The Jane Austen Book Club

by Karen Joy Fowler | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0452286530 Global Overview for this book
Registered by book_drunkard of Osgood, Indiana USA on 2/5/2015
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5 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by book_drunkard from Osgood, Indiana USA on Thursday, February 5, 2015
In California's central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens.
With her eye for the frailties of human behavior and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.

Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that,
despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.


Journal Entry 2 by book_drunkard at Osgood, Indiana USA on Saturday, September 28, 2019
Simply an ok book about a group of women who really need to introduce themselves to other authors besides Jane Austen.
Maybe it's just me but I simply can't imagine reading and re-reading the same six books over and over again, no matter how much I adored them.

Journal Entry 3 by book_drunkard at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Friday, November 22, 2019

Released 4 yrs ago (11/22/2019 UTC) at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Released into Ollie1976's Almost Anything Goes Bookbox.

Journal Entry 4 by Chicvolley99 at Denver, Colorado USA on Saturday, November 30, 2019
Received in the Ollie1976's Almost Anything Goes Bookbox

I came across another copy of this book, so I will release this elsewhere.

Journal Entry 5 by Chicvolley99 at Denver, Colorado USA on Saturday, February 15, 2020

Released 4 yrs ago (2/15/2020 UTC) at Denver, Colorado USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:


Journal Entry 6 by winghaahaahaa98wing at Watertown, Massachusetts USA on Friday, March 27, 2020
To be released at local little free library

Journal Entry 7 by winghaahaahaa98wing at USPS in -- BookRing, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Thursday, July 2, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (7/1/2020 UTC) at USPS in -- BookRing, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

To be released as part of hodgepodge bookbox.

Journal Entry 8 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, August 23, 2020
Claiming this one from the Hodgepodge Diminishing bookbox.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I might; while some of the soap-opera who's-going-to-wind-up-with-whom bits didn't enthrall me, I did like most of the characters, and I really liked the different takes they each had on the Austen books under discussion. From the beginning we get the blend of Austen-related and personal snarkiness that makes the book fun: after noting that Pride and Prejudice might be too romantic to inflict on a recently-divorced member of the club, the group decides to start with Emma, because "no one has ever read it and wished to be married"!

There's some fun with book-group procedures, too, especially early on when most of the members take umbrage with sole male member Grigg, giving him nasty looks whenever he dares to criticize Austen (or says much of anything, in fact), while thinking "Why doesn't he notice?" [I was a bit disappointed to find that Grigg wasn't gay - something that surprised some of the book-group members, too - but I found him one of the more sympathetic characters. And I was rolling on the floor at his flashback sequence explaining how his father had hooked him on reading via bug-eyed-monster-type SF novels!]

So much of the story is about reading... Not just the obvious book-club bits, but debates between different characters on what they enjoy reading, on how they go about reading, and some social fibs about having read things they haven't - there are riffs on it all.

There's a delightful bit at the end that's a collection of comments about Austen's work by friends and family, and collected (or so the book claims) by Austen herself - charming and funny. And there are quotes from other authors and critics, not all positive, but many hilarious - that bit might even amuse folks who don't enjoy Austen at all.

[The 2007 film version was pretty good, too! And there's a TV Tropes page on the film and novel, with some entertaining tidbits. ]

Released 3 yrs ago (10/14/2020 UTC) at rest area - Rte. 93 (see release notes for details) in Hooksett, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I plan to leave this book at the northbound-side welcome center, perhaps on top of a gas pump; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 Movie challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***

Journal Entry 10 by wingAnonymousFinderwing at Hooksett, New Hampshire USA on Sunday, October 18, 2020
Found book at gas station in New Hampshire, probably fell out the door and wasn’t noticed. Will be sure to pass on and see what path this book travels and whose hands it ends up in!

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