I’m excited to re-read this trilogy! Especially since I picked up this beautiful, surprisingly slim anthology that includes all three book. Sign-ups are going on here and are hosted by Pages Unbound and Chasm of Books.

Emma Read-a-long

I’m also excited to read Emma for the first time. It should be fun! We’ll be discussing chapters 1-9 on January 18th, so it’s not too late to join. Allison at The Cheap Reader is hosting and sign-ups are here.

Monuments Men Read-a-long

Last but not least, Jennifer at Bookalicious Mama and I are hosting a Monuments Men read-a-long. We’re discussing Part 1 at the end of the week and you can still sign up here.

The post January Read-a-longs appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

There are two kinds of re-tellings. There are those which use the original as an inspiration and which become awesome by using the original material in creative new ways. Cinder is one of my favorite examples of that kind of re-telling. This is not that kind of re-telling. This is the other kind, where the source material is preserved almost entirely with just a setting change and this is by far the best example of that kind of re-telling that I’ve ever read.

First of all, despite the integration of modern terms and even some pop culture, the writing reminds me very much of Austen. It’s something about the way she uses adjectives and long descriptive clauses, in my non-English-major opinion. Whatever it is, it works. I thought she also did a remarkable job preserving the spirit of each character. They may not be exactly the same, but the things I would list as being essential to who they are were all preserved. This is a little thing, but I thought it was nice that she kept the same names for her characters too. There’s no reason to change that (unless your change of setting demands it) and it makes it far less confusing to discuss the book later!

I was also incredibly impressed by the author’s ability to create modern situations analogous to the now outdated social situations in the original. Every scene I loved in the original had an counterpart in this re-telling. There was also some detail added to Edward and Elinor’s romance, something I liked in the movie and also liked here. It’s so much easier to root for a couple when you know why the like each other! At the end of the day, this still might have only been a four star review except for one very important thing. This book made me feel the exact same way as re-reading the original. I had some memory of what was going to happen, but I still couldn’t wait to get to the conclusion and I was so happy for our characters when I got there. While it is likely that no re-telling is going to do it for a real Austen purist, for anyone else, if you are out of new Austen to read and need something to fill the gaping void that has created in your life, read this. It was almost a lot like getting to read Sense and Sensibility for the first time all over again.

For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour, Amazon, or Goodreads.

The post Sense and Sensibility Re-telling appeared first on Doing Dewey.

All of my favorite quotes were included, preserving the understated humor of the book. The movie also followed Austen’s lead in showing a lot about characters’ personalities through brief scenes instead of spelling things out for you. I love the casting of all the characters, especially Elinor. I thought each actor’s attitude and appearance were perfect for their character.

What really made the movie for me was how much more we got see of Edward and Elinor’s relationship. In the book, we know that Elinor likes Edward and that they have spent some time getting to know each other, but we don’t get any description of what Elinor likes about Edward. In the movie, he’s wonderful with Margaret and much more respectful of the Dashwoods than his sister. Honestly, I have no idea how readers could like Edward just from the book, while in the movie, I thought he was wonderful. Since I’ve always loved Elinor, having a love interest I could get excited about made me enjoy the movie even more.

The post Sense and Sensibility – A Bookish Movie Review appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Like the book, this review is going to be a quick, easy read. The plot is almost exactly that of Sense and Sensibility, just a modernized version. My first reaction was disappointment that the author didn’t even try to copy Austen’s beautiful prose or understated humor. Once I got past that, I was better able to enjoy the book for what it was. Elinor and Marianne were both updated very nicely. Like the actions of Austen’s characters, the update wasn’t predictable but just felt right. Of course Elinor would be good at academics! Of course Marianne would act! I was also impressed by the way the update translated events with no modern equivalent. For instance, some of the social constraints on the original characters’ actions have no longer exist, but the author managed to come up with suitable substitutes.

Objectively, I think this probably deserves two starts. The characters were two-dimensional stereotypes and I occasionally found their actions unbelievable. The writing wasn’t anything special. But when I finished it, I would have said I liked it. I had fun reading it and enjoyed seeing the author’s creativity in making the update, so three stars it is.

Do you ever feel like a book “objectively” deserves a different numbers of stars than the rating you want to give it? If so, which rating do you go with?

The post The Dashwood Sisters’ Secrets of Love appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Originally titled Elinor and Marianne, in a way the book was still named after it’s two main characters. Elinor is eminently sensible, always putting her own feelings second to looking out for her mother and sister. Elinor is the exact opposite, entirely focused on her own sensibility and feelings with a complete lack of concern for the practical. Despite their dissimilarity, both sisters will face similar challenges as they navigate society trying to find love.

This was a reread for me and the first thing I noticed was that I didn’t remember just how funny Jane Austen can be. The humor is very dry and understated, but I thought that made it even better. She rarely outright tells you anything about a character, instead giving you snapshots of their lives that show their personality. As one of the critics quoted in the book pointed out, although the book isn’t overly predictable, the characters always act self-consistently enough that their actions don’t surprise you.

Although I personally relate much more to Elinor than to Marianne, I liked that the two heroines were so different. It added interest and should give everyone a character to empathize with. The plot was strangely engaging. Events move fairly slowly and what happens is all gossip and romance; not a description that I would expect for such an enthralling book! Despite the apparently unexciting contents, I couldn’t put the book down and always wanted to know what happened next.

In addition to liking the story, I also liked the edition I picked up. It was a Barnes & Noble classics edition and it included the best extras. The introduction was less spoiler-y than many but still thought-provoking.  I also liked that at the end of the book there was some extra discussion, some book club discussion questions, and a few quotes from critics across the ages. It gave some great context to the story and I’ll definitely be picking up more classics from this series.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post Sense and Sensibility appeared first on Doing Dewey.