The Jane Austen Handbook

The Jane Austen Handbook
by Margaret Sullivan
★★★★

I am an unabashed Janeite. I’ve read all of her novels and most of her smaller/unfinished books. I love her writing; the social observations, the wonderful characters, the love stories, the relationships between sisters, everything.

So when Margaret Sullivan, (creator of the blog Austenblog.com), re-released her book The Jane Austen Handbook, I knew I needed to read it. This is a book that someone like me just soaks up. It’s wonderful to learn more about the time period Jane wrote about. It provides an added depth and context to her work because it gives a better understanding to how livings were made and kept and why women wanted to find husbands so badly.

The book offers information on the etiquette of the time. You learn about how to dress, where to vacation, how to pay a call, how to court, etc. If you’ve ever wondered what it meant to “take the waters” you’ll learn that to.

It’s the perfect companion book to Austen’s novels. I always wondered exactly what kind of card game whist was and what all was involved in becoming “accomplished.” The handbook has step-by-step instructions and illustrations on anything you could possible relate to Austen.

If you love Austen, or even that time period, definitely pick it up. If you couldn’t care less, this one’s probably not for you, but then the title tells you that from the get go.

**My copy was provided by Quirk Books

The Lost City of Z

The Lost City of Z
A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
by David Grann
★★★★

In the 1920s exploration into unknown lands was still incredibly popular. In this nonfiction tale, Grann tells the story of three men who headed off on the adventure of a life time. They went to the Amazon to find a fabled lost city, which they call “Z.” They’re never heard from again.

The party included Percy Fawcett, his son and another man, all of whom disappeared in 1925. Grann follows in the footsteps of dozens of others, who have all searched for any sign of what happened to them. The book is wonderfully written and hard to put down. The story is part mystery and part adventure novel. Grann’s own experiences don’t overshadow Fawcett’s story, but instead they add to the reader’s understanding of what the man must have gone through.

The Amazon is full of hundreds of life-threatening elements, including the bugs, Oh my gosh the bugs, there are mosquitoes, blood-sucking gnats, sweat bees and more. There are also huge snakes, tribes of cannibals, diseases in the water and more. Part of my fascination with the book was bred not from a desire to go there, but to understand the people who were driven to explore that intimidating terrain.

This book is exactly how I like my nonfiction. It’s fascinating to read, I’m learning about a subject I have limited knowledge of, but it doesn’t overload me with unnecessary details. It was just right and I loved all the literary connections the story has (with King Solomon’s Minds and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
By J.K. Rowling
★★★★★

Another summer has past and Harry has suffered through weeks or torment from his relatives, the Dursleys. News reaches him that a vicious murderer, Sirius Black, has escaped from prison. Soon he realizes that Black is more than just you’re average criminal and his escape means danger for Harry.

***SPOILERS***

This is the first book that abandoned the formulaic big battle with Voldemort at the end of the story. Instead it delves into the deeper mythology of the story. We learn a bit about Harry’s Dad’s past and how it relates to Snape’s grudge against Harry.

Crookshanks, a cat the Hermione buys, is a huge character in this book. Rowling’s description of him is perfect… “Its face looked grumpy and oddly squashed, as though it had run headlong into a brick wall.” We find out that Crookshanks has been helping Sirius all along, which makes me wish Rowling had given a little more explanation about who the cat really is. How can he know so much if he’s just a regular feline? Also, it’s interesting the Rowling decided to let all of the students have pets if they want them. What if other students have pet allergies?

There were some things, as always, that were lost when this one was turned into a film. In the book Harry volunteers to approach Buckbeak in Hagrid’s first class. In the movie he’s chosen against his will. That’s a huge difference, because the book demonstrates Harry’s kindness and value of Hagrid’s friendship.

There are a few big series points that are foreshadowed in this book. Professor Trelawney’s prediction in Book 5 is referenced and Dumbledore comments on Pettigrew’s debt to Harry, which is huge in the final book. We also meet both Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang for the first time. They are both Quidditch seekers for other teams. Cedric is friendly to Harry and treats him kindly even though he’s the competition. I love that Rowling introduced these characters, so important in the upcoming books, before their story was crucial. She does a great job incorporating new characters into the fabric of the story early on.

In this novel Neville is compared to Peter Pettigrew (before you know Peter is bad), which is interesting. It once again highlights Neville’s honor. He chooses to stand up for what’s right throughout the series, even though people often perceive him as a weaker character.

The major thing I came away with from this re-read is Snape’s story. Once you finish the series and learn his entire back story, this book becomes heartbreaking. You can see how painful it would be for him to have to work side-by-side with Lupin and see Sirius escape from Azkaban. Obviously he’s not great at moving on and letting things go, but he also can’t seem to catch a break. Even though his bitterness and sour disposition makes him hard to love, he still chooses the right side, even when it’s incredibly difficult.

A few things I'd forgotten about the third book:

1) The two weeks Harry spends by himself in Diagon Alley. He’s only 13 and this is the first time in his life that he’s really on his own.

2) Sir Cadogan, the humorous knight in a painting that takes over for the Fat Lady at the Griffidor common room entrance.

3) Hagrid tells Harry and Ron that their friendship with Hermione is more important than the things they’re fighting with her about. This is a testament to Hagrid’s character and his love for all of them. The movies tend to trivialize him and make him more of a quick joke, but he’s such a great character.

Read for the Harry Potter Challenge hosted here.