I am always on the lookout for horsey books that don’t feel too juvenile, which is an area literature is hugely lacking in if I do say so myself. That’s why I was so excited to stumble upon “The Invincible Miss Cust” in my Bookbub newsletter. It was under a historical novel sale, which is also right up my alley. It follows the life from childhood until the end of Miss Aleen Cust, the first woman veterinarian of Great Britain and Ireland.
To cover the expanse of someone’s entire life seems daunting but the author did a great job of making me feel like I knew Miss Cust personally from all the detail, while skipping over the years that were routine as usual. I never felt like I missed out on something important.
I loved Aleen Cust right off the bat. To say we share a common interest is putting it too mildly. Obsession might be closer to the right word. Horses. She had the childhood I always dreamed of, flying across the fields on the back of a horse all day with siblings and friends. The book touches on the struggles between Ireland and Great Britain at that time, and that is why Aleen’s family had to relocate back to England when she was ten, leaving behind her dog and horses. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking that would have been.
I can also relate to Aleen in feeling drawn to a profession by my very heart, an unconventional profession that many screw up their faces at when I said I wanted to do it. For her, it was to become a vet and take care of animals. For me, it was to write books. Of course, I haven’t had to face any of the bigotry she faced throughout her four years of college. She even had to work illegally for more than twenty years before the association would let her sit her last exam and give her the certificate stating she was officially a veterinarian. To work so hard at something, be so good at it, and still have society tell you that you can’t do it is insane to me, but they were different times, her childhood starting in the late eighteen hundreds, her school from 1900-1904, and finally being able to practice legally in 1922.
The whole book does not center around horses, of course, though they are always a huge part of her life, along with her dogs which she bred for a time. But the scenes describing her gallops across town to reach an emergency satisfied my horsey cravings in literature. There is romance involved, as there is in most lives, but it doesn’t dominate the story or hinder the real message in the least. She was an unconventional woman, so it only made sense her love life was unconventional as well.
I highly recommend this book for animal lovers, equestrians, historical lovers, and just plain readers in general. You won’t be disappointed by Miss Aleen Cust’s story.
The more I read this series the more I like it and realize just how much planning and thought went into it. Each book ties into the next, culminating in the story of the Odd Sisters and how each of the villain’s stories are a part of their own fairy tale book where they write the fate of the villains.
I really liked Captain Hook’s story. The series has gotten better in its story telling as its gone on. He is a villain that we don’t really know much about. Why is he an adult in Neverland? But all is explained in this entertaining story that mixes pirate history with fairy tale. (my favorite kind of story!) James’ mentor will be a familiar name to all, which makes the story all the more dear, as if it really could be true! It was an easy read that had the pages flipping fast for me.
The author did a great job of humanizing James Hook and making me feel for him and his fate. This was one of those rare stories where I could actually see his side and how he got to where he is, a dastardly pirate trying too capture Tinker Bell and kill Peter Pan. She did a great job and I highly recommend this series and this book.
Little Women is one of my all-time favorite books and stories. As a child I fell in love with the 1994 version, and then I saw the 2019 version, and it was so different and unique and the actors were so great that I fell in love all over again. Christmastime always brings me back to Little Women, not that it’s a Christmas story particularly, but it feels like it to me, plus the movies always have great winter scenes. So this year, to take it a step further from just reading the book and watching my two favorite movie versions, I decided I would watch ALL the versions I could get my hands on. I was not able to find the 1917 and 1918 silent films, but I watched the 1933, 1949, 1994, and 2019 movies as well as the PBS mini series. I did not watch the 2018 modernized version because I felt that was not really true to the story. I love the historical aspects and that had none at all, though I’m sure the themes of the story still ran through it and it was good. Maybe one day I’ll watch it. I thought I would do a little compare and contrast so you can find the one that suits you best to bring a beloved story to life. (There are quite a few more versions for television and Broadway that I have not seen).
Best Jo March
Saoirse Ronan plays Jo March in Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. “The only people that I really envy, I think, are kids because they have the best of everything,” Ronan says.
