Thrifty Geek's Library: All About Austen

 Hello book loving friends, 

Happy Book Lovers Day! I thought what better way to celebrate than with another Library post. Dang when was the last time I did one of these posts? Well I've been sitting on the idea of this one since last year, so today I'm finally going to do this. This whole post will be Jane Austen related. I'll be doing book reviews of Austen related books and share some Austen related links. So let's jump into it!

Books

The books I'll be reviewing today are the from the Jane Fairfax series by Michael Thomas Ford. Now over the years I've seen Jane Austen's work done in various interesting ways, but this series puts a spin on the author herself. The Jane Austen in this series died way before her actual death, she was actually turned into a vampire a year before her "death". Well it's now modern times and Jane is now a simple book shop owner in New York state going by the name Jane Fairfax. Sound good so far? Well let's dive into this series, keep in mind I read these last year, and made the mistake of not writing my reviews close to the time of my reading it, so bare with me. 

Jane Bites Back- 

So as I said Jane is a book store owner in a small town, where she is getting to experience the Austen fandom at work. Her classics are popular as ever, there's weird Austen related books and items that she's now forced to sell in her store, and because she's "dead" she gets none of the royalties. On top of all of this she's been trying to get her next masterpiece publish for centuries, and it has been rejected over a hundred times. Just when it seems like she will never reclaim her former glory, she's given a chance. Of course old and new troubles find a way into her life.

I love this unique take on Jane Austen, she's a vampire first of all.  I mean yeah I seen her works get monstrous makeovers , but I don't think I've seen the author herself get one. I like seeing how Ford depicts Austen's opinions on what her work has brought to life. I can't tell you how many times I wonder what creators of the classics would think of what their works become and give birth to. I love also seeing Ford's portrayal of other classic writers who aren't so dead. It's interesting to see what immortality and the modern world does to our favorites. Also the whole Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte rivalry is touched upon in this book. Is their actually like some rivalry between fans of the two? Cause I feel like a lot of book themed works has their fans or the authors in some sort of rivalry. *ok found this article on seems Charlotte had some opinions on Austen's work. From what I can tell by this other article I found it could be cause two of the Bronte sister's works kept getting compared and over shadowed by Austen's work. At least that's what I take from it. Well explains so much in this book.* Any who great start to a series it had me from the description I read on the library's website. 

Jane Goes Batty-

 Jane's life is going good she's got a boyfriend, she's found literary success once again, one who's delights she can enjoy. Of course in every life some rain must fall. One being her new book is being made into a movie that's being filmed in her new hometown, and if that wasn't disrupting her life enough, her new beau is going to introduce her to his Mother. Which is just fun for Jane cause she's having to pass off as a normal modern day human! You all thought you had bad meet the Mom stories, Jane has it worse.

Also, poor Jane having to deal with the joys of modern fandom: excited fanatics, cosplayers, and people trying to milk off all it. I'm not 100 percent sure people back in the Regency Era took to dressing like book characters, of course I could be wrong, I mean I've never really looked into such this so I could be wrong. If I am let me know in the comments. But I mean if we see it from Jane's point of view, fame and how her work is marketed in her era compared to the modern era has to be vastly different. I mean one movies didn't exist so having your book propelled by having movie made of it was not an option, the first steps to movie making wouldn't happen till after real world Jane's death. So book's Jane had to feel bit overwhelmed. Back in the first book she had to attend a convention and do a panel, that must been different, was there an equivalent to these things back in Jane's day?

Jane Vows Vengeance-

Well Jane and her Beau are getting hitched. Due to the drama that is Jane's life they decided to do it in Europe. While their Jane learns some shocking secrets about her future husbands family, and a possibility to reclaim humanity. 

This was a good ending to the trilogy, awesome surprises, all good and tidied up at the end. But the ending also made me sad, which is weird, cause Jane is on the path to a potentially happy ending life, but I felt sad about it. I, maybe cause the possibility that she might be giving up the things that made her story up to this point a strange delightful journey, it could also just be the story ending I don't know. 

So that's our journey into the Jane Fairfax trilogy. I've totally added this books to the list of books I wanna add to my permanent library collection. If your an Austenite and a vampire fan then you really need to check out this series. I really hope Ford does more in this verse. Maybe do some books focusing on some of the other characters. I'd love to see from some of the other vampire Authors.

 

Pretty Things

Okay now I'll share some of my favorite Austen items I've come across for your digital window shopping pleasure, or your actual shopping pleasure if you have the monies. 

First of all is this lovely edition of Pride and Prejudice by Juniper books. I fell in love with this edition when I saw it at Michael's and after some hunting I found it again, It's my favorite book by her, but I've yet to obtain a physical copy, and this is the one I want for my library.

