Little Women has been the next book that I have re-visited during my commuting podcasts.  Since the free podcasts must be written prior to 1923 to avoid copyright issues, the books available are classics.  This recording was challenging to listen to as there were different readers for most of the chapters.

Little Women is the coming of age story of a family of 4 girls who are living with their mother while their father is away during the Civil War.  The sisters:  Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy make the best of difficult times supporting each other, helping their mother and making their own fun.  They befriend their neighbour Laurie and his grandfather.

Each girl has their own unique personality:  the responsible Meg, tomboyish Jo, gentle Beth and impetuous Amy.  They all have lessons to learn and know that what is really important is family.  As the girls grow up, the little family deals with sickness, death, love, marriage and babies while supporting each other.

It was interesting to revisit this classic story but I think that I would have enjoyed reading the book better.  The enjoyment of podcasts is very dependent on the reader and it a few of the readers for Little Women were very challenging to listen to.  After finishing the podcast, it was interesting to learn that the book had originally been published in two volumes and was followed by 3 related stories:  Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys.  This classic tale is an interesting story of the life of girls when they did not have the options of today.