From the Bookshelf of The Reading Challenge Group…

Little Women (Little Women, #1)

Louisa May Alcott

Start date: April 1, 2015

Finish date: April 30, 2015

Discussion: Group Read Archive 2014-16

Why we're reading this: YA Group Read - April 2015
[close] YA Group Read - April 2015

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Group Read Archive 2014-16

Genre Group Read (Humour) - December 2016 - You Are Not So Smart
By Allison , Quest Hound · 11 posts · 30 views

last updated Dec 28, 2016 04:05PM

Alternate Group Read (Classics) - December 2016 - Mansfield Park
By Allison , Quest Hound · 5 posts · 18 views

last updated Dec 04, 2016 09:34AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 26, 2017 Elise rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

Reading this was painful because of the sentimental sermons, the most insidious being the one about how women need to repress their anger behind fake smiles and pretense followed by the advice that idleness is satanic as a close second. Jo says something about not being able to read all the time when she is learning her lesson about idleness. What a poser! That sounds like a challenge rather than a truism. The most misguided of American values are all here for your reading pleasure! And the one ...more

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May 19, 2020 Elle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is very much a character driven novel that acts as the ultimate cozy read. There are great character descriptions and development through the wide-sweeping timeline of the plot. It is sweet, cute, and full of emotional moments of various kinds. It is a very long classic, but still endearing and begs to have it's time taken.

Personal reading note:
I feel absolutely horrible for Laurie throughout the entirety of the novel and may have actually liked him more than any of the four March sisters ...more

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Nov 14, 2010 Kirthi Jayakumar added it

lovely classic <3

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Apr 07, 2011 Don rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction-nos, realistic-fiction, autobiographical, literary-fiction, tv-movie-connection

I was surprised by how long I took to get through this book. Not because I didn't enjoy it. I did. Perhaps it was simply because it just isn't the kind of story I'd normally be reading. The story of four sisters in Civil War era New England, whose main preoccupations are consistently with their lack of money, their wish not have money, and various musings on proper behavior - well, it's just not what I would call my normal cup of tea. But, as multitudes of readers have concluded over the years, I was surprised by how long I took to get through this book. Not because I didn't enjoy it. I did. Perhaps it was simply because it just isn't the kind of story I'd normally be reading. The story of four sisters in Civil War era New England, whose main preoccupations are consistently with their lack of money, their wish not have money, and various musings on proper behavior - well, it's just not what I would call my normal cup of tea. But, as multitudes of readers have concluded over the years, the March sisters have a way of growing on you.
Alcott's writing is very direct and simple. No overabundance of perfume on an already good smelling flower. I went through this title with a combination of reading the unabridged text version and, intermittently, listing to the Audible Original audio performance with Laura Dern. That second is, as I found, rather different in multiple ways. It isn't exactly abridges so much as it is rewritten in some parts. It made jumping back and forth between the two versions a bit of a challenge. This audio version is not simple a reading, but a performance with different actors doing different parts, with sound effects, and, as it turned out, changes to various scenes. While that added a bit of drama to Alcott's narrative, not all changes were positive. For instance, the voice of Laurie, who begins the story as a teen, was far too deep. The actor sounded like a forty-something year old man and, speaking the lines of a 16-year-old, it took me out of the story many times.
So as not to give spoilers, I'll simply say that the book is as advertised - funny and sad in varying ways. It paints a vivid picture of life in the era, at least as Alcott experienced it. It doesn't slip over into the trite clichés that you might expect from a piece set in the Civil War era.
The emphasis on the wonders of being wealthy (with a peppering of comments, mostly from the girls' mother, about the benefits of being poor) was annoying. I realize that this was life the way Alcott lived it, but it was repetitious and off-putting.
All in all, the prose and the story make up for whatever shortcomings there might be, so I certainly recommend this, especially for young readers. ...more

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