Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward

If you are enjoying this month’s Book Group book, Heads you Lose, you can vote for your favorite character on their website. Who’s your favorite character?

• Lacey Hansen
• Paul Hansen
• Sook Felton
• Terry Jakes and /or Harry Lakes
• Brandy Chester
• Dr. What’s His Name
• Any Babbalato
• Melinda the Goth Niece
• Lisa Lutz

Little Women

On Monday, June 3th, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Here are a few of the comments made during the meeting:

Many of the group members read the book as a young girl but still enjoyed re-reading the book as an adult. During our discussion we talked about the author’s life in relationship to the book and noted the similarities.

In 1927 a poll was taken as to what book most interested the general public, and Little Women was number one with the Bible being number two. This surprised the members especially since it is promoted as a little girl’s book and then we talked about the possible reasons as to why it was so popular.

We noticed that the book did not discuss controversial ideas. For example, they talked about the Civil War but did not discuss the issue of slavery. They appeared to be a religious family but never mentioned what denomination they were. We decided that it was a way to appeal to a wider audience since the purpose of the novel was a financial one.

No one cried when Jo died mainly because we all knew it was going to happen, and when she passed away Alcott did not expound on the death.

The novel was noted at the time of publication for its realism in its depiction of the characters, but most of us thought it was hard to believe that the girls got along so well, especially since they were sharing rooms. 

Everyone was disappointed that Amy married Laurie, and we talked about Amy and Jo’s differences. We had a hard time believing that once Laurie was rejected by Jo that he would fall in love with Amy.

In the last two chapters we find Jo setting aside her career to run a school with her husband. We thought Alcott had Jo marry only because that is what all young ladies did and to please her audience. We all felt that if Alcott had her way she would have left Jo unmarried.

We talked about how Little Women lives up to every stereotype of a novel’s ending: all the girls are married to perfect husbands, living happily ever after. And of course, Jo inherits Plumfield, which makes everything even more perfect.

We thought the book was easy to read because there was so much dialogue.

These are just of few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.

Grow With Us! Summer Read Program

Don’t forget to register online for the Summer Read Program. You can register at http://www.lislelibrary.org.

Join us for the Kick-off Party – Everyone is welcome!   Saturday, June 1^st from 10:00 to 4:00. We’ll be serving ice cream sundaes!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Monday, June 3th
11:00 am
Meeting Room B

Join us to discuss…

Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott

In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war.

 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Pick up the 1943 version of Little Women with June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, and Janet Leigh from the library, (DVD Wom).  Here is some trivia about the movie:

• The basket that ‘Margaret O’Brien’ carries around in this movie is the same basket that Judy Garland carried in the “Wizard of Oz.”   Both ‘Oz’ and ‘Little Women’ were produced by Mervyn LeRoy.
• The snow in this movie was actually cornflakes.
• In the novel, Amy is the youngest sister, but in order to use Margaret O’Brien as Beth, Beth was made the youngest.
• In the scene where Beth (Margaret O’Brien) tells Jo (June Allyson) that she doesn’t mind dying, June Allyson’s tears were real. She was so moved by Margaret O’Brien’s performance that she was sent home early, still crying, and had to pull over several times on her journey home as her tears rendered her unable to drive.
• June Allyson was 32 when she played 15-year-old Jo March

Reading List for 2013-2014

It looks like we picked some great books for 2013-2014 season. Thank you to everyone who voted.  Here is the full list with dates:

August 5, 2013 The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

September 9, 2013 Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

October 7, 2013 Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

November 4, 2013 Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

December 2, 2013 The Great Pearl Heist: London’s Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard’s Hunt for the World’s most valuable necklace by Molly Caldwell Crosby

January 6, 2014 Razor’s Edge by Somerset W. Maugham

February 3, 2014 Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister

March 3, 2014 The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers and Edgar Allan Poe, and the invention of murder by Daniel Stashower

April 7, 2014 The Big Read

May 5, 2014 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

June 2, 2014 Yellow Birds by Kevin Power

July 7, 2014 Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I thought some of you might like to watch a DVD about Louisa Alcott’s life. We have it on shelf at the library, DVD 810.092 Alcott.

“Louisa Alcott’s life was no children’s book: she worked as a servant, a seamstress, and a Civil War nurse before becoming a millionaire celebrity writing “moral pap for the young,” as she called it. Under pen names and anonymously, she also wrote stories with enough drugs, sex and crime to prove the author was no “little” woman. When she died, Alcott took her secret identity as a pulp fiction writer with her, and kept it for nearly a half-century.”