I read the unabridged version of Little Women. The copy I read was a really old hardcover -- it belonged to my mother when she was a kid, and I think it actually may have originally belonged to my grandmother. (For some reason, the books my grandmother saved from her childhood were a few classics, like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden, plus a box full of Bobbsey Twins books. Including the first one, where in the first chapter, a girl faints while jump-roping, and everyone says that her parents shouldn't have been letting a girl exert herself so much, because of course she's going to fall ill from it.)

Because jump roping is so much more strenuous than, say, CHILDBIRTH.

Oh! I finally remembered to request (and got) "Adios to My Old Life" from the library! I loved it, but also wanted it to be like, five times as long and detailed. Like, it hardly went into the whole show thing, and the songs, and the rehearsing! It so could've been a much much longer book! And I wanted more on the other contestants! And the process! And her background! And like...it could've....been a trilogy!! Or somethign! Come on! It was good I wanted MORE. Hmph. Hate that.

Wasn't it fun? I really enjoyed it. It was just well-done, and quite satisfying.

Oh! I finally remembered to request (and got) "Adios to My Old Life" from the library!

Her "It's Not About the Accent" is just as good, IMO. I think I might even like it better.

I just got Women's World from the library the other day. I haven't started it yet, and I'm wondering if the gimmick is actually going to make it hard for me to follow the story, but the idea was so intriguing that I wanted to at least give it a shot.

Dang, doesn't look like the Seattle Library has that one, Steph. Hrmph. Maybe the bookstore will. The library had Adios when the bookstore didn't. (Somehow, ordering from Amazon is too much effort. Don't ask me what that's about)

What Did the Nobel Laureates Read When They were Young?

I didn't see this here before, but I've skipped a few.

Poisonwood- I am so mad at Rachel right now. She just used shapoopie in a sentence (as a substitute for a word she didn't understand, I think) and now I have that horrible song stuck in my head. And if that's not bad enough, it's the Family Guy version. sigh.

My favorite, favorite old-timey YA novel, the one I'll go back to over and over and over and over x eleventy-million, is Daddy Long-Legs.

I love Judy finding her way socially, discovering that she's not just a smart-ass but actually smart, finding herself politically ("Hooray! I'm a Fabian!"), being a total but enthusiastic doof at sports, sneaking off campus to go skating and eat lobster with her friends, finding her voice as a writer, navigating flirtations and school dances and love and rigid social barriers and finding a space where she belongs.

Also, the whole thing is short enough that there's no need for an abridged/unabridged discussion, and it has pictures! Well, doodles. Which is almost even better.

I'm also just slightly bitter that there have only been two movie versions and they were both Not The Novel on an epic scale.

I've just started re-reading the Little House books based on discussions here. I'm on Farmer Boy (now #2 in the series) and all I have to say is, my g*d, the food.