There have been many authors that have attempted to write as Jane Austen or in the style of Jane Austen. They have finished or fleshed out some of her unfinished manuscripts. They have taken her beloved characters in new directions. To write as Jane Austen is always risky, leaving an author open to much criticism. So what if you don’t want your whole book panned, just because you didn’t quite capture Jane’s elusive style? Why, include your Jane Austen novel as simply a part of another story.

That’s just what Syrie James has done. The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen details Samantha McDonough’s amazing discovery of another novel by Jane Austen, hidden away for many years in a private library. Interspersed with Samantha’s story is Jane’s novel from start to finish. It really is a clever way to try your hand at imitating Jane Austen while still keeping your readers hooked with a modern-day story.

I love Jane just as much as the next person (sometimes more, depending on who that next person is), but I also realize that it is almost impossible to write just as Jane wrote. I see the flaws in Syrie James’ attempt (especially the beginning of Jane’s supposedly undiscovered novel. That drove me a little crazy and didn’t give me high hopes for what was to come). But gradually the characters and the plot won me over. No, Syrie James didn’t write exactly like Jane Austen. But her amusing characters and twisty plot certainly do Jane justice.

Samantha’s story was also well-told, although rather more predictable than the Jane Austen section. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Enough so that I plan on picking up James’ other related Jane title – The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. Austen lovers need something to cling to and broaden their repertoire, and Syrie James adds creditably to this collection.

Welcome to Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I had the opportunity to participate in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon on Saturday. I didn't make it all 24 hours (and I didn't try very hard to make it, either), but I had an awesome experience during the hours I was awake for. I can't wait to do it again in October!

Bookish Bloggy Events Sign-Up (I signed up for the 24-hour Read-a-thon and for Armchair BEA in May. My first time for both of these events!)
Reviewlets - Nonfiction Edition (Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox; The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman; and Travels in the Greater Yellowstone by Jack Turner)
My posts from Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon   -  Updates and Mini-Challenges

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (I loved this book!!)
My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon (I was hoping for more Venice and less Other, but it was still a good read.)

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (Yup, still listening to this one. I listen to it while running, and I always wonder what my neighbors think of me laughing out loud as I go by. . .)
Longbourn by Jo Baker (Intriguing so far)
La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales (I love the Italian language, so I'm thrilled to read a book about it.)

I don't usually read this many books at once, but I needed a little variety during the Read-a-thon. Now every time I want to read, I have to decide which book to pick up. I'm not used to having to make such a decision!

I'm not sure, but it will be something off my own shelves. I'll have to see what I'm in the mood for. I need to keep chipping away at that Mount TBR Challenge!

This is my bookshelf of all my favorites - C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Jane Austen, Jasper Fforde. I could read off this bookshelf for the rest of my life!

I'm reading Longbourn by Jo Baker. This publisher made it really easy to tell what edition it was. If you look really closely about halfway down the page, it says "First U.S. Edition." I guess that's pretty clear!

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

Just as Hour Seven is beginning, I'm finally here and finally able to begin! All of my papers are graded, I'm sitting in my comfy chair in my library, and I am ready to read! I'll post an update on my progress in an hour or two, and hopefully do some mini-challenges and commenting then. Let the reading begin!

Time spent reading: Two hours and 7 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 149
Books finished: One
Books read from: My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon (finished at 4:15 p.m.); Longbourn by Jo Baker
Mini-challenges completed: One
Loads of laundry done: Three (there's nothing like multi-tasking!)

