Old classics similar to Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Nothing set after 1950. Just classic girls fiction. Obscure authors, out of print Dime novels and others.
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177 books · 41 voters · list created February 24th, 2014 by Tweety (votes) .
27 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Tweety 2754 books
40 friends
Gemma 242 books
20 friends
Elle 245 books
12 friends
Jacqui 51 books
3 friends
Kayleigh 688 books
5 friends
Dianna 9014 books
81 friends
Sara 5586 books
5 friends
Marieke 7272 books
50 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-42 of 42 (42 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Love this list!


message 2: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Thank you Gemma! It was such fun making it. If you know of any others do add them!


message 3: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Tweety wrote: "Thank you Gemma! It was such fun making it. If you know of any others do add them!"

I'll see if I can find any, but i think most of my favourite books are on your list. I've found quite a few. Thanks for making it!


message 4: by Tweety (new)

Tweety I loved making it, I'm so glad you've found your favorites on it! If you don't find any that okay, I could find anymore myself. :)


message 5: by Elle (new)

Elle I like this list! It has many of my favourite books on it.


message 6: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Which are your favorites?


message 7: by Elle (new)

Elle Well, I LOVE all the books by L.M. Montgomery, and Eight cousins, Rose in bloom, Daddy long legs. That's basically the same as my sister. (Gemma) What are yours?


message 8: by Gemma (last edited Jun 21, 2014 03:39PM) (new)

Gemma Actually, I like little women as well. ( Including the sequels )
I found Rose O'the river, and, An old fashioned girl on your list, tweety, and I want to read them.
Are they good?


message 9: by Tweety (last edited Jun 21, 2014 06:39PM) (new)

Tweety I didn't know you were sisters! Pleased to meet you both.

Gemms, Rose O'the River is good, I can't say that it was my favorite, but it was worth reading. I enjoyed watching the characters learn and grow. I believe it's due for a reread.

I haven't read An Old Fashioned Girl yet, but as soon as I find a copy I'm going to! I have heard such a lot of good about it. :) (and I've never read Jo's Boys, but I do have a copy)

Elle, mine are Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Daddy Long Legs, Seven daughters and A Girl of the Limberlost. Seven Daughters isn't well known or easy to find, but it is so worth the read!


message 10: by Elle (last edited Jun 21, 2014 11:01PM) (new)

Elle Pleased to meet you too! I'll try to find Seven daughters, I hadn't heard of it before.
Do you like L.M. Montgomery's books? L.M. Montgomery is one of my favourite authors.


message 11: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Pleased to meet you too!
Yes, we're sisters, twins actually.

Thanks, I think I'll read Rose O'the river then. And An old fashioned girl, if I can get it.
Seven daughters sounds really good, what is it about?


message 12: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Elle, I do like L.M Montgomery, I've read most of her books but I haven't read all her short stories yet. I'd be hard pressed to pick an absolute favorite of her books, I've enjoyed so many! She's one of my favorite authors also. I hope you can find a copy of Seven Daughters. :)


message 13: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Do let me know what you think of Rose O'the River, Gemma. If you don't mind reading online or on an e-reader you can find a free copy of An Old Fashioned Girl on Openlibrary. (Or Project Gutenburg) I've read a few books that way, it's not the same as paper but it works.

Seven Daughters is a bit of a coming of age story focused on the two oldest daughters of a preacher and his wife. It's very sweet and fairly similar to Louisa May Alcott's style.


message 14: by Elle (new)

Elle I have read quite a lot of her short story collections, I enjoyed them too.
I haven't read the blue castle and was wondering if it is any different from her children's books? Because I heard it was mainly for adults.


message 15: by Tweety (new)

Tweety The Blue Castle is for adults, but its not so very different. There's some swearing, and mention of a fallen woman but I'd be happy to hand it to a twelve year old. I love Blue Castle, it made it to my Forever Favorites shelf. ;)

Which of her short story collections did you like best?


message 16: by Elle (new)

Elle Ok thanks, I think I'll get it then.
It's hard to choose a favourite short story collection, but I think I like Across The Miles, and The Road To Yesterday. :)


message 17: by Tweety (new)

Tweety The Road to Yesterday is good, I haven't read Across the Miles, what is it about?


message 18: by Elle (new)

Elle They are short stories that all have something to do with letters, notes, diaries, or anything on a piece of paper really. Some of the stories are really good, my favourites are The old fellow's letter, At Five O'clock In The Morning, A Millionaire's Proposal, The Growing Up Of Cornelia, and, The Girl And The Photograph. That's a lot, but all of them were good.
Most were quite romantic.

