Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

As someone who has struggled to write for years, it is my opinion that the hardest part about writing fiction is developing your own "little world" -- characters, locations, story arcs, etc.  I feel like lifting those developments from an established writer or fandom is almost "cheating", as it is.  So I would never have picked up Seth Grahame-Smith's "adaptation" of Jane Austen's famous bestseller, had it not been free on Kindle a few months ago.  And I would probably never even have read it, if I had not been without a book to read one day, far from home and a wireless connection to download new material.  So here we are -- Book #79 for the year, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Early-nineteenth-century England is plagued with an infestation of zombies, or "unmentionables".  Their sad fate is transferred via a deadly plague, and England's wealthy elite have taken to seeking ninja training in the far East, in hopes of surviving the outbreak.  The five Bennett sisters are such accomplished warriors, the greatest of them being Elizabeth "Lizzy" Bennett, the second-eldest at 21.  Lizzy entertains no greater wish in her life than to fulfill what she feels is her destiny: to become a great warrior and executioner of zombies.  But when she meets dashing and proud Mr. Darcy, and immediately dismisses him as vain and pompous, Elizabeth can hardly foresee the impact that he is going to have on her family's happiness and status, the zombie outbreak in England, and especially on herself.

I have a love-hate relationship with Austen.  I read Mansfield Park in late December of 2010 and I loved it.  I tried fighting my way through Emma and finally gave up.  Austen is one of those writers who has a compelling story and wonderful characters, but whose writing just doesn't do it for me.  That is why I loved PPZ.  All of the delicious characters and settings that Austen is known for, with a zombie outbreak, murders, vengeance, and action thrown in.  I wondered how the author had even come up with the idea to intersperse Austen's classic with a zombie tale -- turns out that he got his inspiration from the encampment of soldiers that is present around the Bennett family's estate.  Why would soldiers suddenly be camping in the country during England's Regency period?  And thus, the tale was born.

The idea that the Bennett sisters -- and all other wealthy individuals in England -- were trained in the art of combat in the Far East was a little too far-fetched for me.  The constant talk about the wealthy having private dojos and personal ninjas was bizarre and went over into the ridiculous.  But I loved how seamlessly the story was woven in.  SPOILER ALERT: In the original Pride and Prejudice, Darcy convinces his friend, Mr. Bingley, not to marry Elizabeth Bennett's sister Jane because he believes her to have no interest in him after a bad cold forces her into an extended visit at his estate.  In PPZ, Darcy believes that the cold is indicative of Jane's infection with the deadly virus responsible for the zombie outbreak, so he tells Bingley that Jane is disinterested, in the hopes of saving both his friend's life and heartbreak. 

All in all, I really liked it, and I'm looking forward to the film that's coming out in 2013.  David expressed an interest, so maybe we'll go see it together:)

Rating: ****

Review: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of "chick-lit".  Which probably meant that my POV regarding this book doesn't count.  But.  I'm going to give it anyway.

I don't think I really need to give much of a summary, do I?  The premise of The Jane Austen Book Club is fairly straight-forward, and unfortunately, it's been done before.  A group of people who seemingly have nothing in common except their one singular passion (in this case, the novels of Jane Austen) come together to explore their interest together, when in reality, they're all really trying to come to grips with the unspeakable tragedy or unhappiness in their lives.  

The whole thing just felt so played out.  The idea of people coming together to forget previous tragedies through their hobby has been done to death (re: The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood or The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs), and it doesn't seem that Fowler has anything new to add, except for the plot twist of involving a male character.  This piqued my interest; unfortunately, the characters never flesh out.  Fowler chooses to divide the book into a series of vignettes about each character, leaving little room to explore each personality and providing little to no character development.  Just when I would start to get involved in a character's personality and story, WHAM!  The chapter is over, we've moved on to the next character...and I'm left wondering what the hell just happened.  So little time was spent exploring each personality, that I could not bring myself to care about any of the characters.

Then I am forced to ask: why Jane Austen, again?  Don't get me wrong, Jane is a phenomenal writer, as I've written before.  HOWEVER, today, nearly 200 years after her death, it seems that everyone is jumping on the Jane Austen (or Mr. Darcy) bandwagon.  The author (presumably an Austen-aficionado herself) sprinkles references to Jane's famous works throughout the book...but they don't tie in very well, and when they do, the transition is sloppy at best.

