I'm taking a couple weeks off before diving into edits for An Infamous Marriage and/or starting my next project, a novella with the working title Widow's Choice. I figured I'd spend those weeks doing nothing but read, read, read, but so far it hasn't turned out that way. I speed-read one book after deciding I had to find out what the fuss was about, then got caught up in something more scholarly:
36) The Hunger Games? Entirely lives up to the hype, IMHO. I read it in less than a day, and I loved Katniss for her toughness.
37) The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Edward Copeland and Juliet McMaster. Though I know Austen so well I've practically memorized many passages from her novels (and NOT just "It is a truth universally acknowledged..."), I came to her work after completing my formal education, so I've never analyzed it from an academic perspective. So I found this book intriguing as a different angle on a familiar author. Some of the essays confirmed what I expected based on my knowledge of Austen's era--e.g. that she chooses a middle way between the extreme conservative and liberal views of her time, advocating both the established hierarchy and the ability of worthy individuals and families to rise within it. Others brought up issues I hadn't consciously noticed and kicked myself for missing--e.g. the different way POV and dialogue are handled with the outgoing Emma for protagonist vs. the retiring Anne Elliot of Persuasion.
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