{"id":40377,"date":"2025-06-02T22:40:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40377"},"modified":"2025-06-02T22:40:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:40:05","slug":"review-of-march-sisters-by-kate-bolick-jenny-zhang-carmen-maria-machado-and-jane-smiley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40377","title":{"rendered":"Review of March Sisters, by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>March Sisters<\/p>\n

On Life, Death, and Little Women<\/em><\/p>\n

by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley<\/p>\n

Library of America, 2019. 182 pages.
\nReview written November 2, 2021, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This book is a collection of four essays by four distinguished authors about Little Women<\/em>. Each author focused on a different one of the March sisters. Kate Bolick wrote \u201cMeg\u2019s Frock Shock\u201d; Jenny Zhang wrote \u201cDoes Genius Burn, Jo?\u201d; Carmen Maria Machado wrote \u201cA Dear and Nothing Else\u201d; and Jane Smiley wrote \u201cI am Your \u2018Prudent Amy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I loved this collection. Mind you, I read Little Women<\/em> enough times in my youth to understand every single reference, no matter how obscure. Every single quote brought recognition. I\u2019ve read a lot about Louisa May Alcott\u2019s family and knew about the originals of each sister as well.<\/p>\n

So for someone well-steeped in everything about Little Women<\/em>, this book was a delight \u2013 delving deeply into psychological ramifications of details in the text, complete with references to the essay authors\u2019 lives as well as references to Louisa May Alcott\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Honestly? I\u2019d never given this much thought to the other sisters \u2013 I was all about Jo. I was fascinated and captivated to think about the lives presented here with adult eyes, and through the lenses of the essayists.<\/p>\n

I must recommend this book to my own sister. (One Christmas the two of us received an entire set of Louisa May Alcott\u2019s books, split between us.) Anyone who has ever read and loved Little Women<\/em>, take note!<\/p>\n

loa.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/march_sisters.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March Sisters On Life, Death, and Little Women by Kate Bolick, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jane Smiley Library of America, 2019. 182 pages. Review written November 2, 2021, from a library book Starred Review This book is a collection of four essays by four distinguished authors about Little Women. Each author focused on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,35,2,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-musings","category-nonfiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40377"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45289,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40377\/revisions\/45289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}