I'm still on a Jane Austen break.  A friend gave me a book she thought I'd like.  Son of the Morning by Linda Howard.  I'm not sure WHY she thought I'd enjoy it, it's not really something I normally read.  But she gave it such a good recommendation that I took it home.  I finished at 2 am.  I really hate my friend.
It was one of those junk food books.  I like junk food.
So, then I went to the library the next day and checked out three more Linda Howard books and read 2 of them in three days.
I'm not ashamed.  I don't judge others by what they read....much. 

After Sense & Sensibility and Persuasion, I needed to take a break and read something mindless.  I went to my favorite second hand bookstore and picked up some cheap paranormal paperbacks.
Mary Janice Davidson's "Dead and" series is entertaining and fun so I picked up a collection of short stories.  I've never been a prude but there was so much straight up porn in these stories that I felt a little dirty.
If I want that much sex, I'll watch real porn!
I picked up another author I've never read before, Kimberly Raye.  It wasn't the first book in this particular series but I didn't know that until I got home with it.  It was mindless and entertaining....just what I want in my paranormal fiction.  But I guess this is becoming the norm in this genre...the explicit sex.  And please believe me when I say I AM NOT A PRUDE!  Without over-sharing, I've been known to be a little wild but for some reason, having to read in EXCRUCIATING detail about how and where two people put their mouths and fingers, where they are tingling and bodily fluids galore is a bit off-putting - to put it mildly.
This is why I stopped reading Laurell K. Hamilton.  I loved the first several Anita Blake books but suddenly, each book became more about near hard core porn than about paranormal escapades.  They were all sex, no plot.  Seriously.

So, I guess I'll keep looking for the perfect mix of fantasy and subtle sexuality.
Or maybe I'm just getting old.  *sigh*

I've been so MIA that I've had a hard time finding myself!
Jane Austen has been difficult for some of the participants but there are at least two of us who are loving every second.

Life got overly dramatic for me in the middle of Persuasion but I persevered and really enjoyed it.
So many people told me this is their favorite Austen novel and although I really enjoyed it, I can't say I liked it more than S&S. 

I just love the way Jane Austen fleshes out her characters.  They are so multi-layered and their faults aren't hidden. 
Anne is a goody goody but everyone adores her...I even liked her and I hate goody goodies! (Not really!)
I loved how Captain Wentworth gave her the cold shoulder at first, too.  She sort of deserved it for not standing up to Lady Russell!

Pride and Prejudice is next.  I've read this one before but I'll give it a once-over to refresh my drink.

I'm not sure why I didn't read any Jane Austen in high school.  I thought it was mandatory but apparently not in Texas.
A few years ago, I endeavored to read Pride & Prejudice and really enjoyed it but I never moved on to any of her others.
A few months ago, a coworker and I were talking about this.  She had never read any Austen books either and we both felt like this is something we needed to do so the idea of a Jane Austen summer was born.
We told a few people about it and they got excited for it too. 
So, we're a book club of sorts except we want food and booze at our meetings!
Anywho....
What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said?  It's really really good!  Is that original enough?
I just loved Elinor and all her properness (am I making up words here?) and then there is impulsive Marianne who really irritated me with her broken-hearted whining.  Oh get over it....there is surely another man out there, right?
But poor Elinor is stuck with this secret about Edward and Lucy all the while loving Edward herself.  It's heartbreaking angst at its finest!
My favorite characters were Mrs. Jennings and Mr. Palmer.  Seriously, those two cracked me up in totally different ways.
Mrs. Jennings is just this unrelenting busy body who gossips incessantly and jumps to one conclusion after another.  She is 100% fun.
Mr. Palmer's dry annoyance at his wife is hilarious.  He doesn't care what she thinks and pays very little attention to her.  But we find toward the end that Mr. Palmer has a true heart of gold...just very little patience for his own wife.


Some of our participants are having a tough time with the book.  Austen's writing style is not exactly Stephenie Myers but I keep telling them to persevere because it's SO worth it!

Persuasion is next!

Ugh.  I hate it when people don't update their blog for a long time.  I just think it's rude and unforgivable.
So...anyway....

It's been a very stressful few weeks.  I got busy, a close friend got some devastating news, I have lots of projects coming up that are taking a lot of my time and I guess that's all the excuses I can come up with.
Because of all this mess, I haven't had much time to read.
I haven't finished Mary, Called Magdalene because I couldn't devote any time to it, but I snuck in the latest Stuart Woods book, Lucid Intervals because it's a super fast read.


This summer, some friends and I are endeavoring to read 6 Jane Austen books...our own little Jane Austen book club, I suppose!
We were to start Sense & Sensibility today but I cheated and started it Saturday.
So far, so good!

Mary longed to say something in return, but it was not customary.  Instead, she just looked directly into his eyes to show him how deeply she trusted herself to him.
--Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George

Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

So, sometimes books are like junk food.  It's not nutritious but you love it anyway and in a lot of cases you eat the entire bag, box, bowl of whatever in one sitting.
From Barnes and Noble:

In this Jane Austen–inspired comedy, love story, and exploration of identity and destiny, a modern LA girl wakes up as an Englishwoman in Austen’s time.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict was like that for me.  Ok, it took two sittings but I devoured the whole thing.  It was fun and snarky and I am not afraid to admit I liked it.
I was disappointed in the end because I couldn't understand WHY a modern, 21st century woman ended up in the body of an early 19th century woman but when I was searching for the picture to add to this post, I found that there is a sequel.  This one is from the point of view of the woman who went from the 19th century to the 21st and that may be more fun and maybe I'll understand the point of the body switching.
But maybe like junk food, there is no point...it's just good.