It was hard for me to decide this, but I think Saoirse Ronan made the best Jo. She may not have had the dark curls of the novel’s Jo, like Wynona Ryder did, but she brought the novel’s character to life, with most of her lines coming directly from the book. The PBS Jo March played by Maya Hawke is a close tied second with the 1994 adaptation! She did a great job being awkward and not very feminine, as Jo is, and adorably simple and childish as I always thought Jo was from the novels. I was very close in picking Jo from the 1994 adaptation, except I feel Ryder is way too beautiful at that age to be Jo. Not that Ronan isn’t beautiful, she is, but it’s not a conventional Hollywood beauty in how they did her up. She looks different than everyone else and I can see how her sister would think her one beauty was her hair.
Best Meg March
How could I not pick Hermione!? (I mean, Emma Watson) Though she does look a little younger than I picture Meg, when you think about it Meg is only 16 when the novel begins and 23 in the second part. Emma Watson definitely can work both those ages, even though women on those times had to behave much older than they were. I think she did a wonderful job of loving the luxuries of life while also choosing a life of poverty for love. She’s a great actress and brought Meg March to life in a believable way.
Best Beth March
PBS’s Annes Elwy was the most believable Beth for me. There was an innocence about her, but still made sense that she was raised in the same house as the other girls. A lot of the adaptations tend to make Beth such a huge contrast to her sisters to point out her sickness that I have a hard time believing she really is part of the family. I loved the scenes in the first episode where she’s running around in the snow, playing with her sisters and Laurie. I love the actress from the 2019 adaptation and she did a good job, but Annes was my favorite. All those freckles!
Best Amy March
I feel like Amy has to be broken up into two categories because she goes through the most growth and change physically in the story. To go from 12 to 19 is a huge change! The best twelve-year-old Amy is undoubtedly Kirsten Dunst.
I think she is the only Amy March to be played by an actual child and not a grown woman pretending to be a child. I read that in the 1933 version, Joan Bennet who played Amy was 23 and pregnant, though she hid that fact during production. Kirsten did a good job of being vain and misusing her words and being unmistakably twelve.
The best older Amy March would have to be the 2019’s version played by Florence Pugh.
I just think she did a fantastic job of capturing a young woman who thinks she wants to be this great painter only to be disappointed in finding there are many better than her. She’s feminine but also has a strong mind. Amy has always struck me as a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t ashamed of it, and Florence really brought that to life.
Best Marmee (Mrs. March)
Laura Dern was my favorite Marmee. Susan Sarandon was a close second, but I feel Laura did a better job of bringing a fun-loving warmth to the role that seems lacking in all others. Susan Sarandon did a great job of being a strong-minded free thinking Marmee with her complaints of women’s schools and corsets. When you think about the March girls, this is how I picture their mother being to have them turn out the way they did. She strong, hard-working, sticks to her beliefs and values, imparts wisdom to her children, allows her girls to walk out their lives while being there for advice. She’s a real human being and not some matriarchal head of the family, always stern and working. This Marmee also has fun and appreciates each and every one of her girls and how different they are from each other in their own ways.
Best Laurie Lawrence
Forever more I will picture Laurie as Timothee Chalamet. He was perfect. He has a boyish face and innocence about him in the role that’s accurate to his age. He’s funny and fun but also has a wonderful brooding side, which is very much like the character from the book. The PBS Laurie, played by Jonah Hauer-King, was a close second, only because again I feel he wasn’t a grown man trying to play a boy. He was someone who had the look of being on the cusp of adulthood but not quite there, just as Laurie always seemed to be. And the chemistry between him and the girls was something that can’t be faked, no matter how good an actor. The scene where he proposes to Jo and the back and forth between Timothee and Saoirse was amazing. They really brought that relationship to life for me and made me see it so clearly. Is anyone else in love with the character Laurie? No? Just me?
Best Aunt March
Meryl Streep, of course. Were there other choices? She did a great job of looking the part of older, stern, harsh, great aunt March, but I also loved that she wasn’t afraid to bring a little warmth to the role as well, which is usually sorely lacking. Not that there’s much warmth to the character in the book with her stinging words, but Aunt March is always around and does do a lot for the girls and her nephew that there has to be some tenderness and love there, so it’s only natural it would be shown occasionally. The only thing missing from this Aunt March that the PBS Aunt March did better was the obnoxious parrot. I love that parrot!
