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A Jane Austen Re-read: Persuasion
Hello, I’ll be back in the next few days with a few other things, but today, I bring you the last of Jane Austen’s books, Persuasion. This short and sweet book is a great one, and I have been looking forward to it! There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book Persuasion is the story of 27 year old Anne Elliot, the second daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, a spendthrift landowner who ends up having to relocate to Bath to reduce expenses. Anne is sensible, quiet and reasonable,…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Northanger Abbey
Hello! Another week in quarantine, another Jane Austen marathon down. This week, I have been hoping for spring to come, and trying to stay upbeat despite some dreary weather. I’m working on what comes next on this blog, because I have one of these books left, so let me know if there is anything you want to see! Next week, we are wrapping up this series with Persuasion, which is both short and one of my favorites, so I am looking forward to it! There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Emma
Hello everyone, The fact that Emma is so popular means that it took me an extra week just to make it through the sheer volume of Emma’s many adaptations, and I didn’t even get to them all – however, I am here now, and I have to tell you that you are in for a treat! I approached this book with some dread because when I first read Emma, I did not like it all that much. I thought Emma was annoying, and the central relationship between Harriet and Emma was grating, and many of the characters felt a little more one-sided than in some of her other books. I…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Mansfield Park
I promise I’ll have more to write about than Austen here at some point soon, especially as I am temporarily out of work due to events out of my control. In the meantime, I do promise that Austen is worth re-reading! Why not pick up Pride and Prejudice, and start reading along with me? The next book I will be reading is Emma, which is probably the second most popular Austen book, and is a very different flavor from Mansfield Park. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Sense and Sensibility
Well, since I last wrote, we have entered a very different world! And what better time to explore the classics? They are available free online, you don’t need to leave your house, and after you read the book you can watch hours of Regency movies in all your free time. The next book in this series will be Mansfield Park, the story of poor relation Fanny Price who is taken in by her rich cousins. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book This installment, I read Sense…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Pride and Prejudice
Moving forward, I will be doing these books in order of publication, with Austen’s first book, Sense and Sensibility coming next. However, since it has the most movie adaptations ever, and since it is by far Austen’s best known work, I started here. There are spoilers below. If you haven’t already read this book or watched one of the movies, this post likely isn’t going to make much sense anyway. Rereading The Book I had so much fun revisiting the world of Longbourn and Elizabeth Bennett. Austen’s books are the frameworks for much romantic fiction to come, but they are also so much more, and their depth and complexity is…
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A Jane Austen Re-read: Introduction
Pretty much every year, I end up rereading a series of classics from my childhood. This usually happens when I hit my first “reading block” of the year, and I always love getting to fall into old, comfortable stories! This year, I treated myself and bought a beautiful set of Jane Austen’s books to reread, especially since I realized that while I have read them all throughout the years, I didn’t actually OWN any of them. This is a fun reread for me because I read all of Austen’s works at such different ages that they hold very different places in my mind and heart, and I am excited to…
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My Best Reads of 2020: Classics, Science Fiction and Plenty of Tears
So in honor of a particularly unlucky year (and because I read too many books to narrow the list further), below are my top 13 books of the year. I read a LOT this year, but these are the books that managed to capture my attention and interest in what was an otherwise pretty insane year. This is an eclectic mix, including books about places from Egypt to Montana, classics, historical fiction, memoirs, and soaring science fiction and fantasy that takes you back in time to Troy and to distant planets filled with life. The one thing that surprised me is that while I did a lot of comfort reading…
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Announcing: The Miss Marple Reread
Hello everyone, For the last couple of years, I have started every year by treating myself to a special edition of something and rereading a classic. Two years ago, I reread all of the Anne of Green Gables series (you can read my final thoughts on that HERE), and last year, I reread all of Jane Austen’s books from a really beautiful boxed set. This year, I am reading Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books! With everything that has happened in 2020, I have found murder mysteries to be weirdly satisfying, and no one is better at weaving entertaining mysteries than the wonderful Agatha Christie. I also found a set of…
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Weekend Joys, Books and More: December 11th
Hello everyone, The holiday season continues! Hanukkah started this week, and we are looking forward to actually getting some snow this weekend. In honor of snow and Hanukkah, here are 5 things to start your weekend off right: 1.) This is really for kids, but if you have kids in your life, this is a great Christmas/Hanukkah hybrid story 2.) Book Riot has a wonderful list of book-adjacent gifts for the book lovers in your life who already have enough books 3.) Have you heard of #Emojireads? If that isn’t your cup of tea, you may still like these modern classic retellings. 4.) Look at this beautiful and interesting project.…
because stories are important
