DYRC 19 May: Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley

Addressing the elephant in the room, yes.  This is my May book and yes I'm making this post in July.  It be like that sometimes.  May's theme was history and biography, and that's a theme I typically enjoy.  History major, biography fan... and it didn't take long for me to pick a title.  Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley was a given.

This was a book I had wanted, and needed, to read for a while.  I like Lucy Worsley, and Jane Austen  is incredibly important to me, so I was very much looking forward to it.  I'm pleased to say it lived up to my excitement!  I learned a lot about an author I love... I feel like I know her better, understand her work better, and overall feel closer (so to speak) to Jane than ever.

Here is my Goodreads review.  It isn't much, and neither is this, but I think my enjoyment is evident.  Follow me on Goodreads, lol.

I read this book between May 19 and June 28.  Yes, that is over a month.  Yes, I finished quite late and it took a long time.  That wasn't due to the quality of the book.  Work keeps me busy and I don't have time to read much anymore... and I'm not happy about it.  But anyways, we made it.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes, especially if you're a history nerd or a big Austenite.

12 meses, 12 libros: March: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

(Yes, I know March has been over for a while.  I'm doing this late because I got sidetracked by life and other projects so it took me AAAAAGES to finish this book, and that's not a reflection on the quality of the book, jsyk just fyi.  I did read and finish books in March -- at least one also fit this theme, so I'm not technically cheating... just arriving slowly lol.)

March's theme was a literary classic, so I decided to go for one of the two Austen books I'd never read yet (yes, I'm a bad Jane-ite lol): Northanger Abbey.

(I included an actual cover of the book as well as the cover of the Jane Austen collection I own and used to read this book.)

I didn't really know a lot about this book when I began reading it... it isn't as much a part of pop culture as some of Austen's other works (Pride & Prejudice and Emma especially) so I had heard a couple of the character names and the words "gothic" and "horror." I didn't really know what to expect, but honestly I picked this over Mansfield Park to read because it was shorter.  That being said, as soon as I got into it I knew I would like it, and I did.  It's different than some of her other works, and even though I have read enough of them to have realized there can be a pattern, I don't feel that this followed a pattern, and I didn't always predict what was coming next. 

It was fun though, and I'm looking forward to watching one or two film adaptations. ;)

I read this book from March 27th to 29th, then took a break and finished it between April 16th and April 27th.  It's not a long or difficult book, I just ended up reading slowly because I've also been working on Camp NaNoWriMo, and since I owned this book I prioritized it lower than a couple of more time sensitive library books.

Bottom line, would I recommend this? Definitely!  Especially if you're an Austen fan like me and you haven't gotten to it yet.