Best Mr. Laurence
True to the book’s description of the old man, I think Michael Gambon (AKA Dumbledore) did the best job representing this complicated character. As much as I like the softness of Mr. Laurence in the 2019 film, I feel he was maybe a little too soft for the role, and not gruff looking enough. Mr. Laurence, at first, is described as stern and not that handsome. Not to say Mr. Gambon is not a handsome older gentleman, but he was done up right to fit this role.
Best Mr. Brooke
James Norton is the only Mr. Brooke without a mustache I believe and for that reason I love him more than the rest. Personal preference, I know, but there is reasoning behind it too. I feel the mustached Mr. Brookes look at least a decade or older than Meg, and not like a young man who would fall in love with a seventeen year old girl across the street. I know Mr. Brooke has to at least be out of college, so he’s probably in his mid-twenties, older than Meg, but he shouldn’t look thirties or forties. In the book he is only a few years older than the fifteen year old Laurie it says. Take that as what age you think, but I don’t believe he’d be a mustachioed fella.
Best Father (Mr. March) Official Tie!
This one really is a tie for me. I love both the PBS Mr. March and the 2019 Mr. March! The 2019 adaptation makes him a fun-loving and warm father, which I believe he would have to be to raise girls like the Marches. But I also like the PBS Mr. March because he is a little eccentric, loving, hard working around the house when he comes home, sweet to his girls, and I liked that he also had the secret that he’s been writing his own novel for twenty years and hasn’t published yet because it’s not ready. This made him able to relate to Jo more and give her some sound advice.
Best Professor Bhaer
Once again, I think the 2019 adaptation got it right. He doesn’t seem decades older than Jo, making their friendship and romance weird, but he does seem older and wiser because of his travels and what he has seen in his life instead of from age.
Best Hummels
This I based on which one made me cry the most and I would have to say that was the PBS adaptation. It really brought to life the horrible conditions that family lived in and how sad it was when the children started dying from the scarlet fever.
The Best Orchard House
The top left house is the original Orchard House that Louisa May Alcott lived in. When her family moved in during the mid-1800s, the house was already about 200 years old! Now it is a living museum people can tour and hear about her life. The top right is the Orchard House recreation for the 2019 adaptation, rebuilt almost perfectly to look like the original since the original was too constraining for crew. Below that is the 1994 adaptation’s Orchard House and I believe it looks very close to the original house as well, though I do believe the 2019 and 1994 adaptations don’t make the house look as old as it was then. The original, when you look at old 1800s photos, looks worn and weathered. The last picture is the PBS Orchard House. The colors are wrong (but who knows? May have been right for the time?) But it definitely got the worn and weathered look it should have. I can’t choose. I love them all!
The Best Costumes
I love the historical costumes of Little Women! Especially the winter scenes where they’re all bundled up. I think my favorite would have to be the 2019 adaptation, though the PBS ran a close second, thanks to Jo’s little weird winter hat (haha!) I love to knit so seeing all the knitted shawls of the 2019 adaptation gave me much inspiration to make some of my own. I love the cloaks and layers of their winter wear as well. So mismatched and colorful, as I always pictured the March sisters. I did learn something fun, that in the 1993 adaptation, the basket that Beth carries around is the same one that Dorothy carries around in the Wizard of Oz!
Best Scenery
It’s a three way tie for me! Nothing beats the beautifully painted stage like scenery of the 1949 adaptation, with its perfectly falling snow and vibrant colors. The PBS adaptation caught some really great cloudy winter days that brought the cold to life, and it worked perfectly with the coloring of the house. It was beautifully shot, better than I had ever expected from PBS. But I also love the 2019 adaptation, with its sprawling fall leaves on the hill. I also love how the past memories are filmed with a warm tint and the present day (seven years later) is filmed with a blueish, colder tint. Since this version bounced around instead of going in a straight timeline this helped to discern if it was the past or present we were watching.
