Austenesque Lovers TBR Pile Reading Challenge 2015 discussion

Marianne says, “The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!”

Post your challenge updates in your own comment. Adding books and their cover links can be accessed by clicking on the 'add book/author' link above the comment box.

Am I the first one here? Right now I am about 1/3 through Jane Austen's England Next up is Jane Austen: Her Life, Her Times, Her Novels

Hi Pamela! You're not alone here! :) I'm reading and I'm loving it!!

Sophia, I LOVE that quote you chose! I'm more like Elinor but I totally agree with Marianne on that! Haha!!

I'm more an Elinor too, Maria, but the quote is fun.

Finished Emma and Elizabeth in the wee hours yesterday. Much like the Ghost of Christmas Future, a review may appear in it's own sweet time. :)

Kirk wrote: "Finished Emma and Elizabeth in the wee hours yesterday. Much like the Ghost of Christmas Future, a review may appear in it's own sweet time. :)"

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Glad it turned out good, Kirk! I know what its like to get twitchy over what an author is going to do with a favorite character.

Here we are not even a week into January and I already finished a book. At this rate I might make it to Anne Elliot! Anyway, I finished . Not great, but not bad here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Haven't decided where I am going next.

Nicely done, Ahnya! A book a week will pass up Anne and head straight on through the levels. Hopefully the next one will be a 'great' for you.

Hello everyone!
January 2 I finished reading "Murder at Mansfield Park".
I liked it but , in my opinion , there is very little of the original book, only the names are the same , while the behavior and relationships are completely different.
But the style was perfect and it was a pleasant reading.

#2 Just Jane by Nancy Moser....I don't remember when or from where this one arrived on my Kindle App. Loved it. Love snarky Jane!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

She really was so witty and I love it when author's capture that in their bios and stories about her. Glad this one was a hit, Kirk! I'll have to check it out.

I just finished my first book of the year! Holidays With Jane--highly recommended if you love Christmas shorts/novellas. You could read it now if you're like me and you think there's never a bad time for Christmas romance (or if you aren't ready to let the season go!) or you could hang onto the title for next December.

Holidays with Jane is getting such lovely comments and reviews that we really need to add it to the recommends section. Glad you loved it, Nancy! And holiday reads totally can be read anytime and all the time in my book.

I just finished my first book, Jane Austen cover to cover,https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2.... it isnt JAFF, but it is a non fiction book about all the different covers and when/ why they were published. i thought it would be a great read to start out the Challenge. i hope that's ok :)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Absolutely, okay! Non-fiction totally counts here. Read whatever you've got related to Jane Austen, her stories or her characters- even just something that has the 'flavor' of Jane Austen. Good start! I've had my eye on that one, Kristine.

I've got some non-fiction on my list too. I have so many reference books; it'll be good to have an excuse/incentive to read them.

Most definitely, Nancy!

This is definitely about getting through our unread shelves and I didn't want to make the challenge too narrow and difficult to achieve that. Unofficial motto- let the challenge work for you and not the other way around. Haha!

Finished . I loved it! If you'd like, you can read my review here.

Right now I'm reading .

Woot, Maria! Way to go.

:D :D

I finished Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star last night. I liked the book. It is definitely not for Austen purists, or prudes. You can see my full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now reading Henry Tilney's Diary

Haha, no, Ahnya, Rockstar isn't for a purist. Oh man, it would short circuit one of them. I got a huge surprise when it was one of the earliest of my Austenesque reads. Glad it worked in a quirky way!

I like to listen to audio books while I jog, and do chores. I found Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict to check out on Overdrive, and gave it a try. I liked the reader (which is very important to me), and the overall premise of the book, but in the end it was just okay. Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Already 3 books in. Woot! Woot! I will probably make the jump to Anne Elliot level soon.

That's cool that you're finding books on Overdrive. I need to check that out. Agreed about the narrators being good. I just listened to one that was distracting from the story. I'll have to check out your thoughts on 'Confessions' I have a paper copy of it for some point. It's gotten several mixed ratings.

*Fist pumping* Woohoo! Three is good. Moving on up.

Finished Henry Tilney's Diary last night. I loved it! Here is the review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I will now be taking a bit of a break from all things Austen, and try to shrink some of my other mountainous TBR piles!

My second book for this challenge was .
I confess I expected something more engaging, but it was an enjoyable read all the same. Here's my review: Jane Austen & the Archangel.

