Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Review- The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott


The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott
by Kelly O'Connor McNees
Amy Einhorn Books
339 pages

When Trish over at TLC Book Tours put the word out that she was looking for people to host a book tour for The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, I couldn't respond fast enough. I think Twitter even yelled at me I was trying to DM her so quickly. I am glad that I beat Twitter at his own game, because I got on the book tour. And I got the book. Oh yes. Take THAT Twitter.

It took me a few weeks before I could start it. But when I did, I devoured it. Three days it took me to read it. I was reading during my lunch break one day, walking around the outside of the building, and I walked straight into one of the fabulous plastic chairs outside the warehouse break area! That was awesome.

You all know how I feel about quotes, so here goes it- (please note, these are from an ARC and are liable to have changed by final printing)

"Conventionality is not morality.' Charlotte Bronte wrote that, and it is as true for me as it was for her. To do things just because others do is cowardly."

"She thought of all the sorts of faces that existed in the world- fat, thin or long, round, dark, white or freckled - and guessed that heartbreak looked the same on every one of them. One could spot it from a mile away."

The premise of the book is this- how is it that Louisa May Alcott, never married, could write such a love affair as Jo and Laurie's? Literary critics are constantly arguing about whether she did or did not ever fall in love with her own Laurie. So, Kelly O'Connor McNees created a Laurie for her. And thank goodness she did.

You can read more about it here. And you should.

xoxo,
J.Danger