I could not relate to the characters and due to the quick transitions, I found it hard to even develop an interest in any of them.  I didn't care who was romancing who and whose marriage was ending and who was dating who by the end of the book.  I think if Fowler had chosen to flesh out the book a little more, spend more time on her characters, developing their personalities, and put in a little more action...I might have enjoyed the book more.

Oh, and if she had provided a translation for the character that consistently (and obnoxiously) speaks in French phrases.  I can read a little French, but the content was beyond my scope, and I constantly felt that I was missing something.  Very unfortunate.

Rating: * and 1/2

Film Friday: Emma

First off, I apologize (to my 10 followers) that I didn't have a "Yarn Along" submission this Wednesday.  I figured you were all pretty much over my Noro socks and my Kindle.  And that's all there would have been.  You also all know that I've been reading Jane Austen's Emma.

This is the first Film Friday where I'll feature a film adaption of a book I have not yet finished.  I'm about a quarter of the way through with Emma, but since David left last night to go to PAX East in Boston, I found myself lonely and a bit at a loose end.  The film Emma was on Instant-Queue on Netflix, so I figured, why not.

Matchmaker, matchmaker: Paltrow and Collette gossip

The titular Emma is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, before Shakespeare In Love rocketed her to silver screen glory.  Emma is the daughter of a doting, overprotective father, and she is primarily concerned with her own self-proclaimed prowess as a formidable matchmaker, having recently taken credit for setting up her former governess and the man who has just taken her to wife.  Thoroughly pleased with herself, Emma sets her sights on finding a suitable match for her best friend, Harriet Smith (Toni Collette), whose dubious parentage leaves her with very few marital prospects.  Nevertheless, Emma feels she cannot fail to unite Harriet with the sort of man she feels worthy of introducing Harriet to genteel society.

Emma is a pampered girl, universally adored and petted by nearly everyone she meets, with the exception of her brother-in-law, Mr. Knightly (played by dashing and handsome Jeremy Northam of The Tudors fame).  Mr. Knightly dislikes Emma's penchant for meddling in the affairs of her friends and scolds her for her "lack of sense."  His criticism piques Emma, who is used to almost-universal praise, but she finds herself appreciating his honesty and sense, and as her good intentions begin to unravel around her, Emma finds herself wondering if there really is something to Mr. Knightly after all...

I loved Emma.  My review being premature, as I have not yet finished the book, I found it to be (thus far) a very good adaptation of the book.  The only major difference (besides Mr. Knightly's name; he is George in the book, and his brother, Emma's sister's husband, is named John) is the repartee between Emma and Mr. Knightly is much more candid in the film, I suppose to play up their relationship more.  I loved it as much as I loved Mansfield Park (the film) and I think, my Jane Austen love being as pure as it is, there will be a reading of Pride and Prejudice, and a viewing of the film version, in my future!

Review: Sweetie by Kathryn Magendie

I don't know about you, but for me, it's difficult to break out of my regular reading genre and go for a book that may not immediately pique my interest.  I've been scouring Amazon.com for free books for my Kindle, and just picking up anything that sounded even the slightest bit interesting, knowing that I'd probably get a few bad apples.

I.  Love.  This.  Book.

Proof?  I started reading it yesterday morning, before work.  I finished it in the afternoon.  It was THAT good.

Granted, at 216 pages, it's a rather quick read.  No matter.  I would have torn through this little gem regardless.

Sweetie is the first-person narrative of Melissa, a chubby, stuttering, nondescript girl whose wanderlust-driven father and hypersensitive, nagging mother have moved her all over the country in search of her father's "inspiration".  Recently moved to a small town in Appalachian North Carolina, Melissa finds herself the butt of every joke at school, until she befriends the skinny, blonde, uneducated, free-spirited girl who has no other name than "Sweetie."  It is Sweetie who encourages Melissa to "breathe slowly" and learn to stop stuttering, and leads her on an adventure all over the mountains of their little town.  Over time, Melissa develops her own self-confidence and begins to question everything around her, including the secrets that Sweetie is holding close to herself.