Which, of all her books, did you like best?


message 19: by Tweety (new)

Tweety If I hadn't just ordered a book I would be off in search of Across the Miles, they sound like wonderful stories for me to curl up with. Maybe my library will have a copy…

Can I list a few? They would be Jane of Lantern Hill, The Blue Castle, The Road to Yesterday and Pat of Silver Bush. I don't know if I could pick one.


message 20: by Elle (new)

Elle I have read all of those, except The Blue Castle of course. I love them all!

I know you have read Arabella, by Georgette Heyer, I was wondering if it was good? I've never read a book by Georgette Heyer. :)


message 21: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Aren't they lovely!

Arabella is very good, and comical. I'm not a fan of regencies, but I do like Georgette Heyer. I've read almost all of her books, and Arabella is on of her best regencies. I think it's a good Heyer to start with. It one of my favorite Heyer books. :)


message 22: by Elle (new)

Elle Thanks. :)
Can you recommend any other Georgette Heyer books?


message 23: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Well, I loveThe Convenient Marriage, but some people can't stand the heroine's stutter. The Masqueraders was my first Heyer, and probably my favorite. My other favs are The Toll-Gate, Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle, The Talisman Ring, Cousin Kate, (which I wouldn't start with) and Simon the Coldheart.

If you like dogs you'd probably love Frederica, I did and I'm not a dog lover, but the doggy in this was charming. ;)


message 24: by Gemma (last edited Jun 25, 2014 02:25AM) (new)

Gemma Have you read Freckles?
If you have, what's that, and A girl of a limberlost about?
Are they good?


message 25: by Elle (new)

Elle Thanks, I'll look at all of them. :)


message 26: by Tweety (last edited Jun 25, 2014 05:18AM) (new)

Tweety Gemma wrote: "Have you read Freckles?
If you have, what's that, and A girl of a limberlost about?
Are they good?"


Oh, Gemma! I love those books! Freckles is about an orphan boy who is determined to rise above the feelings of being a child left behind. It is so good. (I cant say more without giving it all away)

A Girl of the Limberlost is the sequel, but its not about Freckles, its about Elnora, who has a mother, but may as well be an orphan. Its a coming of age story, were Elnora finds happiness and contentment, something shes never had before.


message 27: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Thanks, I definitely want to read A girl of the limberlost,
and now I think I'll read Freckles as well.
Have you read any Australian books?


message 28: by Tweety (last edited Jun 25, 2014 02:59PM) (new)

Tweety Only Golden Urchin, which was amazingly good. But I have a few I'd like to read, When the Storm Breaks and Thunderwith, oh and Seven Little Australians.


message 29: by Gemma (last edited Jun 25, 2014 05:29PM) (new)

Gemma They sound good, the only one I've ever heard of is
Seven Little Australians. Elle and I live in Australia.
What country do you live in?


message 30: by Tweety (new)

Tweety I'm in America, North Carolina, but I'm also from England, which is partially why I read so many little known British books. ;)

Do you have any Australian books you'd recommend?


message 31: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Oh, Elle and I are from Canada, though we've lived in Australia
most of our lives.
Well, I haven't read many that I can think of, but I've heard A Picnic At Hanging Rock, is good.
Have you read it?


message 32: by Tweety (new)

Tweety I'm from England but have lived most of my life in America. I haven't read that! I like the title… which of these is it? Picnic at Hanging Rock Picnic At Hanging Rock: A Film


message 33: by Elle (last edited Jun 28, 2014 07:18PM) (new)

Elle There was a book written and then a film, we haven't seen any of them but we would like to. It sounds so interesting! A true story.


message 34: by Tweety (last edited Jun 29, 2014 11:02AM) (new)

Tweety Neat! I'll look out for a copy to read then. True stories are fascinating. After I read it maybe I'll watch it. Thanks Gemma and Elle for telling me about it. :)


message 35: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I replied in my head but forgot to actually type it. :/ Since I love mysteries I bet I'll love that book!


message 36: by Gemma (new)

Gemma Yeah, I think I'll read it too, although I don't usually read mysteries,
except for The Famous Five, and The Secret Seven when I was younger.
But I'm really interested in this book particularly.


message 37: by Tweety (new)

Tweety I enjoyed Secret Seven, have you read the Adventure series by that author?


message 38: by Gemma (new)

Gemma No, I haven't, is it good?


message 40: by Gemma (new)

Gemma They sound good, I've just looked them up.


message 41: by Tweety (new)

Tweety Hope you like them! :)


message 42: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Feb 16, 2017 11:55PM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Tweety wrote: "They are smashing! .."

I still have the complete series in a Dutch translation :-) and reread The Island of Adventure recently for a challenge.

The right order of the books is mentioned on GR, by the way (island, castle, valley, sea, mountain, ship, circus, river). I was given The Circus of Adventure as a birthday present once, and loved it so much that I bought the other parts of the series by and by :-)


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