This is one of my absolute favorite books and I will be offering it up as my first book ring soon

Getting ready to send Jane off on a bookring journey. I look forward to hearing reports back on her travels. If there is a problem with the order or something comes up and you need to change your place in the line, etc, please contact me, or better yet, bookczuk, who is helping me on this ring.

Here's the order:

jennyscott
lucybrown
Rappody
quinnsmom
goygirrl
janeaustenjr
songbook
leanne347
Ilios
bookczuk

Just got this in the mail, first in a bookring, will start soon. I must say that it came in a very nice package. I have got to get back to using stamps because they really add an extra touch. Thanks Bumma/bookczuk.

4-20-2004---Started this today. Will journal when finished.

5-3-2004---I really enjoyed this satirical view of British society. The characters were vivid and appealing in their funny ways. I'll be passing this on to lucybrown ASAP.

Received from jennyscott

I enjoyed the chance to read again this delightful
book. The wonderfully balanced humor and the
beautiful juxtapositioning of the two very
different sisters are the chief beauties here.
One gets a strong sense of the 18th century
sensiblities in which young Jane was tutored
and of the ever-burgeoning evangelical movement.

The picture is a print of a watercolour of
Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen. She painted
the picture in 1802.

Released on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

to Rappody in MS

Sorry for not writting a journal page when I first got this book. I am ready to send it out now and will as soon as I get the PM from the next reader.

I just received this today -- thanks !! I'll read it and let it continue on its journey.

Well, nothing like holding this book up in the ring! How stupid of me! I took it on vacation mid-August, read it, brought it home & put it on the shelves with the other books I brought. Lucky for me I am having a bookshelf crisis, so I was going through looking for books to release & found this one. Oops! My total apologies to everyone.

And now...having dispensed with the public display of embarrassment, here's what I think of this book: I absolutely love this story. I have read all of the Jane Austen novels & in this one, I love watching the dynamics between the two sisters. At times each just doesn't get the other, yet they never lose the sense that each one needs the other in time of crisis. And as always, I absolutely love the setting & tone of these novels.

Just for fun information and a reading tip: I read a review where someone complained about how Austen sets her characters in depressing situations but at the end everyone turns out happy and all's well. You might wish to try Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, which is a takeoff on this reviewer's point...you will totally recognize Jane Austen in this book.

And now, tail between my legs, I will pass it on to goygrrl.

Received in the mail last week. Have one ahead of it to read. Thanks

11/29 - This was my first Jane, and I was always wondering what the fuss was about. Honestly, this was slow going for the first 3rd until we get to the first big plot twist, and then I was hooked on the story. The best thing I did was to save the introduction for last, as it lent a lot of insight into the themes that are not always clear on the first readthrough. I really ended up enjoying the book and going to it every night feeling like I was dishing with my girfriends or watching Gilmore Girls (a show you should be watching if you like Jane). What was sobering was the appalling system that victimized women so. If it was this way in the upper classes, one can only imagine what it was like for the less fortunate.
I'm a fan of the Russians, and it occured to me that if this were a Russian story, one of the girls would have thrown herself under a train, and I like that kind of thing. Still, I'm now officially a Janiac and will be reading the whole lot eventully, especially now that we've got furniture in the library and have cranked up the fireplace.
Sent off to janeaustenjr today. Enjoy!

It's always a joy to read Austen, even if for the second or third time. Sense and Sensibility is a favorite--the mutual affection of the Dashwood ladies is irresistable, and Austen's social laser beam is never more accurately trained on such deserving ninnies than in this novel. Although the odious Mr. Collins in P&P is the ninny I love most to hate, Mrs. Jennings is the ninny I most love, and am always happy to see her redeemed in Marianne's esteem.

Am now passing this along to the next member of this Book Ring, Leanne347.

Whoops! I'm sending this to Songbird (or was it Song Book?)instead of leanne347--the order posted here rather than on the bookmark. Sorry I forgot to post when I received it, but thanks for sending it goygirrl! (What a breach of protocol, and after reading Austen, I'm especially sensitive to it.)

This copy of the book has been lost, but janeaustenjr was kind enough to send me another copy. I asked my daughter to contact the remaining members of this ring and see if they were still interested. Luckily for me, they declined. The new copy of the book has been shared with several family members. We read this together (out loud) when I was recovering. Plus bookczuk got me a copy of P&P (the Colin Firth in the white shirt in the pond version) for my 87th birthday. It was a very Jane Austen month.

Thank you all for participating in my first bookring. And thank you again janeaustenjr for the copy that now resides on my shelf.