The final chapter of Louisa May Alcott reading challenge 2018

Readers and fellow challenge-participants,

The time has come to close down the 2018 Louisa May Alcott reading challenge. We're done!


It's ALSO time to announce the 3 winners of the Pixel Berry Pie Designs art prints! As a reminder, here's what we had up for grabs...






And now... the names of those 3 lucky winners are:


Nicole M.

Trix W.

bn100


YAY!!!! I will be contacting the winners as soon as I can. But if you won, and you haven't heard from me yet, just shoot me an email to claim your prize (see my email address over in the sidebar, below my pic).


// Coupon code... //

If you didn't win, but you would like to have some of these art prints for yourself (or gifts for bookish friends!), I have a coupon code for you!!

Just visit pixelberrypiedesigns.etsy.com and enter code LITTLEWOMEN2018 at checkout.

This special coupon is good ONLY through July 8th. Place your order soon to get this fabulous deal!



Did you read everything on your Alcott challenge list?

I enjoyed a lovely European tour through Louisa's eyes via her book Shawl Straps <--check out my review... then I was thrilled to read one of Louisa's "blood and thunder" stories, which was so different to try one of her shadier tales, A Long Fatal Love Chase <--check out my review... I also finished a fictional story written about the Alcotts and their life at Fruitlands, a transcendental "utopia", Becoming Little Women <--check out my review... and right now I've got just a bit left of The Brownie and the Princess and Other Stories that I'm currently reading (also will review it shortly on the blog). For me, that was a blissful month of reading!


What did you read this month?


THANK YOU to EVERYONE who participated in the reading challenge. I appreciate you all for making this a fun and spectacular reading month. By the way, if you haven't finished your posts or reviews about the LMA books you got to read this month, that's okay — the link-up widget will still be open a few more days for any last words on the subject that you might have to share.


And in closing, I'll give you all some words of wisdom, from our literary friend...

"Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art."
- Louisa May Alcott, A Long Fatal Love Chase

See you next June! Or, perhaps in November & December... I'll be hosting the 3rd annual Literary Christmas reading challenge!

Signing off from the 2018 LMA challenge,





P.S. Don't forget! You can still vote for Little Women to win the title of the Great American Read -- daily (or whenever you can remember) through the fall time. :)



If you'd like to learn more about the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge, visit this link to start at the beginning.

Little Women coloring sheet resources

Let's admit it, coloring is fun.

Reading books are fun.

Combine the two?

Awesome.


And yes, it's for children and adults alike.



FREE DOWNLOADS!

Here's some Little Women-themed printables available online. Enjoy!



Little Women Title Coloring Sheet







Little Women Illustrated Coloring Book PDF



(comes with over a hundred sketched scenes from the novel!)
Also... you can buy the full coloring book from Amazon...



Sound off in the comments! What other great works of fiction would you like to get in coloring book format?

Celebrating 150 years of Little Women

Louisa May Alcott gave to the world a wonderful gift in 1868. She published Little Women that year. It is a classic piece of literature that most women have read at some point in their childhood, and still to this day, girls lovingly read it across the world.


2018 marks the 150th birthday of Little Women! What an accomplishment. If only Louisa knew that this girl's book that she didn't really desire to write (but her publisher desperately wanted) would turn into something that would touch so many lives... and make so many people cry over it!

Fun fact!

Did you know that Louisa's sister, May Alcott (we know her fictionally as Amy March, the youngest sister), actually illustrated the first edition of Little Women?

I've collected the illustrations that appear in the first edition to show you here...








I'd say these are perfectly charming pictures! And I love knowing that with Little Women being a story about sisters, that Louisa's sister was happy to provide her artistic skills towards Louisa's project.

May's illustrations didn't garner the best reviews (she received some harsh criticism from the press, but it didn't crush her artistic spirit)... and thankfully those negative opinions didn't reflect in the sales and overall success of the book itself.

The first 2,000 copies of Little Women spun off the shelves, and a re-printing was quickly underway, along with a request for a sequel. Good Wives only took Louisa 3 months to write after the publication of Little Women, and was published in 1869. Little Men shortly followed in 1871, and Jo's Boys, the final conclusion to the March family's story didn't appear for 15 more years in 1886.