Total time spent reading: Three hours and 2 minutes
Number of pages read so far: 226
Books read from: Longbourn by Jo Baker
Mini-Challenges completed: Two
Slices of pizza eaten: Two

1. What are you reading right now?
     Longbourn by Jo Baker
2. How many books have you read so far?
     I've only finished one - My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
     I'm really enjoying Longbourn so far. I plan to keep reading it, with maybe a nonfiction book thrown in for a little variety. Probably something off my travel shelf - France or Italy is calling my name.
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?
     If you count grading papers until 9:30 or 10:00 every night this week, then yes! I did the best I could to stay caught up with my grading, but I still needed to spend a few hours this morning finishing up. But now I can enjoy the read-a-thon stress-free!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
     I'm never really a fan of folding laundry, but when it gets in the way of my reading, grr! 
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
     How much I'm enjoying it! I always enjoy reading whenever I can, but there's just something more exciting about doing it at the same time as hundreds of other readers!
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
     I wouldn't mind knowing what the mini-challenges were ahead of time, so I can decide which ones to do in advance. Maybe this is already posted somewhere, and I totally missed it. That's been known to happen.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?
     Block out more time to read, and make an effort to comment on more blogs.
9. Are you getting tired yet?
      Since I've only been able to read for three scattered hours so far, I still feel like I'm just getting started. I'm looking forward to an uninterrupted evening of reading!
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?
      Nope, but I'm looking forward to reading others' tips!

Total time spent reading: Five hours and 28 minutes
Total number of pages read: 400 (I read from three different books today. How did my total pages end up being exactly 400??)
Books finished today: Just one, but I got a good start on two others.
Books read from: My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon; Longbourn by Jo Baker; La Bella Lingua by Dianne Hales
Mini-Challenges completed: Five
Number of times I almost fell asleep on the couch: Three (or so)

So, yep, it's time to take myself off to bed. I would love to stay up and keep reading. There's some mini-challenges going on right now I would love to participate in. But I know I have a full week of teaching ahead of me, and sleep is essential for that. I have had an absolutely AMAZING time participating in my first Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon. Thanks to everyone who made this day such a success. I can't wait until the next one!!

The 24 hour read-a-thon has begun! (Okay, an hour or so ago) This is my first year participating, and I'm so excited! Unfortunately, there's some things I have to do before I can fully participate. The first one, sleeping in, is complete (I just can't pass up my chance to sleep in on a Saturday. Even when reading is involved. Sorry.). And because I am a teacher, Saturday is usually filled with grading papers. I've done my best to get those out of the way early, but I wasn't entirely successful. So once that's done, I'll be reading and updating and doing mini-challenges like crazy. See you in a few hours!

If you’re going to read a book about long-distance swimming, this should be that book. Lynne Cox is an amazingly determined woman and an absolutely incredible long-distance swimmer. She’s done it all – from swimming the English Channel (twice, setting world records both times) to being the first person to swim across. . .just about everything. The physical feats are remarkable, but just as remarkable is her determination and tenacity. In the middle of the Cold War, she decided she wanted to swim across the Bering Strait. It took her eleven years to accomplish this goal, but she never gave up. Cox is a good writer, drawing out the suspense of each swim. She tells the story of her own life humbly, although she has done many, many things she could brag about. This is a book to show you the power of determination and setting goals. It will encourage you to work even harder towards goals of your own. 

Rachel Friedman had one year of college left and no idea what to do with her life. Her solution? Move to Ireland for the summer. Suddenly a whole new world (literally and figuratively) is opened to her. She catches the travel bug, and she knows what she wants to do with her life, at least for the immediate future – see the world. She spends four months in Australia with a friend she met in Ireland, and then travels around South America with that same friend. Along the way, she discovers who she is – and it’s a very different person than who she thought she was.

Friedman’s memoir is wonderful. She describes her transition from a terrified-let’s-just-stay-in-the-hostel-instead-of-exploring sort of traveler to a sure-let’s-go-bungee-jumping-why-not sort of traveler in such a humble and engaging way. And amusing. This book was nothing if not funny. She constantly steps outside of her comfort zone and challenges herself. She grows into  the sort of traveler I want to be (minus the death-defying bus trips through mountains in South America). This book perfectly embodies Thoreau’s quote: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” Friedman discovered herself through her travels. By following along with her, we can maybe discover something about ourselves, too.

