August
Yearly Austen Novel
If you have been with us for the past four years then you know that August is Jane Austen month. This is always a great month of reading and discussion. We are now on our fifth Jane Austen book so I figure we should keep going and read her whole cannon (of finished books). So next up is Northanger Abbey!
I was planning to assign Mansfield Park, but then I remembered that Northanger Abbey is a satire of gothic novels and how perfect to put it in the same year that we are already reading a gothic novel (Jane Eyre….though the Brontes came after Austen and I’m sure Austen would have respected Jane Eyre as a great book)
Fellow book club member, Tammy Carlin, has offered to help us get excited about this lesser read Austen novel. Tammy might be the most committed book club member and is always a joy to chat with. She will undersell herself, but she has a lot of reading under her belt and I am always glad to hear her opinions. Here’s what she has to say about Northanger Abbey…
You're going to love this one. Especially if it's a first reading. It's a lovely, humerus, "Gothic," novel. Full of hilarious vignettes and quotable lines. For example, "If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard?"
We follow Catherine Moreland through the vassisatudes of her eventful,... well, not life, more like a year. It's lots of fun super light reading. But being Austen also full of thoughtful human senerios and engaging dialogue.
Questions to ask ourselves:
1) Should we read some Ann Radcliff?
2) Is there a Byronic hero?
If you missed any of the previous posts here they all are:
September (Part 1)
September (Part 2)
October
November
December
January
February and March
April
May
June
July
And with that we are done. I hope you all have had an exhilarating day of bookish fun! I certainly have. I cannot wait to read all of these books with you. Please comment and chat about which books you are most excited about. I love to see other people getting excited about books. If you are still finishing up Crossing to Safety, then I wish you the best and can’t wait to chat about that. If you are getting a head start on The Remains of the Day then you are really on top of it and I salute you. No matter what you are reading I wish you a restful weekend and hope you have a few moments to sit down and contemplate life from the perspective of a lovely book.
May we all be reminded of the truth, beauty, and goodness that good books can provide! Enjoy your reading until we meet again!
A Few Reminders
If you haven’t taken the survey for this year yet, please do so here!
Next up we have The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro scheduled for June. Here is the schedule for how I will be reading and posting:
May 25th: Prologue and Day One (pgs 3-44)
June 1st: Day Two (pgs 47-126)
June 8th: Day Three (pgs 129-201)
June 15th: Day Four and Day Six (pgs 205-245)
Then to finish up the year we have East of Eden and Pride and Prejudice!
If you are reading along but are not part of an in person group, please message me and we can chat about getting you set up to start one! You are more than welcome to follow along virtually, but we value in person community so much that I would very much encourage you to have a group!
If you are part of a group, but you’re not on our Slack page, please contact me. That is where people share thoughts and logistics for each in person group.
Book lists from previous years can be found here.
We are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (with links to Substack) in order to spread the joy of the reading life to more people...if you want to like or share with any friends that want to start their own groups (or follow along virtually) please do!
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