Once Upon a Bookshelf

I am about 100 pages into this book, and what I have to say is this: I am NOT going any further in this book, and you cannot make me. I have too many other unread books on my shelf that it seems silly to force myself through a book which I am so totally, completely and thoroughly not enjoying.

I know there are SO MANY people out there who love these books. So many! But I can’t do it. With the first one, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I thought it was because I despised Amy. Apparently not as Amy’s not made an appearance yet, and I still dislike it. Sadly, I’m not entirely sure what it is that makes me dislike this one as well. It just seems very … silly to me. Which can’t be right, as there are many other books that I thoroughly enjoyed that are just as silly!

Ah well. Doesn’t really matter. Here’s hoping that I’ll actually enjoy the next book I pick up.

It’s not often I thoroughly enjoy chick lit. I can count the number of times on both hands that I have read a chick lit book and not rolled my eyes every couple of paragraphs, or wanted to throw the book across the room at some point due to the flakiness of the main characters. Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field was one of the few I enjoyed. In fact, I may have enjoyed it so thoroughly that I have gone back and reread my favourite parts numerous times already.

Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field is a modern-day retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Jasmin Field is a journalist, who gets the leading role in a stage production of Pride and Prejudice. The director of the play, one Harry Noble, is the Mr. Darcy not only in the stage production, but in the book as well. And oh, from the moment Jasmin overhears Harry call her the “ugly sister”, you know how things are going to end up turning out.

While this was thoroughly predictable, it was definitely cute, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, does anyone know of a good retelling of Sense and Sensibility? I’m craving a modern-day Col. Brandon.

After a few long days a work, I decided I needed to put aside everything else I was reading and pick up something that was complete fluff. Thank goodness for this book. I got it for Christmas (the only book I received this year), and only because I told my mother it was destiny for me to have it. A book about a woman who is obsessed with Austen’s books and who shares her first name with me? If that isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.

This was such an easy book to get through, and captured my attention from the beginning. Plus, it was a fabulous distraction and completely took my mind off everything I have been stressing out over.

Months before, Courtney Stone walks in on her (now ex) fiance with another woman. One evening when the event is troubling her more than normal, Courtney takes refuge in Jane Austen’s books and Absolut vodka, only to wake up the next morning in Regency England. Trapped in the body of a Jane Mansfield, and unable to tell anyone the truth of what happened under threat of being committed, Courtney must live the life of Jane while trying to figure out how she got there and how to get home.

Of course, Courtney’s life no longer consists of the day-to-day routine she was used to in the 21st century, but now consists of plenty of embroidery, outings with friends, trips to Bath and encounters with one Mr. Edgeworth.

I particularly enjoyed Courtney’s encounter with Jane Austen herself. After overhearing someone address a women in a store as “Miss Austen,” Courtney tears down the street after her, for the chance to meet the author who wrote her favourite books. She fangirls just about as much as I can imagine any number of women fangirling over her if they had the chance to meet Austen.

Oh. My. God. It really is Jane Austen. My knees turn to jelly, and it’s all I can do to keep the tremor out of my voice. “No, but may I introduce myself? I am Jane; I miss, Miss Mansfield, and I could not help but hear the shopkeeper address you, and –”

I can feel her guard go up slightly as she sizes me up. I can see in the glinting sunlight that her large, widely set eyes are more gold than brown. She is waiting for me to speak, offering nothing to ease the awkwardness.

My stomach flutters. “I know this will sound insane, because know that no one is supposed to know, but I am a huge fan of your books.”

This book was good fun. Not my favourite of the people-obsessed-with-Austen type of books I’ve been reading lately, but definitely highly enjoyable.

(Cute little sidenote: as much as I despise MySpace, I love that the heroine of this book, Courtney Stone, happens to have a MySpace account.)