Hi! My first book for the challenge was (The Darcys of Pemberley) by Shannon Winslow.
It is funny, ironic, very well written (sometimes I thought I was reading Jane Austen herself!). The characters are perfect!
I was disappointed only by an event in the end, but in spite of this, I'm eager to read the sequel... of the sequel.

Here is my review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and on my blog: http://iltesorodicarta.blogspot.it/20...

Nicely done, Carmen!

I can't read Italian, but your rating was good so I'm glad to see that scene didn't disappoint too much. I have this one on my list to read.

Sophia wrote: "Nicely done, Carmen!

I can't read Italian, but your rating was good so I'm glad to see that scene didn't disappoint too much. I have this one on my list to read."

Thanks, Sophia.
So, I'll wait your future review to read your thoughts about the book!
(Thanks for stopping by on my blog and leaving a message).

You're welcome, Carmen!

I know I said I was taking a break, but I found a copy of The Importance of Being Emma eAudiobook to check out. I am of mixed feelings. There were parts I liked a lot, and other that I really didn't like. Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I think that is 5 now. However, I don't know if I am meeting the goal of this group. My TBR is growing not shrinking. It is so interesting to see what you all are reading, and thinking.

Elisabetta wrote: "Hello everyone!
January 2 I finished reading "Murder at Mansfield Park".
I liked it but , in my opinion , there is very little of the original book, only the names are the same , while the behavior..."

I agree with you!I finished it last month and I exactly thought the same thing.
"Murder at Mansfield Park" is the first book I read in 2015 for this challenge and I also wrote a review http://www.sololibri.net/Murder-at-Ma...
I gave it 3 stars... I hope my next Austenesque reading will be 4 o 5 stars ;-)

Is that book like Pride and Prejudice and zombies. I started reading it just cuz I luv anything Jane Austen and I was just bored with it and I didnt think Ms Austen would have wrote about zombies either. They certainly aren't proper.

@Gwen
I haven't been very lucky with my second book Revisit Mansfield Park: How Fanny Married Henry , only 2 stars..

Fanny, in this book, is too naive and believes everything that Henry says.. It's so easy persuade her to marry him that I could not believe what I was reading.
I usually like the epistolary style, but here I found trivial letters between Fanny and Henry.
What was supposed to be a romantic love letter, was flat and without feeling.
Furthermore, at that particular historical period, it isn't credible that Sir Bertram has accepted without objection the correspondence between tFanny and Henry.

Goal, made!!!!!!! Up to 7, with adding these 5 books. I think the first two are mixed bag. Some great stuff and some very odd/unpleasant moments. As a member of Team Marianne, I don't approve of how she was written, for the most part. Her last couple of scenes, however, almost made the other stuff worth it. Loved, loved, loved the appearance of Catherine Tilney(nee Morland)

The Daughters of Delaford: A Continuation of "Mrs. Dashwood Returns" and Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility"
Edgerton, Lucia *

Mrs. Dashwood Returns
Edgerton, Lucia *

"Lizzy & Jane" deals with some issues I won't normally read about. Not my usual "small beer", to borrow from Downton's Mrs. Patmore.

Lizzy & Jane
Reay, Katherine *

Not as bad as I feared. "Romance" is also half the length of Mysteries of U!!!! Spoiler plot summary: Heroine is sad, heroine weeps, heroine dusts herself off. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.....

The Romance of the Forest
Radcliffe, Ann

"Mr. Darcy..." So funny and enjoyable!

Mr. Darcy Came to Dinner
Caldwell, Jack *

Neatly done, Kirk!

Oh good about Jack's book. I've got that one to read too. I was hoping it would be a fun one.

Here's what I read this month for the challenge:

my review
my review

I loved them both, Letters from the Heart was romantic and sweet. The Muse was absolutely sexy and engaging! I recommend them! :)

That's great, Maria!

Well done, Kirk! Since you’re reading some 18th-century precursors to JA, I wanted to ask: have you read Frances Burney’s Evelina? Everyone says it’s the best, and it was Jane Austen’s favorite novel. I plowed through a lot of Camilla last year and finally got sick of it, but am thinking of doing Evelina this year.

I didn't have a good reading month In February. I would have thought I'd be reading more since I'm stuck in a chair but it seems not! I will overcome the block next month.

I only read 2 Austenesque books, bringing my total up to 7 this year and progressing me from Caroline Bingley to Marianne.