Any girl who has ever been teased or tormented at school (including yours truly, I feel compelled to admit) will relate to Melissa, and if they hadn't already, will wish that they had had a friend like Sweetie.  I loved this book, and I'm hoping Ms. Magendie writes more, so I can read those.  I'm so glad that I took a chance on it.

Rating: *****

Up next?  Well, I have a few on deck.

Oh, Richard III.  You absolutely devious S.O.B.  Why must you be so compelling for me to try and figure out?  I'm still sad that Alison Weir, my favorite author of all things English royalty-related,  has never put out a book about Richard the Third.  I read her book The Princes In The Tower last year, and it was good, but that was more about the luckless Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, with very little about Richard except that he was totally evil.

My parents bought me Paul Murray Kendall's Richard the Third for Christmas this year, and I cracked it open last night.  It's long (608 pages), but I'm already to Chapter Three and the action is pretty good (how could it not be, at the forefront of the War of the Roses?), so I'm going pretty fast.  Admittedly, Kendall is a bit more dry than Weir, but we can't have everything in life, can we?  I'm hoping for better insight into the life of the man who is known as England's most wicked ruler.

And, on my fiction plate...

The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson.  A play on the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, set in medieval Germany, Apprentice is the story of a woodcutter's daughter named Rose, the apprentice of the town healer who is determined to prove herself and become a healer herself, to avoid marrying a lecherous old suitor.  I'm about 10% into this one, and I started it last night.  This looks like it's going to be another quick read, but considering that I'm reading it at the same time as Richard, I don't know if I'll finish it as quickly as I did Sweetie.

Finally, because I really want to start tearing through everything and anything by Jane Austen, and at my sister's suggestion, I have begun Pride and Prejudice, that quintessential of pre-Victorian romances.  I'm not far into it at all (maybe 2%), but I'm mostly listening to it on the text-to-speech function on my Kindle (how I love that thing).

Happy reading!

Real-life Jane Austen

After my last post praising Jane Austen, this entry is extremely well-timed, for I had occasion this weekend to dress like one of Jane's characters in real life!  One of David's friends threw a masquerade ball for New Year's Day (it was supposed to be New Year's Eve, but they couldn't get the hall that night).  The attire was formal.  David work a Victorian tuxedo, and I wore a Regency gown, much like something that one of Jane's characters might have worn.

I don't have many good pictures from the event, but here you go:

 

(The husband and I are to the left.  In the center and to the right are other party-goers)

I (rather stupidly) forgot my contact lenses, so when I wore my mask I couldn't see.  Fortunately, the masks stayed on for only the first hour or so, and then we took the off to eat dinner and socialize.  I have one other picture of me and David.

(I look like a MASSIVE tool in this picture, ugh)

It was a lot of fun, but I'm really exhausted from staying up late two nights in a row, and my weekend out did not bode very well for relaxing or getting anything done.  Fortunately, I discovered that I can read in the car on the Kindle and not get carsick!  This is great news, because I love reading in the car, and did so until about two years ago, when I started getting carsick while reading.  But I read for two hours (as we drove from Connecticut to MA on Friday), until it started to get dark, and didn't feel remotely ill afterward.  Great.

What am I reading as my first "official" book of 2011?

Traitor's Wife by Susan Higgenbottom.  I first read about this somewhere online (and of course I can't remember where), and I downloaded it for free on Amazon.com.  I started reading it on Friday evening, and I've barely put it down since.  Unfortunately, not because I'm really into it, but because I really want to finish it at this point.  It's okay, not the best book I've ever read, but pretty decent so far as historical fiction goes.  Most of what is written is unproven historical rumor, so it's accurate, but not necessarily true.  It's well-written, but there's a LOT of backstory, and the book is just starting to get really interesting...now that I'm 54% into it.  Not my favorite thing ever, but at least I'll be able to finish it.  Full report when I do, of course.

And now it's back to the grindstone.  Post-holiday work is quiet, but blissfully normal.  As much as I wish I could stay home and just relax, it's good to be back to whatever "normal" was, before Christmas.  

Happy reading!

