Perfect Day is a conemporary m/m romance billed as a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. As a romance, it’s very good. As an adaptation of Persuasion, it drops most of the thematic points. I found the book to be enjoyable and comforting even though it didn’t quite succeed for me in the “adaptation of Persuasion” sense. One glorious summer, Joshua and Finn fell madly in love. They intended to be together forever. At the end of … Continue reading Perfect Day by Sally Malcolm →
I have been spending this year giving presentations on, and writing about, Mary Shelley, and when I haven’t been doing that I’ve been giving presentations about Jane Austen. Thus I was thrilled that the book Pride and Prometheus was coming out. I didn’t even read the book description. I just looked at the cover and thought: “This will fix everything.” Frankenstein, the novel by Mary Shelley, does not end well. The estimated body count comes … Continue reading Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel →
I am sorry to inform you, Dear Bitches, that Jane Austen: The Secret Radical is not the stirring tale of an undercover Jane who lives a life of seeming calm while secretly running top secret missions for the abolitionist movement in the dead of night. However, it’s a fascinating nonfiction piece of detective work that points out that in the context of her day, Jane would have come across as a much more politically and … Continue reading Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly →
So I guess it’s officially summer (at least in the U.S.) and I’m not here for it at all. The boob sweat is eternal at this point and all I want is the sweet, chilly embrace of central A/C. Anyone else sharing in my heatwave woes? … In typical “the Smithsonian is awesome news,” they’ve created an interactive map for all of you Jane Austen fans: A look at the houses and towns that shaped … Continue reading Links: Knitting, Mermaids, & Jane Austen →
Jane Austen’s England: Daily Life in the Georgian and Regency Periods is a great resource for fans of Austen who want to know more about daily life in her time. This book is not concerned with the global or political situation in England during Austen’s lifetime except inasmuch as politics affected daily life. Instead, the book starts with how people married and proceeds through childhood, work and leisure, religion, crime, medicine, and death to paint a … Continue reading Jane Austen’s England by Roy and Lesley Adkins →
RECOMMENDED: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is $2.99! This is a Kindle Daily Deal and as of right now, it’s only being price-matched by iBooks. Elyse loved this book and gave it an A:
The Fifth Season is also a relatively quick read. It opens with a cataclysmic disaster and doesn’t slow down its pace. Its characters travel widely. My only word of warning is that the book ends on a massive cliffhanger. Fortunately the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, will be released in August. After finishing this book I’m making desperate grabby hands for the next one.
If you like immersive, action-driven fantasy and if you want a fantasy world that’s not Euro-centric–or if you just love a really, really good story–I cannot recommend The Fifth Season enough.
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Sarah: S&S time! HELLLOOOO scenery pr0n! Redheadedgirl: I used this as an excuse to buy the DVD. Because the fact that I don’t own it is a travesty. Carrie: One thing they added that isn’t in the book is the scene where they leave the big house and Elinor thanks the servants. I thought that was a good change – it spoke so much as to her character and it also helped solidify the idea … Continue reading Smart Bitches Movie Matinee: Sense & Sensibility →
Ready for our July Smart Bitch Movie Matinee pick? I hope so! It’s lovely airplane viewing, unless you’ll cry like I do every time I watch it: we’re going to be discussing Sense and Sensibility, the 1995 adaptation by Emma Thompson. (If you’d like an extra bit of delight, her acceptance speech for her Golden Globe win as screenwriter is just terrific.) We have a lot of adaptations on the list o’ movies (and boy is … Continue reading July Movie Selection: Sense and Sensibility (1995) →
Love & Friendship is a new movie out in select theaters May 13th, which stars Kate Becksinale, Chloe Sevigny, and Stephen Fry. Based on Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, filmmaker Whit Stillman reimagines the story in which Lady Susan achieves vindication. The film is pretty much Carrie bait, given that she adored Jane Austen’s Lady Susan. So if you like Austen adaptations, check out both the Love & Friendship film, as well as the novelization which was published earlier this … Continue reading Giveaway: Love & Friendship Prize Pack →
Welcome back to Romance Wanderlust, where we daydream about actual places as swoon-worthy as those in our novels. This column is pure fantasyland fun – it’s not a review or endorsement of any featured location, most of which I haven’t personally visited. This month, we are (in our heads) visiting Wentworth Woodhouse, an amazing country house (by which we mean massive incredibly giant edifice) located in Yorkshire. Many believe that Jane Austen used this house as her … Continue reading Romance Wanderlust: Wentworth Woodhouse →
The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects is a very entertaining, accessible examination of the lives of the Brontë Siblings (most notably Anne, Emily, and Charlotte). Instead of being a linear biography, the book uses historical objects (for instance, a walking desk, a bracelet, and a dog collar) as entry points into the Brontë’s lives. This means that we get a sense of what the Brontës’ everyday lives might have been like, as well as … Continue reading The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects by Deborah Lutz →
