I don’t need to read Jane Austen, since I’ve read most of them more than once, but I’m always happy to oblige!
I’d say pair Pride and Prejudice with Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen Book Club, but that was actually a bit of a disappointment. Personally my favorite Jane Austen is Persuasion. It’s a more grown up story. I also finally learned to like Sense and Sensibility after seeing the movie - (the one with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett and Alan Rickman) - one of the few times I can think of that the movie made me understand a character better than the book had.
On the whole though I’d rather reread Middlemarch if I am going to reread a classic.
I’m reading the third Blake and Avery novel now. It’s all about restaurant/gentleman’s club cooking which is fun.
I may have to give that a try @ignatius though I’m generally happy enough to read the original again and leave it at that. There was a fun spin-off that involved I think people filming a movie version of the book. It was written before cell-phones were ubiquitous and I remember thinking the plot would have been very different if they could just have picked up the phone. One character had a satellite phone of some sort…
@mathmom, I agree with you re Sense and Sensibility. I thought the book was a bit of a slog, but the movie was quite enjoyable.
I also really like Persuasion. Maybe once VeryHappy and Caraid have gotten to know Elizabeth Bennet, they’ll be inspired to move on to Anne Elliot.
As for companion reads, I read Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James a few years ago. It was by no means a masterpiece (and I wasn’t expecting one), but if you’ve already read P & P and feel like spending a little more time with those characters, it’s a fun way to pass a few hours. I thought the BBC mini-series was even more engaging than the book.
Looking at the NY Times notable book list
PACHINKO. By Min Jin Lee. (Grand Central, $27.) This stunning novel chronicling four generations of an ethnic Korean family in Japan is about outsiders and much more. (from NY notable book list)
If we ever want to venture into non-fiction: BORN A CRIME: Stories From a South African Childhood. By Trevor Noah. (Spiegel & Grau, $28.) The host of “The Daily Show” writes about growing up in South Africa under apartheid, and about the country’s rocky transition into the post-apartheid era in the 1990s.
LOOKING FOR “THE STRANGER”: Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary Classic. By Alice Kaplan. (University of Chicago, $26.) Impressive research illuminates the context and history of Camus’s classic novel. (not suggesting we read it, but thought y’all might be interested)
@Mary13: Good choice and thanks for keeping the CC Book Club going. Thanks also to all who take the time to participate. And for those who lurk (me being an ex-lurker) I’m looking forward to your comments - maybe next time?
So what’s on your bedside table that you’ll be reading before you pick up P&P?
I’m reading three books at the moment:
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
*Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway/i - Sara Gran
Artemis - Andy Weir (Weir wrote The Martian. I should finish this one tonight.
So a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, a mystery, and science fiction.
Tomorrow I’m picking up The Infidel Stain - second in the Blake and Avery Mystery series. I’m pleased to see @psychmom likes it.
I’m reading Rules of Civility by Towles. Actually, I’m rereading it. I got all the way through to the end and realized I missed a huge amount, so I’m almost done with the second go-round. It’s very good – not as good as A Gentleman in Moscow, IMO – but very good, nonetheless.
In the kindle *A Circle of Quiet *and the other memoirs by Madeleine L’Engle. I’m feeling like they might be good calming reading for right now.
*Oathbreaker * by Brandon Sanderson - he’s one of the most original of the current crop of fantasy writers, but when both my son and husband think this one could have used some editing or fewer characters, I’m feeling a bit daunted by it. The saving grace is that a character I really liked from the last book is in this one, and also a very funny and intelligent sword makes a reappearance.
And of course I’m finishing up the 3rd Blake and Avery book.
Read- “my life with Bob " -
Will finish “the strangler vine”
Up next - " news of the world” imagining tom Hank’s in the lead role-read he will star in movie
^ We’ll be lurking if and when you have comments! Re podcasts, I get it. My book consumption is way down this year. Since January, I wake up with the New York Times and go to sleep with The Washington Post.
Good luck Midwest67! I finally finished The Strangler Vine, but it took me a while, so I missed the discussion. I wasn’t crazy about it, but like Mary13, I listened on hoopla, and although I usually prefer print, I liked the audiobook much better than print with this one. The problem is, I have a short commute. I agree that the audio version was very good. Not that I enjoyed all the violence, but the violent scenes came across vividly in the audio.
I haven’t read any Austen in years, so it will be fun to revisit Pride and Prejudice.
^ I thought Alex Wyndham even managed to do a good job with the few women’s voices he had to read. There is always a danger of coming across like a Monty Python skit, especially when British accents are involved, but he avoided that pitfall.
I agree on the women’s voices, Mary. Which was helpful because, as others pointed out here, with the exception of Fanny Parkes, the women weren’t very well fleshed-out characters.
Just popping in to say tell kindle users that The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, which has been on our short list a couple of times (courtesy of @ignatius), is Amazon’s Digital Deal of the Day today (12/29) @ $2.99.
I agree that the audio version was very good. Not that I enjoyed all the violence, but the violent scenes came across vividly in the audio.