Instead of heading to Mexico with some friends for the winter holidays, Emily Albright signs herself up for a literary tour through England. It sounds positively perfect - “Spend a week with Mr. Darcy. Explore the world of Jane Austen and Pride & Prejudice in the English countryside.” What Emily didn’t expect, however, is that meeting the real Mr. Darcy, especially not when there never is anyone else around.

I didn’t hate the book. I didn’t love it either. In all honesty, I was rather indifferent to it. I didn’t care about 95% of the characters, and the plot dragged a fair bit. All in all, I won’t be reading any more of Potter’s books.

Firstly, the book embodied everything I dislike about the chick lit genre. Flakey characters, unrealistic plot, predictable plot, ad nauseum. (Yes I read fantasy, however, the identity of the tour guide trumps a good majority of the fantastical plots as far as unrealism goes.) Plus, one of the big parts of the story never gets explained - how on earth does Emily and Mr. Darcy meet all the time when not only do they not live in the same time period, but also when Mr. Darcy is a fictional character.

Secondly, as Lisa put it, “The Mr. Darcy in this book is certainly not my Mr. Darcy.” It feels like Potter didn’t do any actually research into Darcy (watching the movies does not count if you haven’t read the book as well), because he is just so . . . not right. I don’t even know how else to explain it.

However, as I said, I did not hate this book. It had some redeeming qualities. Mainly in the form of Mae, a cute, shy, sad Irish woman on the tour. The character growth made me all squishy inside. She becomes such a confident and happy woman by the end of the book that my heart couldn’t help but being touched.

Then there’s also the fact that Mr. Darcy recites poetry to Emily. And while he’s not the Mr. Darcy I love, what woman could ever not find the idea of Darcy reciting her poetry positively entrancing?

With all that said and done, I think this book has cured me of my desire for more books based on Austen’s works. For a while at least. If I were to find something that sounded exciting about Col. Brandon or Henry Crawford, though…

Imagine you could get advice from Jane Austen for every day affairs. Advice on relationships, family, fiscal matters, and the like. That’s the basic idea of this book - women from the 21st century write letters to Austen that are magically transported back to the early 19th century for Austen to answer in order to assist her would-be heroines live happily-ever-after and snag the would-be heroes in their lives. Each letter is peppered with sage advice, examples from her books, as well as examples from Austen’s life.

I would not recommend this to anyone but the largest of Jane Austen fans. Don’t get me wrong - it was enjoyable, but there were a few things about it that just rubbed me the wrong way, and I think would only come across badly for those who weren’t huge fans of Austen.

I had a hard time keeping all of the characters mentioned straight as far as what book they come from and who exactly they are. Hannon doesn’t just talk about the main characters in Austen’s books, but about a lot of the characters in various books that only appeared for a short period of time, and it didn’t always say what book they were from.

As well, it came across a lot of the time that Hannon was saying “Jane Austen pwns all other writers (past, present and future) with superiour characterization skills!” If I didn’t enjoy Austen, and didn’t take it as amusing, then it would have come across as very annoying.

That said, you could tell that Hannon is a large Austen fan and knows a lot about that time period, Austen’s life, and Austen’s books. Aside from being well researched, Hannon had an amusing voice; at times what she had written was highly amusing, and had me outright laughing out loud:

You exhibit the classic symptoms of having read too many romances and watched too many Hollywood movies. Think what you are about – and what they are about. Is there a trace of the real, the true, the everyday in them? I should not be surprised to learn that you swooned over Heathcliffe. (Quelle horreur! as my dear sister Eliza used to exclaim.) Earth to Suffering Heroine (as incredulity and exasperation might induce one of your era to say): the man hangs puppies just for fun!

So yes, while the book was amusing at times, and almost confusing at others, it was also rather thought-provoking. It’s always a little unsettling when a fictional book touches on stuff similar to what you’re currently going through in real life. The A Heronie and Her Friends chapter came at the worst possible (or best possible, depending on how you look at it) time for me. It certainly wasn’t a very comfortable chapter to read, but it did give me some food for thought that I’m going to be pondering for a while.