Best Overall Adaptation
For me it is a tie between the 2019 adaptation and the PBS adaptation. I feel the 2019 one is the most like the book, although with only two hours to work with a lot of the books little scenes are cut, where with the PBS having three hours they could do a little more. Even with those three hours they chose to add scenes most adaptations didn’t, like when the group goes out on the lake and Teddy’s female friend snubs Meg. But then they didn’t put in scenes that are best known in Little Women like the childhood dramas the girls put on and their Pickwick Society meetings, and having Amy go to Europe with an aunt other than aunt March and never being connected to Fred Vaughn. The truest adaptation is the 2019 one, but I loved the PBS as well. It’s funny watching the older versions and seeing what they changed to fit their time and to fit their time constraints. I love the 1994 version for the pure nostalgia of when I was young and used to watch it all the time, it reminds me of my own Christmas times when we used to watch it.
Little Women Reimagined
A lot don’t know this but there are actually four books in the Little Women series. I have only read Little Women part 1 and 2, but I think I will read the rest this year. I also just found out that Little Women is public domain now, just recently in the last few years, so there are new novels, obviously not written by Louisa May Alcott that reimagine the March family and their story. The most recent one follows the character of Marmee. I’m excited to get this one and read it! It came out in October and I am really surprised I have seen no news about it anywhere. And in September of 2021 a Little Women came out titled So Many Beginnings where the March family is reimagined as a Black family. I also found a books entitled Jo & Laurie, which stinks because as I was finding these and realizing Little Women was public domain for spinoffs I thought of writing a reimagining where Jo and Laurie do get together, but looks like it’s already been done. This is a self-published books by Taylor Claremont. To be clear, I have not read any of these reimaginings, though I do plan to, and who knows. Maybe I will still write my Jo & Laurie story as I see it someday. Upon further research, I found another version of a Jo & Laurie books by two authors, Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz. I’ve got to read these! And I think I DO need to start reimagining my Jo story, before we become inundated with Little Women retellings. Be on the lookout for one coming to my collections next year, I’ll say Winter of 2023!
I know this is probably an unpopular view, and I don’t know why it is, but I find when I read Tolkien my mind loves to wander. I love his stories, I love his characters, I love the movies based off his books, but I lose focus when reading his books. It took me a while to figure it out but I believe it’s because there is little dialogue compared to description of adventure. I think I’m a reader who thrives off character interaction, and sometimes I would read two whole chapters in The Hobbit where there was only a line or two of dialogue.
That said, Tolkien has created an incomparable world and characters to live in it, as we all know. I love the hobbits, the elves, the dwarves, and even the men and goblins. It’s all so rich and vast. Reading the book compared to the movie, I got a little more insight into the races and what is thought of them by other races, how they interact with each other. The adventure in this book was well represented in the movie.
I thought it was unique and fun that Tolkien made Smaug a talking dragon, and there was even an entire chapter told from Smaug’s point of view where we got to get inside his head to see what he thought about the dwarves and their hobbit trying to steal his gold. It was all very interesting. The language was easy to read for being an older book, first published in 1937. I can see why it’s a timeless classic. There is nothing to give away its age inside. It’s just a great story of dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit journeying across their vast land for a mission to sleigh a dragon and reclaim dwarf treasure.
This was a big book that blended magic and Salem history beautifully! I am happy I chose it for my Halloween read this year. It’s a story of many things; witches and suffragettes, love and evil, motherhood and sisterhood. So many themes run through this well-thought out novel that it kept the pages turning furiously for me.
The story is about three Eastwood sisters. One by one they left their farm to head out into the world, not of their own choice but because their father was a cruel man. The youngest finally gets away only by killing him and going on the run as a fugitive. The three all converge years later in Salem, Massachusetts in 1893. Though the story is mostly about witches and their persecution, there is also a side story of women fighting for their right to vote and more. The oldest sister is a serious librarian with a dangerous secret, the middle is a factory worker trying her best to hide the fact that she’s pregnant, and the youngest is a wild and rebellious spirit with a chip on her shoulder. Together, they awaken the mystery of Avalon and bring back its magic in the form of an otherworldly tower holding all the written magic of time. Of course, there’s a bad guy to contend with and some twists and turns I wasn’t expecting.
If you’re a supporter of the gay, transgender, and black lives movements there are side stories of secondary characters that give life to these themes as well. The Eastwood sisters were truly ahead of their time.
Harrow’s writing was beautiful. She does a great job of writing in a way that is almost poetic, with fantastic use of vocabulary and sentence structure. Nothing was oddly worded. Everything flowed together so beautifully that it was easy to keep reading well past my bedtime.
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