Tag: Jane Austen

Posted on

Modern Persuasion

Modern Persuasion by Sara Marks (21st Century Austen #1)

📚Summary

Emma Shaw is a modern woman with a classic problem. Eight years ago, Emma put her career and family above her own needs. She’s cut out the man she loves, is exhausted from carrying the emotional load for her family, and her dream career as an editor is on the brink of disaster. 

Now she has to face the man she gave up eight years ago in order to keep her career. When her ex’s book launch is in crisis, her bosses coerce Emma to step in to save it even if that’s no longer her job. Forced to spend a month on the road, Emma has too much time to think about her regrets but also discover new opportunities to make the life she thought she would have, including a second chance with Fredrick. If she can run her life as well as she runs this book tour, she can save her career, be with the man she loves, and maybe tell her family where to stick it.

✍️My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. I had read another book in this series last year but only recently realized the author had done more Austen retellings. I especially loved how this version was set in the publishing world with the FMC being an editor. I did find it ironic that a book set in that industry would have several grammatical errors in it, but I was able to ignore them because of how much I was enjoying the story.

I do wish she hadn’t changed the FMC’s name from Anne to Emma, especially when she kept the MMC’s name as Fredrick. I like the name Anne and found it confusing given that there is already an Emma in Austen’s work. I also thought the writing Fredrick shares with Emma at the end was way too long and detailed. I did like the Louisa character and appreciated how her story was handled, and I loved that Mrs. Smith was included in the book.

All in all, this was a very fun story, and I plan to read more from the series.

Posted on

What I Read This Week – July 12th

I finished 3 books this week. It could have been 4, but I kept jumping between 2 different books, so they are both half-finished.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #3

I really enjoyed this one. I felt it had more similarities to Austen than the previous book in the series did, and I loved getting into Yash’s story. I am looking forward to book 4.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland – Lost for Words #1

I actually read the second book in the series before I was aware this one existed, but I don’t think I lost too much by reading them out of order. This book centers on Loveday, who is in the second book but not the main focus. She has had a lot of sadness in her life and the book shows how she struggles to overcome it, flipping back and forth between the past and the present. It has some heavy themes, especially of domestic violence.

⭐⭐⭐💫

Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand – Paradise #1

Hilderbrand’s books are usually a quick read for me, and this was no exception – I read it in one sitting the other afternoon. I enjoyed this story of a woman whose husband dies but turns out to have had many secrets. It was a fun story, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Posted on

What I Read This Week – June 21st

I finished three books this week, two fiction and one nonfiction.

⭐⭐⭐/5
Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #2

I was really looking forward to this after reading the first book in the series, which is based on Pride & Prejudice. This one is based on Persuasion, which is my favorite Austen book, but I had trouble connecting it to that novel. Yes, there is the second-chance romance between Ashna and Rico, but there is also an equally prominent storyline of the troubled relationship between Ashna and her mother. There are a lot of good topics explored in this book, but some of them are quite heavy and I also would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn’t looking for the Austen connection while I was reading.

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Lindz McLeod – Austentatious #1

As you can tell from my first book this week, I am a sucker for an Austen spinoff, and this was an enjoyable entry in that category. I liked the colorful characters and found the queer romantic storyline a lot of fun!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has questions about the American evangelical church’s views on same-sex relationships. It takes a lot of courage to examine beliefs that you have been fed all of your life, and Vines shows how he and his dad wrestled with this topic and found freedom on the other side.

Posted on

Pride & Prejudice Map

Pride & Prejudice Map is a 500-piece puzzle from Pippi Post, and the artist is Alexa Zurcher. This puzzle was so delightful! I am a big P&P fan and grabbed this one as soon as I could. (I also got the Little House on the Prairie Map.)

The image is totally enchanting, with the cute buildings and other fun details. If you look closely, you will see that the border is made up of quotes from the book.

I was also impressed with the quality. There was no puzzle dust and no false fits. I’m sure I will do this puzzle again and again!

Posted on

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors

Being a big fan of Jane Austen and always willing to give an adaptation of her work a try, I was excited to come across The Rajes series by Sonali Dev.  There are currently four books in the series, which conveniently cover the four Austen books I am most fond of.  I was able to get the first one from the library recently and read it over the last week of last year.  I have to say this was one of the best adaptations of Pride and Prejudice I have ever read.

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors tells the story of Dr. Trisha Raje, a San Francisco neurosurgeon from a successful Indian American family.  She is at the top of her game professionally but has had a strained relationship with certain members of her family following something that happened while she was in college.  At a dinner for her brother, who has political aspirations, she meets DJ Caine, an up-and-coming chef who has left a position at a top restaurant to help his sister Emma, who is in San Francisco for surgery with none other than Dr. Raje.

Their first meeting does not go well, of course.  The rest of the book is a masterful exposition of how their relationship develops, despite their continued clashes and misunderstandings, against the backdrop of high-stakes medicine and sumptuous food.  We also get an intimate view of the dynamics in both families.

I enjoyed this book greatly and am looking forward to the next one in the series, Recipe for Persuasion.

