Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen, Perennials

Day 155 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and young women are still reading Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, because they are perennial favorites.

We go through surges of interest in Austen, at Babbitt's, where I work, that wipes us out temporarily, and then we get some new ones, line them all up on the shelf, put some on the new arrivals cupboard by the door, and put one in the window. Most recently Sense and Sensibility, a new edition in hardcover, was in the window, plucked out by a woman who walked by, and off it went with her.

By coincidence, Julie is following Austen with A Follow Spot today, too! How you can read her in her own hand!

Today a young woman was in the shop with maybe her grandpa, who was helping her look for Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Hard to keep hold of that, too. But, as she had already read Little Women, she was thrilled to find another Alcott, My Girls. I've found the exact red cover, but I'm not finding much about what this particular book is, unless it brings together things from Aunt Jo's Scrapbook, where there is also a title, My Boys. Grandpa gave her money for My Girls, because he had bought her brother comic books down the street. So everybody was happy.

Yes, when it rained, it poured today. And afterward, out came the sun again. Sarah got blooming balsam, something from Emily Dickinson's garden, at the Farmers Market. I got mine there earlier this season, and it is thriving!! Balsam is a perennial by way of delicate seed pods that burst open at a touch. Hence, its familiar name in some circles, Touch-Me-Not!