  Little Women

Author:  Louisa May Alcott

Narrated by:  Anne Undeland

Publisher: Alison Larkin Presents

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 7 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Alison Larkin Presents.  Thank-you!

What book do you love that is loved by other members of your family?  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is a novel that transcends time.  I grew up loving it with my sisters and mother.  I have a copy of my Grandma’s copy of this novel. 

Little Women Is the classic story of the trials and tribulations of four sisters growing up during the Civil War in Massachusetts. My thoughts on this novel:

·       I listened to this book on audiobook this reread.  Alison Larkin is one of my favorite audiobook narrators.  This version is part of her Alison Larkin presents series and it featured a new narrator, Anne Undeland. She was a pleasant narrator.

·       This was only the original Little Women and did not contain part 2, which is Good Wives.  I learned that the United States packages these books together, but they are separate in the UK.  The original novel goes one year from Christmas to Christmas and ends happily.

·       There was a nice interview between Alison Larkin and Anne Undeland at the end of the audiobook.  They went over the life of Louisa May Alcott.

·       I was struck again in this reread how Marmee struggled with her anger and had to really work on being the calm loving mother we all know.  Jo noticed her tell of tightening her lips and leaving the room when she felt anger building, especially when Aunt March was in a rant.  It was so relatable, especially now that I am a mother.

·       I loved all four sisters and their distinct personalities.

·       Meg feels teen pressure for being a governess, not having money for finery, for her family sticking to their believes, and for her family’s relationship with Mr. Lawrence.  It was relatable to anyone who has been a teen.

·       Amy was also a teen feeling pressure with her lime collection to be like all of the other girls.  The discipline from her teacher was excessive.

·       This was the March read for What the Dickens Book Club. I started it in March but finished it in April.  There was a great online discussion with this group on the book.

Overall, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is an enjoyable book that is a joy to read at all stages of life.  It’s a wonderful classic.

Do you have a favorite movie version of Little Women?  The 1994 version will always be my favorite, but I have loved every version.  I grew up watching an anime version!

Little Women (2018)

I have loved Little Women since I was a child.  I used to watch a cartoon version that I realized when I became an adult was a Japanese Anime version.  I also watched every movie version that existed and read the book numerous times.  I love Little Women and Louisa May Alcott.

I was excited to be able to preview the new movie, Little Women, that will be in theatres this Friday.  It stars Lea Thompson from Back to the Future as Marmee and sets the iconic story in modern times.

I’ll admit that I have not only read a modern take on Little Women in the past but have also watched another modern movie take on Little Women. Both ventures failed as they missed the essences for what makes Little Women a great story.  I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed this new version of Little Women.  It did a fantastic job of modernizing the story.  The March Patriarch is away in the military to explain his absence and Marmee is still a wonderful mother who cares for the downtrodden.  The girls have their personalities intact and updated slightly for modern times.

What I loved the most was that the set-up of this movie solved one of the essential woes I’ve always had with Little Women – you love Laurie and want him together with Jo only to have Professor Bauer appear out of left field at the end of the novel or movie.  In this 2018 production, Professor Bauer is introduced before Laurie and it works wonderfully.  Jo is an aspiring author of fantasy fiction and Professor Bauer is trying to help her out with her writing while their relationship develops.  Flashbacks tell the story of the March family as Jo was growing up and Laurie is introduced at this time. He had more of a dorky brother vibe while Professor “Freddy” Bauer was obviously more the love interest.  I LOVED this set up.

This is a Christian movie and I was glad to see that the March sisters weren’t made into “slut sisters” as I’ve seen in other modern takes.  I watched this with my ten-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter.  There is alcohol consumed at a party and some bad behavior, but my kids realized it was bad behavior.  It was in keeping with the original novel as Meg was from a temperance family and does drink at a party.

Overall, this 2018 version of Little Women does an excellent job updating the story to modern times, while keeping true to the original characters.  I highly recommend it!

