After a couple of hectic days (had to put our old cat down and do some stuff for next semester), it feels good to post something.  Unfortunately, I think the book I'm reviewing deserves more time devoted to thinking it over.  And at the same time, I just want to do this and move on.


It really sucks when you finish a book and the first thing you can think of, regardless even of whether or not you liked it, is "At least I didn't pay money for this." Well, okay, maybe I'm feeling a bit miserly lately, but the point is I was disappointed in the direction this book took.

( It's the first time Iris has ever seen her stepsister look, for just a moment, as if she doesn't mind being beautiful. )

I bought this book because the sequel, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, is out right now.  I decided that I had to read this, partly in order to glean how much I'd like the sequel, and partly because it would help me in my quest to read more Austen-inspired books.


Side note: Even in paperback form, it's $4-$6 more than your average YA novel, some of which are just as long as this.  I wonder why this is? 

( I'm sure wherever the real Jane is, she's just as eager to get back to her own life as I am to mine. So why not just relax in the meantime ...? )

So I've been writing a lot lately, not to mention thinking about the stuff I still need to do for my grad school application, and decided to do a rather easy review today.  This is one of my favorites.


Now, I am not a huge fan of Saturday Night Live, although it has made me laugh again and again (specifically anything Tina Fey has done, and sketches like "The Fast and the Bi-Curious").  But I am an unabashed fan of anything that includes gossip of famous people, and I ate this book up.

( So much of what Saturday Night Live wanted to be, or I wanted it to be when it began, was cool. )

After literally months of putting it off, I was finally bored enough to return to this book.  Willpower!


DISCLAIMER: One of the biggest reasons why it took me so damn long to read it is because my mother actually started reading it (!), got farther along than I had (!!) and had accidentally told me the ending (or at least, her guess at the ending, which turned out to be right).  Major turn-off.  Another turn-off?  The narrator never tells us her name.

( She looked ridiculously sophisicated for a girl in her mid-twenties, but all the Park Avenue Princesses are. )

Just for the hell of it, I decided to post an article I wrote for my college newspaper.  I mean, since I'm on this Austen kick now.


No matter how gross it may be, I think it's a brilliant cover.

 

( It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. )

I just finished reading it today.


Originally, I wanted to go with a cover that had Clark Gable in all his opened-shirt glory, but then I saw this and thought it better reflected what I thought of the book.  Yes, there's a great whirlwind romance between two of the largest personalities to ever grace the pages of any novel, but the Civil War, its aftermath, and the political and cultural atmosphere it created are just as prominent. 

( Read more... all 1,038 pages if you dare. )

This is going to be weird to review, because although I know it's a classic and everything, but it didn't end up being one of my favorites.


However, I am glad I did have to read it for my Brit Survey class (shout-out to Anne Longmuir!)

( Edgar, I was defending you and yours; and I wish Heathcliff may flog you sick, for daring to think such an evil of me! )

Since I have no YA lit to review (currently reading: The Breakup Bible, Bergdorf Blondes, and Prep), I thought I'd dip into my supply of classics.  These include, naturally, all 6 of Jane Austen's novels, but there are one or two others that aren't as well known.  This one, however, deserves as much praise.


Think of it as the Pride and Prejudice of its time.  It was published in 1778, a somewhat different time than the 1810s, in which most of Austen's books were published.  But it deals with many of the same themes.

( Oh sir, shall I ever again involve myself in so foolish an embarrassment? I am sure that if I do, I shall deserve yet greater mortification. )

This was too weird to pass up, or so I thought reading the description.  It's still too weird.  I have no idea how I'm going to review this thing.


This is one of my "grown-up" books (as opposed to YA), and what cinched it for me was a blog describing it as akin to "Pushing Daisies," one of my favorite shows. 

( A-l-l GREAT s-t-o-r-i-e-s contain within themselVEs SOMEthing ... faMiliAr )

First: I love Jane Austen with a passion.  I have read all her books at least once, some of which rank high on my fave books of all time.  She is a brilliant observer and recorder of how people think, act, and relate to each other.  Pride and Prejudice is a favorite with many people.  Her books are adapted and re-adapted into films and miniseries, many of them top-notch. Just about the only aspect of Austen that I've never gotten into is the glorified fanfiction of sequels to her novels, and imaginings of her own quiet but mysterious life.



A few months ago, I totally broke that rule.

( The tale must be told; a tale which will explain all others. )