The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler

I was browsing the library and discovered this book. It has two lovely, familiar words in the title: Jane, and Austen. So I decided to read it. And I'm very glad I did.

The novel allows us a glimpse into the lives of six "Austenites" of varying degrees. There's Jocelyn, who breeds dogs and matchmakes and generally controls the world she lives in, the creator of the club. And Sylvia, her best friend currently seperating from her husband of thirty-two years, and her daughter Allegra, adrenaline-addict and lovelorn lesbian. Bernadette is the crazy-kooky one of the bunch, with flyaway grey hair and and refreshing ignorance of time. Prudie is a quiet French teacher, unaware of her own value and desperately seeking something. Last of the all is Grigg, the only male in their group, whose Austen is one the others can't quite grasp, and whose connection with Jocelyn is charged with something.

These six individuals all believe in a different Austen; a dignified Austen and a playful one, an idealist and a pragmatist. Through their takes on Austen's novels and their lives during the year of the club, we are granted a glimpse into humanity and delighted by what we find.

This book? This book, everyone should read.

"There were days when just the sight of fresh, bright acne or badly applied mascara or the raw, infected skin around a brand-new piercing touched Prudie deeply. Most of the students were far more beautiful than they would ever realize." -- Karen Joy Fowler

The Wives of King Henry VIII Jean Plaidy

Ok, I will admit that this isn't a book, but a serries of books. Actually they are several serries of books and they are all amazing. ('The Tudor Queens' is about King Henry's sisters, Margaret and Mary, and there is another serries that I can't remember.)

The book that I just finished is called "The Rose Without a Thorn" and it is about King Henry's fourth wife,Katherine Howard. It's amazing! It goes through the life of Katherine Howard from the time she is a small child, to her death. The whole serries is historically accurate, which makes it so much more amazing. I really love how descriptive the author is. She does a really excelent job of getting all the facts into her novels. It is the sixth book by Jean Plaidy that I have read and I already have two more out of the library. I love how she uses the language that was used at the time, and how every book is done from the point of view of the person that the book is being written about. They are all written in first person. It's great! I think that I like it even more because I have been to a lot of the places that they are talking about. It's nice too that the books aren't little punny books. They're nice and thick and they're taking me a while to get through! It's not difficult reading by any streach but it's deffinantly the first history book that I have found written about people in that time peroid that is written for people my age! I love it.

Highly recomend reading them. (They are also nice to read because if you're like me and you watch the Tudors, then it's easier to see what's going on in the show because you have a bit more background information on the charactors.)