How has Little Women or any of its sequels affected you?



If you'd like to learn more about the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge, or to sign-up, just visit this link to start at the beginning.

Book Review: A Long Fatal Love Chase

A Long Fatal Love Chase

written by Louisa May Alcott

356 pages // published in 1995 // Gothic romance

BOOK DESCRIPTION

"I'd gladly sell my soul to Satan for a year of freedom," cries Rosamond Vivian to her callous grandfather. A brooding stranger seduces her from the remote island onto his yacht. Trapped in a web of intrigue, cruelty, and deceit, she flees to Italy, France, Germany, from Paris garret to mental asylum, from convent to chateau - stalked by obsessed Phillip Tempest.

Two years before Little Women, serialized in a magazine under the alias A.M. Barnard in 1866, this was buried among the author's papers over a century.

Here is a tale of love and love lost. Of good verses evil. Of an angel and a devil.

Be forewarned, this is quite a departure for our beloved Louisa May Alcott, if you're wanting another great American novel such as Little Women – with it's quaintness, happiness, and steadfastness in family and sisterly love. 'Love Chase' is much darker and more dramatic. In fact, it was so sensational that even though Louisa's publisher asked her for a novel with “absorbingly interesting” cliffhangers, he couldn't accept this product of her imagination and print such a scandalous story... In fact, it remained unpublished for more than a hundred years after her death, until chance landed it into the hands of just the right editor who would dust the cobwebs off the story and bring it forth to the public in 1995.

Rosamond Vivian, a sheltered 18-year-old who lives with her uncaring grandfather in East England, has finally found a bit of adventure... in the shape of a visitor to their little island, a visitor named Mr. Tempest. Away naive Rosamond is swept, in a flurry of frivolous fun and deceit.

“He was simply a man without a conscience. Do you know, Rose, I sometimes think I have none.”

Rosamond takes it upon herself to turn her lover upon the right path in life. Tempest freely warns her in the first days of their companionship that he is not a good man; he certainly couldn't be confused with a saint. I did love her response, “No, everything is possible with God. I do not give you up. I pity you, and love can work miracles, so I shall still hope and work.” Girl, you get an A for effort, because that's a tall order.

“Rose, remember one thing. I am master here, my will is law, and disobedience I punish without mercy.”

This life of adventure with an all-too-charming man begins to take its toll on Rosamond. She is unable to bear the days half so cheerily as he strives to defeat her in emotional games. He toys with her mind, and with her very being, her soul... the chase is on. It's a chase that was destined from its misguided start to end in tragedy of some kind.

“You love him still, and struggle against your love, feeling that it will undo you. He knows this and he will tempt you by every lure he can devise, every deceit he can employ.”

Note to the discerning reader: There's so many topics covered in this book, such as suicide, murder, divorce, bigamy, deep obsession, and one too many other dark secrets. To be honest though, I didn't feel that any of this was too “sensational”, especially for modern readers.

To me, this novel certainly feel like an epic piece of refined literature such as 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (without Hugo's additional inner essays, thank goodness), combined with the intensity and intrigue of a Gothic classic such as 'Rebecca', and a unique cast of characters such as would be found in any Dickens novel. Don't overlook 'Love Chase' simply because it is one of Alcott's lesser known publications, as it ranks well with these other classics in terms of pathos, and a unique perspective on human nature.

This is a story where our American authoress takes on the task of painting a colorful European landscape, creating a heroine who lives in England, not the States. In fact, Louisa, I'm sure, used much inspiration from her own European trips to vividly tell us all about some of the other countries whose shores are touched in this roller-coaster tale, as the love chase bounds from location to location.

Overall? Certainly it felt thrilling and suspenseful while each chapter passed. What fun it truly was to discover a different facet of Louisa's writing skill.

Reading age level: This is considered to be one of the few “adult” novels that Alcott wrote.

My favorite quote – just a random snippet that I love, when singled out from the book...

“What now, my little bookworm?” he asked, as he threw himself down on the couch near the table where she sat reading and lit his cigar always laid ready for him.

My 2nd book is complete for the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge.