My family visited Yellowstone National Park the summer after I graduated from eighth grade. I don’t remember a lot, but I do remember Old Faithful and walking on very specific paths past brightly colored, bubbling hot springs. And the smell of sulfur. Oh, yes, that lovely smell.

I’m looking forward to visiting Yellowstone again someday, which was why I was excited to pick up Jack Turner’s travelogue about the National Park and the area surrounding it. He lives in a cabin there, and has spent many days and hours exploring and communing with nature.

The parts of this book that simply described his surroundings were wonderful. I found myself on Google Images several times searching for flowers that he mentioned (pink elephant head flowers are the coolest flowers ever). I’m not a fishing sort of person, but I even enjoyed his descriptions of angling (what a complicated sport). What I got tired of, however, were his diatribes on the lack of proper conservation and wildness. I don’t fault his enthusiasm, nor do I disagree with his position. I just wish he didn’t feel the need to elaborate (or rant) on it eighteen times (or more) in a 250-page book. If you’re more of an ardent environmentalist than I am, you may not find this quite so tiresome and therefore enjoy the book better overall. As for me, I’ll take my travelogue without excessive soapbox lecturing, please.

There are a couple of events in the blogosphere coming up that I'm excited about participating in. The first in Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-thon on April 26. I haven't had a chance to participate in any 24 hour read-a-thons yet, and I know this is a great one to start with. I also know that I'm not going to get anywhere close to actually reading for 24 hours straight. My students would not be very happy with me on Monday morning if I didn't sleep at all Saturday night. So my participation will be limited, but I'll do the best I can!

The second event I'm excited about is Armchair BEA, coming up on May 26-31. I'm still fairly new to the book blogging world, so last year at this time, I didn't have my blog up and running yet. Honestly, I hadn't even heard of BEA until last year (gasp!). I would LOVE to actually go to BEA in New York some year, but that rather unlikely, since it always seems to be scheduled during the penultimate week of the school year. Not a great time for a teacher to skip out. . . But this year, I will be able to participate in Armchair BEA. I'm looking forward to all of that fun and crazy bookishness!

Happy Easter Monday! I hope you had an awesome Easter celebration with your Lord and with your family!

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer - Review (One of my all-time favorite authors)
The Color of Rain by Michael & Gina Spehn - Review (What a powerful book!)

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse (Wodehouse always provides a fun read!)

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (This one will probably show up on my It's Monday! posts for a few weeks. It takes me awhile to get through an audiobook, even one as enjoyable as this one!)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (Our book club is meeting this Friday night, but I know I'll have no problem finishing this one in time. What a great story!)

My Venice and Other Essays by Donna Leon (I'm visiting Venice this summer, and I love reading about places before I get there. This book was the perfect find at the library!)

Happy Easter to you and your families! May you take time this weekend to focus on what Christ has done for each and every one of us. Praise the Lord for His triumph over sin and death! The facts of Christ's resurrection are irrefutable and miraculous. I hope that you enjoy this time with your family as we celebrate Christ's victory. Happy Easter!

The Color of Rain is about God’s plan prevailing through adversity. It’s not an easy book to read, but it is worthwhile. It provides an essential reminder that when our world is crumbling around us, God is still in control and will be with us through it all.

Michael and Gina Spehn are the authors of this book – a true story of their lives, and a story that only God could write. Gina’s husband Matt was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Not long after he passed away, doctors discovered that Michael’s wife Cathy had a brain tumor. Nineteen days later, her battle with cancer was over. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows what they went through during these awful days, weeks, and months.

But that’s not the end of the story. Because God is in control, there is always hope. There is always a plan. There is always a future. And Michael and Gina found their future together. Helping each other through their losses brought them a happiness that they never saw coming.

Michael and Gina visited my church earlier this year. I heard them tell their story, and then I went home and read their book. It truly is a powerful story of God’s love and provision. It’s not easy to read about the hard times, but it’s incredibly uplifting to learn how God has worked good through the bad. Please pick up a copy of this book and be reminded of all the ways that God is working in your life every single day.