They were https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My previous reads are on my shelf for this group: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Hello! This month I read two books:

- (Fanny Price slayer of vampire); unfortunately it wasn't for me: I expected a whole new story with some action, while it is a retelling of "Mansfield Park" with some characters as vampires. But I think it could be loved by readers that like this genre;

(my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

- (Mrs Dashwood returns); I liked it very much, it was a surprise! I didn't think Mrs Dashwood could be such a heroine! Plus, we meet some characters from other Jane Austen's novels, such as Sophia Croft (Sophia Croft! I love her!);

(my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

Last, but not the least, I finally updated my group shelf:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I choose Marianne Dashwood level, but my tbr list is worthy of Mr Bennet, groan!

Have a nice weekend! :)

Carmen8094 wrote: "I choose Marianne Dashwood level, but my tbr list is worthy of Mr Bennet, groan! "

I think we can all say that Carmen!

Abigail wrote: "Well done, Kirk! Since you’re reading some 18th-century precursors to JA, I wanted to ask: have you read Frances Burney’s Evelina? Everyone says it’s the best, and it was Jane Austen’s favorite nov..."

Thanks Abigail!!!!!!

Unfortunately, I read Evelina for one Austen book club and soon after Belinda for another Austen book club(I'm a two timing Austen book clubber!). Pre-Goodreads! So, I get them kinda mixed up. Having said that, if I'm remembering it correctly, it's fine in spots. In others, soooo tedious. I can claim very little knowledge(Read: none) of "good writing". I'm about the story only, usually. However, I really appreciated Austen's writing vs Barney. There's a joke in Evelina for what seemed to go on for 40 pgs. It wasn't funny.....methinks Austen would have handled it in 2 pgs....and it would been actually funny. I checked out the reviews of Evelina and this guy's review seems to have my views. He gave a 3....methinks I'd give it 2-2.25(if I could):







*********SPOILERS**********************

Bill Kerwin rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: 18th-c-brit, epistolary

This is a very good 18th century epistolary novel. The prose is precise and elegant, the voices of the various letter writers are well delineated and individualized, and the author makes us admire the heroine and fret over the difficulties which obstruct her happiness. The two lovers—the naive Evelina and the elegant Lord Orville—exhibit sentiment and good sense even in the midst of misunderstandings in a way that looks forward to Austen, and the misunderstandings themselves are both credible and interesting.

The novel is, however, not completely successful. Some of the comic characters—Captain Mirvan and Madame Duval, for example—are so crude in conception and so coarse in their behavior that they appear to have traveled here from a very different novel, making the charming Evelina sometimes look like a Disney princess surrounded by escapees from a Warner Brothers’ Looney Tune. These zanies soon take a back seat, however, and the novel resolves itself in a way that is both harmonious and satisfying.

("Evelina" is clearly within the tradition of the "sentimental" novel. Characters are continually commenting on the delicacy of sensibility that may serve to distinguish the superior person from the ordinary one. It is easy to make fun of this literary fashion, but some of the events in the novel--I'm thinking of the abduction, terrorizing and humiliation of the middle-aged Mme. Duval as a practical joke and the wager of two respectable noblemen on a race between two infirm old ladies--are treated in such a cavalier fashion by even this well-bred young female author that I have become convinced that eighteenth century society desperately needed the sentimental impulse--and its embodiment in popular fiction--as a civilizing force.)

Ah, sometimes we're just not in the mood and have to reach for something else. However, two is good, Ceri, especially when one is the Theo Darcy book which isn't exactly short. Haha!

Kudos to you, Carmen.

I didn't know there was a Fanny Price vampire book. That could be fun.

Oh good, glad you enjoyed Mrs. Dashwood. Very cool that it had a cross over with Persuasion. I liked Frederick's sister a lot in that story.

Ceri wrote: "Carmen8094 wrote: "I choose Marianne Dashwood level, but my tbr list is worthy of Mr Bennet, groan! "

I think we can all say that Carmen!"

Hahah! I think so!! :D

Kirk wrote, “There's a joke in Evelina for what seemed to go on for 40 pgs.”

Exactly my take-away from Camilla! She would say something witty and then feel obliged to explain it to you. Cringeworthy. Whereas JA just drops it in there, and sometimes you don’t notice the joke until your third reading. . . .

Hi!

I read An Assembly Such as This

This book is the first part of Pride and Prejudice, from the point of view of Mr. Darcy.
I liked it but I think that Darcy is a little different from how he was represented in this book...

I love books from Darcy's POV. Glad it was a good one and yes, so hard to get his character precise, I'm sure.