Friday 15 January 2016

Little Women Readalong

Oh happy day!

One of my childhood favourites gets a chance to shine once again!

I haven't revisited Little Women for quite a few years (movie - yes, but the book, no).

So imagine my delight when I saw that the lovely ladies who hosted last year's fabulously successful RAL of North and South, were hosting one for Little Women in February.

I really enjoyed the few readalongs I participated in last year and pretty much failed all the challenges I set myself. Therefore my 2016 plans are to focus on readalongs and forget the challenges.

For the Little Women Readalong I hope to rewatch as many versions of Little Women as I can get my hands on. If I could combine all the casts, my dream team would have Katherine Hepburn as Jo, Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy and Gabriel Byrne as Prof. Bhaer. I've yet to see a Laurie that I really like and no-one seems to really get a handle on Meg or Beth either, although Claire Danes did go close.

The dream team have created a very leisurely and manageable schedule for the readalong and hopefully at least one of the twitter chats will suit my time zone (living on the other side of the world from the rest of you, I'm usually at work or asleep for most of the live events!)

I have read this book (and it's sequels) so many times I could probably quote whole sections of it. I wonder what this reread will reveal?

14 comments:

  1. I actually haven't read Little Women yet! *bows head in shame* I do absolutely love the version with Winona Ryder, it's such a Christmas film for me! I might have to hop over and see whether I can join in this RAL :) Have a great Friday!
    Juli @ A Universe in Words

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    1. I hope you can join us - the more the merrier :-)

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  2. Anonymous16/1/16

    Ohh, I think I just found something to put on my schedule next month. Thanks for letting me know about this.

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    1. That was my response when I spotted this too. It's always the right time for a Little Women readalong :-)

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  3. Anonymous16/1/16

    little women.. Long time since I thought about this book. It was one of my grand mother's favorite and she used to tell me about it. Should reread it I guess.

    Do check out my blog at http://readthatalso.blogspot.in/

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  4. Yay! I love your enthusiasm for this book! Thanks for joining! I'm looking forward to all the comments and discussions. I love Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor! Great casting!

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    1. The 1933 George Cukor movie starred Katherine Hepburn. The 1949 starred Elizabeth Taylor (with Peter Lawford as Laurie and June Allyson as Jo - she wasn't bad actually.) I nearly died when I realised the Gillian Armstrong movie was from 1994!! Where did that time go? It doesn't feel that old.

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  5. I'm so excited to have you join us! I can't wait! :D

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  6. Ah..I was really wanting to know your dream Laurie! Christian Bale didn't get it close? I enjoyed him anyway. So glad you are joining us! Sorry our chat times don't work for you.. but you can always use the hashtag to let us know your thoughts anytime and we'll respond. :)

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    1. Maybe we need a new Little Women movie with one of the Hemsworth boys as Laurie :-)

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  7. I am happy to have found this read along. Thanks Brona.

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    1. Hope you will be joining us Ann :-)

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  8. Can you believe this is a book I've never read? (Along with the Anne of Green Gables and the Little House books, which I'm correcting this year.) I wish I had time to read Little Women next month. Perhaps I will now that I've moved my job down to part time. I'll try to join the fun.

    Actually another children's women's classic that I haven't read are the Nancy Drew books, and I was thinking of throwing those in after I finish the Anne and Little House books. I don't want my entire year of reading women classic authors to be children's books, of course. But the Women Classic Author challenge does provide an opportunity to read some books that I should have read long ago.

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    1. Children's classics can be read at any age, but those read as a child will always hold a special place in our hearts. Anne of Green Gables and Little Women are like that for me (but not alas, I Capture the Castle).

      I never read any Nancy drew either - I tried a few times, but she didn't appeal to me somehow. I got into the Trixie Belden books instead - I loved the mix of crime fighting and relationships in these books.

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