Buy the book!

paperback // hardcover

In addition to this title counting towards the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge this month...



This is book #5 for me in the Back to the Classics 2018 challenge.
[CATEGORY: Classic Travel or Journey]




P.S. Like and vote for this review on Goodreads and Amazon.




If you'd like to learn more about the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge, or to sign-up, just visit this link to start at the beginning.

Listen in to podcasts on Masterpiece's Little Women

PBS Masterpiece released some interviews recently, talking with the stars of the new Little Women adaptation. There's some cool behind-the-scenes stuff to learn about, with Maya Hawke, Angela Lansbury, Emily Watson, and others!

If you're not familiar with podcasts yet, don't let that stop you. Just visit one of the links below, press the play button, and listen in.

My recommendation? Listen when you're doing some work around the house, crafting, cooking, or when you're just going to be on your laptop for a few minutes -- I always like to keep busy while I listen to a podcast or audiobook.














What podcasts do you like to listen to?

Do you know of any literature-themed podcasts?



If you'd like to learn more about the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge, or to sign-up, just visit this link to start at the beginning.

Book Review: Shawl Straps

Shawl-Straps
Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag #2

written by Louisa May Alcott

128 pages // published in 1872 // vintage travel fiction

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Unlike the other volumes in this series, which are books of childrens' stories, Shawl-Straps is a novel. It is the story of Amanda, Matilda, and Lavinia, three sisters who are travelling in Europe. The book is based on Louisa May Alcott's own travels with her sister. She states in the preface: "There is a sort of fate about writing books of travel which it is impossible to escape. It is vain to declare that no inducement will bribe one to do it, that there is nothing new to tell, and that nobody wants to read the worn-out story: sooner or later the deed is done, and not till the book is safely shelved does peace descend upon the victim of this mysterious doom. The only way in which this affliction may be lightened to a long-suffering public is to make the work as cheerful and as short as possible. With this hope the undersigned bore has abstained from giving the dimensions of any church, the population of any city, or description of famous places, as far as in her lay; but confined herself to the personal haps and mishaps, adventures and experiences, of her wanderers." - Louisa M. Alcott, November 1872.

A delightful trek across Europe...

So, I assumed this would be a continuation of Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag #1... (being a collection of short stories) but my assumption was wrong. Shawl-Straps is, in fact, a whole little novel in itself. It follows the travels of a band of three American unmarried girls as they visit various places in Europe.

It might be fun to actually follow in the footsteps of these girls and perhaps travel along a similar route across Europe and visit many of the same landmarks as they did in France, Switzerland, Italy, and England. To do so would be seeing Europe a bit through Louisa's very own eyes, I feel like – of course with the difference of almost a hundred years!

The girls do get to visit some places that are in Charles Dickens' novels, and that was an interesting point to note, as I know that Louisa was a fond admirer of Dickens' writings.

At one point, the merry travelers have to decide to leave the heavier luggage behind and press on with only their shawl straps. I never could quite decide exactly what actual shawl straps look like, or how you carry it, even though it sounds like a delightful vintage device...

Author and blogger Susan Bailey was able to provide me with an illustration from a copy of Shawl-Straps published in the 1920s. In this picture, we see one of the young ladies holding a strap that (I assume) connects to a shawl for holding items inside – to carry as a small bundle with a handle? You can make your own assumptions, as based on the illustration:


Also, here are 2 more illustrations of shawl straps, available online. This next one is a diagram of an actual patent design. From this, we can see it has two belt-like straps that enclose the shawl (or other articles), and has a handle for easy carrying.

// via The Portal to Texas History //

Lastly, another view showing the shawl strap in use, with a bundle rolled up inside.


// via Bustles and Bows //

Overall, I give this book 4 stars because, although not amazing (sometimes a bit long-winded), and although not of seemingly much literary merit in Louisa's canon... it's still a charming tale that I could freely recommend to anyone (young or old) to read; whether they enjoy it is up to them.


My 1st book is complete for the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge.

Buy the book!

paperback // ebook

P.S. Like and vote for this review on Goodreads and Amazon.




If you'd like to learn more about the Louisa May Alcott reading challenge, or to sign-up, just visit this link to start at the beginning.