Posted on

Ranking Jane Austen

This may be a controversial post, but this is how I would rank Jane Austen’s novels.

  1. Persuasion – While Pride and Prejudice is many readers’ favorite book and I do love it, I love Persuasion even more. Something about Anne Elliot’s relatable character and her second-chance romance with Frederick Wentworth just resonates with my soul.
  2. Pride and Prejudice – There is so much to love about this book. It is just a wonderful story all around; it is witty and timeless and has such amazing characters. I mean, who wouldn’t love Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy?
  3. Sense and Sensibility – I love the juxtaposition of Elinor and Marianne’s personalities, as well as the ups and downs of their romantic lives.
  4. Emma – I don’t relate as well to Emma as to the main characters in the top three books, but I do appreciate this novel and Emma’s journey to becoming more self-aware and grown-up.
  5. Mansfield Park – I don’t have any specific reasons for putting this in fifth place.  It just didn’t draw me in and make me care about the characters very much.
  6. Northanger Abbey – Perhaps I need to re-read this one, as I don’t remember much about it other than I didn’t enjoy it.

Do you agree or would you rank them differently?

Posted on

Jane Austen’s Book Club

Jane Austen’s Book Club is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeboo. I got it from Ollie’s (a local bargain store) for only $4.99! They had a pretty good selection of puzzles and even had two that I had already purchased. Too bad I hadn’t gone there first as they would have been cheaper.

This was a bit harder of a puzzle due to the amount of detail in it. I didn’t find it frustrating at all; I was able to keep working through it section by section. I like the distinct qualities of eeboo puzzles, with the glossy pieces that are small but not too small and the square shape of the finished puzzle.

I would have loved to be a part of this book club, as it appears to include Jane herself as a member. It would have been fascinating to talk about books with her!

Posted on

The World of Jane Austen

My most recent puzzle was The World of Jane Austen from Laurence King Publishing. It was a 1000-piece puzzle featuring many of the buildings and people from Austen’s novels. The artist was Barry Falls.

This was a very difficult puzzle to do. It was hard from the beginning to the end. Part of that was because all the pieces were the same shape – 2 in and 2 out – and they had an extremely loose fit. The fit made it impossible to pick up sections and move them around. Anytime I wanted to move a section, I had to do it 2 pieces at a time. I also had a fair number of false fits, probably due to both the loose fit and the similar shapes.

Another thing that made this puzzle difficult was the image. It was so dense with details that it was hard to find the pieces you were looking for. It took several sessions of intense puzzling to get it finished. I am glad I stuck with it though because I am very happy with the finished product.

Here is the completed puzzle:

And here are some detail shots:

Another thing I wanted to share is my new puzzle mat that I used for the first time with this puzzle. It is big enough to hold a 1500-piece puzzle, and it has a felt backing. It also has a cover that I can place over the puzzle with stretchy pieces that fit over the four corners. This worked great to protect the puzzle when I had to leave my dog alone in the house. It’s so nice to find a solution to that problem!

Here’s a picture of a corner of the mat showing what the cover looks like:

My next puzzle is going to be a super fun and easy one, so stay tuned!

Posted on

The Sewing Box

It’s been a few weeks since I did my last puzzle, but last weekend I did a new one called The Sewing Box. It was a 500 piece puzzle from Springbok, and the artist was Polly McMillan. I started it by myself one night. The border came together pretty easily with just one piece missing, and I was able to put together parts of several of the sections from the sewing box as well.

The following evening my friend Renee came to visit, and we ended up finishing the puzzle that night. It was a lot of fun working on it with another person. The puzzle was harder than I thought it would be but was still very doable. The puzzle piece shapes were pretty wild, with lots of unique shapes. That actually helped on some of the sections that were difficult to do.

Here’s a picture of the finished puzzle:

Not only did Renee help me finish this puzzle, but she also gave me a new puzzle for a birthday gift. It’s one that was on my wish list, so I was very excited to get it. The new puzzle is The World of Jane Austen, a 1000-piece puzzle by Laurence King Publishing.

I love Jane Austen and am really excited to tackle this puzzle!

Posted on

Jane Austen (Author Spotlight)

Another of my all-time favorite writers is Jane Austen. I tend to be the kind of person who perversely avoids things that everyone is raving about, but in this case, I don’t mind being part of the crowd of admirers. Here is a list of her books with their publication date:

She also had two unfinished works, The Watsons and Sanditon (included with Lady Susan in the book I linked to above). Although Pride and Prejudice is probably her best known book (who doesn’t love Mr. Darcy?), my favorite of her novels is Persuasion. I have always identified with the personality of Anne Elliot and love the way the romance unfolds between her and Frederick Wentworth. I especially enjoyed the 1995 movie version of Persuasion with Amanda Root.

Her novels have been retold and added onto by countless writers and filmmakers over the years with varying amounts of success. I have read (and viewed) lots of these and enjoyed many of them, although sometimes they are overwhelmingly bad.

Do you like Jane Austen? Do you have a favorite novel of hers?