Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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“My castle is very different from what I planned, but I would not alter it, though, like Jo, I don’t relinquish all my artistic hopes, or confine myslef to helping othr fulfil their dreams of beauty.”

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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I did not have reading Little Women on my Bingo card, and yet here I am. A friend mentioned offhandedly that she was watching the 90s film adaptation and two of us admitted (sheepishly) that we had never read the book (I know!) so a trio book club was born. I was surprised to remember I hadn’t read this book. (Heck, when I posted my Reel review of this book on Facebook, a classmate I haven’t talked to in years said they were surprised I hadn’t […]

War Inflicts Invisible Wounds Too

Hospital Sketches from the Civil War by Louisa May Alcott

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Hospital Sketches from the Civil War by Louisa May Alcott My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve always enjoyed Alcott’s writing, but somehow had never heard of this book until my wife came across it at a bookstore. This book is autobiographical although Alcott doesn’t reveal the name of the hospital or the actual names of her patients. The tone starts out in a very dramatic and somewhat humorous fashion. In some ways it feels like Alcott is satirizing the fact that all women could […]

Friends and publisher decisions kinda ruined this

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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**SPOILERS** There is a lot of confusion surrounding this book and the sad events in it. I went in thinking Beth dies, because that’s what Friends had told me, and I kept reading, dreading the moment it would happen. So I was spoiled – sort of. Because in this edition she recovers and we are given to think that they all live happily ever after. Something to do with American editions including the sequel (in which Beth does die), versus British editions that don’t… **END […]

Modern Jo with a classic feel

Jo: A Graphic Novel by Kathleen Gros

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Jo: A Graphic Novel by Kathleen Gros was not exactly what I thought it was going to be, but at the same time, it was exactly what I thought it would be. It is a modern reimagining of the classic, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. We have the March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. And of course, their mother, Marmee and neighbor Laurie. The book is told from the first-person perspective of Jo. This is through her events and through her blog. Of […]

a fine final read of 2019

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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I first came across Little Women as a child, and I came across it out of order; we had an old cloth-bound copy of Jo’s Boys on the bookshelf in my childhood home. It was next to Treasure Island, which I had devoured, and being a child I assumed that since books were next to each other they must be related. Ooops! I quickly learned the error of my ways (thanks Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library!) and settled down with an old illustrated tome. I was Jo. Who wasn’t […]

Just how little were these women?

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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Somehow I missed reading Little Women as a girl, although I do remember the 90’s film version with Winona Ryder and Christian Bale, so I had a general idea on the plot before coming to the book for the first time this year. This classic novel follows the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, as well as their mother and several family friends, for a period of about 15 years as they grow up.  Set somewhere in New England, the novel opens in […]



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