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Liked It “Good read. It'll help a lot if you've read Austen's works. Though there is a brief synopsis of each of her six books in the back, when the characters talk about Austen's books and characters, they don't slow down for the ones who aren't versed in Austen.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Believe it or not...the movie is better.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“Good read. It'll help a lot if you've read Austen's works. Though there is a brief synopsis of each of her six books in the back, when the characters talk about Austen's books and characters, they don't slow down for the ones who aren't versed in Austen. ”
Jordan Ramos wrote this review 5 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Enjoyable and light.”
Mindi wrote this review Tuesday, May 7, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Six enthusiastic Jane Austen fans, Jocelyn, Sylvia, Allegra, Griff, Bernadette and Prudie, meet monthly to discuss that month's Austen novel. More enthralling than their Jane discussions are the club members' backstories. Jocelyn and Sylvia have been best friends since they were pre-teens and Jocelyn barely raised an eyebrow when Sylvia began to date and eventually marry Jocelyn's boyfriend Daniel. Now Daniel and Sylvia have separated and both Jocelyn and Sylvia find they miss him. Allegra, Sylvia's daughter, has recently broken up with her girlfriend, an aspiring writer who stealthily took Allegra's personal anecdotes and wrote short stories about them. Griff, the only man in the group, grew up with 3 older sisters and is very comfortable around women but seems to butt heads with Jocelyn on occasion. Jocelyn herself has never married and enjoys her life as a dog breeder. Prudie grew up with one of the strangest mothers I have ever run across in fiction and as a result Prudie underestimates herself and her dreams feeling nothing will ever be as good as she hopes. Bernadette, in her late 60's and the oldest of the group, is probably my favorite. The much-married woman tells endless stories, none of which anyone ever can believe entirely, and lives her life completely the way she wants, society be damned.
Ellen R wrote this review Saturday, March 23, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
On the whole this was a pleasant story and I enjoyed the characters and their backgrounds. I am not a "Janeite" so the discussions of Austen's novels left me tad confused as the book club dissected each and every male and female major and minor character. I did like the book club questions written by the 6 book club members at the end of the book.
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“Read it twice -- not grasping the connection to the original Austen novels”
Weyrwoman wrote this review Wednesday, March 13, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Amusing.”
Philly girl wrote this review Saturday, January 12, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Despite not having read Austen this book was really lovely to read. Made me think I should read some Austen after all, and there might be some wisdom about love in there. ”
Abigail Dawson wrote this review Monday, January 7, 2013. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I should have reviewed my Austen novels first! :)”
Sarah wrote this review Wednesday, December 5, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was a pleasant little read, about 250 pages and fast moving. By now those who are interested probably have already seen the movie, as I have. It being a favorite of my wife and I.
DWWilkin wrote this review Thursday, November 8, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Readers typically think that a movie from a book is just never as good as the book was originally. This may be an exception.
The movie took what Fowler wanted to do, shows that each of Jane's books ties into the characters in her novel in some way. That there lives in our modern world might be a parallel to characters from the novel.
The movie, with the ability to hear more than one voice to craft a structure, does this a great deal better. The book has its wonderful moments, and you can see how the team for the movie did not do anything but enhance the work of Fowler to make the movie a pleasure to watch and rematch. To declare that this inspiration can turn out to be a gem.
Fowler though needed more editing to have achieved that goodness that the movie gave us. There were whole pieces of information about the characters that needed to be cut and slashed. While there were insights that were poetical in the development of our reading group.
These though, were hampered by great long stretched of Tell not Show. Perhaps Show don't Tell is dying out. It used to be Tell a century and a half ago. But in this work, there was no balance about it, and in this work, the insights into the Austen Canon, along with that of the matching of the characters of the story were not as good as the casting in the movie gave us.
It is not a never again, but this is not a read for every year, or every other year. The movie, however is something worth watching each year, and each time more depth by the team is shown.”
“A little disappointed, wanted more Austen and less of the characters whom I didn't really get to care about.”
Mittagongbookgirl wrote this review Saturday, November 3, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I tried to read this. It was hard to follow. I gave up and watched the movie instead (an act im not a fan of). But there was so many flashbacks and like the author knew the story but decided not to tell the rest of us that I just gave in. Good premise and Yes, Watch the movie. It was good!”
Dani A wrote this review Friday, November 2, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