More information about Little Women:

In theaters this fall, LITTLE WOMEN—starring Lea Thompson (BACK TO THE FUTURE) —brings the same sisters to a new generation to celebrate dreams, family and unconditional love.

LITTLE WOMEN also stars Sarah Davenport as "Jo," Melanie Stone as "Meg," Taylor Murphy as "Amy," Allie Jennings as "Beth," Ian Bohen (Teen Wolf) as "Freddy," Lucas Grabeel (High School Musical, "Family Guy") as "Laurie," and Bart Johnson (High School Musical) as "Papa March."

Official website: www.littlewomenthemovie.com.
All-new trailer: https://www.facebook.com/littlewomenfilm/
Facebook/Instagram: @LittleWomenFilm
Twitter: @LittleWomenFilm
 

The Spring Girls by Anna Todd

Title: The Spring Girls

Author: Anna Todd

Read by:  Cassandra Campbell, Madeleine Maby, Erin Mallon, Joy Osmanski

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 25 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!

When I read the summary of The Spring Girls by Anna Todd and saw it was a modern-day retelling of Little Women, I knew I needed to read it.   The Spring Girls (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy) are living on a base in New Orleans with their mother waiting for their father’s return from Afghanistan.  The girls experience both love and loss.

I should let it be known that I am a Little Women super fan.  I’ve read the novel several times, listened to an audiobook, read many other Louisa May Alcott books including biographies of the author.  I’ve watched the many movie versions too many times to count and even watched the Japanese anime version as a child.

I found the book to be a disappointing retelling of Little Women.  The book goes through first person view points of the sisters and “Meredith” or Marmee from the original, with most of the story focusing on Meg rather than Jo of the original.  Meg in the modern-day version is frankly a tramp, but she doesn’t want you to think of her as a tramp.  This book missed what was so compelling about the original novel.  The great relationships between the “Little Women” as they grew through time and came of age.  It was their relationships with each other and what they wanted from life that was the focus of the novel, it was not a book about the conquest of men like The Spring Girls.  The Spring Girls failed to capture the spirit of each of the original March girls.  I think it would have been better served to be a standalone novel that wasn’t associated with Little Women at all.

One major segment of the book had Meg being the victim of naked pictures being passed around by an old boyfriend.  This could have been something to feel sympathy about, but I had a hard time with it.  Meg talked a LOT about how she used her body to get what she wanted from life and from men.  No one deserves to have naked pictures of themselves passed around, but you set yourself up for that when you let your boyfriend do it.  There was no personal responsibility from Meg on this or how making your way through life using your body is not a good thing.  I didn’t really like her at all.

I did think it was inspiring to make the King family that Meg worked for to be a wealthy African American family.  It was interesting at first to have a love interest in that family, but I thought it was strange how this was the focus and John Brooke was totally displaced.  Again, if this wasn’t Little Women, maybe . . . but it was supposed to be a modern Little Women.  John Brooke became a character vastly different than the original and I thought it interesting that neither man introduced Meg to their family while they were dating.

Jo has a dream to go to New York, but spends most of the novel developing a romantic relationship with Laurie.  Beth can’t seem to leave the house and Amy is obnoxious, even more so than original Amy.  It was kind of a strange take on Little Women.

It did work to have the family set on a military base waiting for their father’s return from Afghanistan.  I wish they would have focused on that more and how the family dealt with his injuries when he returned.  That seemed like a background story.

Although I didn’t care for the story, it was a great audiobook.  I liked how each 1^st person narrator in the book got their own narrator in the story and some of the best in the business are on this book.  So strangely I enjoyed listening to this book and the audio while also really not liking the storyline.

This audiobook has a beautiful cover.  I loved it and it matches the title so well.

Overall, the narration on the audio was five stars, but I’d give the actual story something like two stars.  I had a hard time finishing it as I realized I didn’t really care what was going to happen in this story.