Review: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Having a Kindle can be, at first, intoxicating.  What books to download first?  What to read?  There are so many good ones, and so many that are FREE!  Yet, for some reason, my mind went immediately to one that I had picked up twelve years prior, and then put down with disinterest.  I wanted to give it another shot.  I really did.

And wow.  Am I glad now, that I took it up again!

Jane Austen.  Like millions of people before me, I think I might very well be in love with her.  I'm completely enamored of her writing style, and this book has skyrocketed right to the top of my list of favorite books ever.

I saw the 1999 film "Mansfield Park" when it was in theatres, and I fell in love with the heroine, Fanny Price, and her snobbish but (generally) well-meaning relatives, the Bertrams, especially her gallant and humble cousin Edmund.  The film Fanny Price is very diffferent from the literary heroine of the same name; however, she is no less endearing.  Movie-Fanny (played by Frances O'Connor) is fiesty, plucky, and adventurous, where Book-Fanny is quiet, demure, and delicate.  Both "incarnations" of Fanny Price are eminently relateable, though entirely different in nature.

The world of Mansfield Park, a manor in Northamptonshire, England, at the turn of the 19th century, is beautiful and constantly proper, yet possess an undercurrent of turmoil and tempestuousness.  The primary characters -- Fanny, her cousins Edmund, Tom, Maria, and Julia, and their charming and tempting neighbors, brother and sister pair Mary and Henry Crawford -- attempt to walk the delicate line between what is proper in society, and what matters most in the depths of their hearts.  Without spoiling the ending for those of you who are yet to read it (and if you haven't read it, you should), some characters fail in this task, and some succeed.  It's a beautiful story, at its heart, a love story, absolutely timeless.

I only wish (as I said before) that I had discovered Lady Jane so much earlier, like when I was a misguided young woman with a torrid love life, instead of now that I am married very comfortably to a very steadfast and dependable man.  But no matter.  I will spend the majority of 2011 making up for lost time.

In praise of the Kindle

Those of you who have Kindles, or any electronic readers, will know exactly to what I refer with this entry.  I have, for quite a long time, wanted an e-reader, and very much to my surprise, on Christmas Eve, I unwrapped one, a gift from my husband David and my parents all together.  It was the gift I wanted most for Christmas, and, as I'm sure you can imagine, it was very well-received, to the point where I was almost afraid to turn it on and start it up, so excited was I to receive it.

It did not disappoint me.  In the first evening, I downloaded one book (stupidly at full price) before I remembered Project Gutenberg, and realized that I had all the classics I could ever have wanted to read at my fingertips for virtually free.  I downloaded two, and the next day, five more. 

I can't say enough in praise of the Kindle.  My own Kindle (who I named "Annabelle Lee" -- with some spelling creativity -- after the subject of my favorite poem by Edgar Allen Poe) is light and portable and easy to carry, though she is desperately in need of a protective cover and I carry her around in the box she came in, until I pick one out.  I have to say that I am most partial to this one, especially since it's kitted out with the one thing I find the Kindle lacking in: a built-in book light for reading in the dark.  But my favorite feature has to be the "Text-To-Speech" function, which allows me to read, write, or even knit while listening to the book of my choice.  I can't tell you how much this has changed my productivity.  It's nearly impossible to knit while reading, since reading requires at least one hand, and knitting, at least two (though sometimes it seems like more!).  But this morning, I was able to "read" while knitting a mitten for a friend of mine, an activity that can't  be done with a book in your hands.  I have a feeling this is going to change my life.

With a whole world of books and reading at my fingertips (and at my ears), I've discovered The Nest Book Club, and have set what I think is a reasonable but challenging goal for myself this year:

I don't know if I can do it, but I'm certainly going to try.  I have quite the list on my Kindle of free books to read, along with three paper books that I received for Christmas from family members (and an entire bookshelf of already-read books to work my way through).  I'm determined.

The first book on my list?  One I should have begun years ago.  Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

I began it two days ago, and so far, I'm enthralled.  I've developed a new love for Jane Austen, and plan to work my way through most of her work.  I only wish I'd "discovered" Jane ten years ago when I was a teenager going through the ins and outs of juvenile relationships, rather than as an "old married woman" (I laugh at this, seeing as I haven't been married for even two months yet) in her late twenties.

Wish me luck, and happy reading!