Next is this lovely leather journal by Soothi that bares an Austen quote. I love a journal, ask my family and friends. Gotta thank Facebook ads for leading me to this gem.

Lastly, you gotta have an Jane Austen action figure. Archie McPhee thankfully offers this among their zany action figures, apparently they have temporary Jane inspired tattoos too. 

Things to Watch

While watching an episode of Felicia Day's Flog a while back (I just linked to the playlist cause I have no clue which ep it is), she mentioned a show called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I eventually checked it out and fell in love. It's basically a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice where Lizzie is a college girl making a vlog, but the story isn't just vlogs, it was a multimedia event. Chracters had tumblr and twitter accounts that helped move the story along as if these characters really existed in our time, thankfully Pemberly Digital has gathered all the story across the platforms in order they appeared so you can follow it. I also encourage you to watch Emma Approved and Welcome to Sandition, which are retellings of Emma and Sandition, and take place in the same universe as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I highly recommend checking this out. 

Well after for many hours I have successfully completed an actual post! Yay me! To close this post all I can say if if you haven't read any of Austen's works give them a try, you maybe surprise. I mean back in high school if you told me I was going to be a fan of her books and actually have them in my library, I probably wouldn't have believed you. Glad I gave it a try, they are good, and I can see why they are classics.

I hope you have a good week, read lots, God bless, and I love you Geek Tribe.

*Thrifty Geek*

Ninja Writer's Library- A Classic, Some Magic and the Failed Readathon

Hello Fellow Readers,

This post of the Library was suppose to be of my readings from the O.W.L's readathon, but I ran into complications. One book gave me trouble, and I didn't have one of the books I needed to fulfill the Writer's Career reading requirements, and I wouldn't get any of those from the library till after the readathon was over. It was a mess, oh well there's always next year... Lord willing. 
So let's get to our reads. This month we have another read in my Jane Austen reading journey, a trip to a magical land, and I believe the final books in my Sarah Addison Allen reads.

Mansfield Park- by Jane Austen

This was my first read for the readathon and the only one of my reading list I actually managed to complete. I had a little trouble getting into it at the beginning, but once I did I couldn't put it down, though I did loose focus frequently and found myself rereading parts.

Reading this made me think of how blessed we are to have our music anytime we want, back then you had to hope that someone not only knew how to play it, but could play it good.
This may be my 3rd or 4th favorite Austen work I'd have to reread Emma to make it a sure decision.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

This was my second read for the readathon and this is the one that killed me. This one was a tough one to get through, though I don't really know why for sure. It was intriguing enough that I wanted to see where the story went, but I kept putting it down and loosing interest. I actually took a break from it to read Lost Lake.

One thing I did love about the book was this necklace that September gets that allows her to remember all her memories of her life to that point, I could use that!
I probably won't keep this in my permanent book collection, I don't look to be giving it a reread since it was so hard to get through the first time.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

 I had this one I think in my holds and I'd hoped it would be ready to read for the readathon for my contemporary, but no. It did come in May and provided a respite from the previously mentioned book I struggled through.

This was a beautiful, but haunting book. Allen really wove a magical tale, as she usually does. This I believe was her first book after her battle with cancer, it's also the first book of hers set outside of North Carolina.

I say the book's haunting, because they speak a lot of passed people, the main character is actually been dealing with grieving the last year.
The book takes place in the summer and her descriptions of the summer time, make you ready for the season, so I'd totally add this to a summer reading list.

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

This was the latest book Allen had written and the final one I needed to have read all her books. This is another tale with Allen's first characters from Garden Spells the Waverlys. We had a couple of them make a cameo in her book The Peach Keeper. We find that 10 years has passed for the characters since the first book and all dealing with growing pains be it being a teen, a successfully business woman, or a woman wanting a second chance at motherhood.

This was a bittersweet read, which is what I usually say with books were we see a dramatic time shift. Seeing established characters age always makes me a bit sad, but it's an anxiety trigger for me. so it's just me.

Another thing in this book, as happens with many of Allen's is the food she mentions makes you hungry.  I'm actually quite curious to try that Fig and Pepper bread.

Well that's another visit to the Library. I hope you guys have a good weekend, get lost in a book, and God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

The Ninja Writer's Library- A Crap Load of Books

Happy Almost Friday my friends,

I'm trying to get back in the swing of blogging again, the outdoors and my mind has been calling. I also realized my book write ups have been piling up which is why this Ninja Writer's Library is gonna be long. So grab some tea and sit back and enjoy the booky ramble.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
This one is probably my second favorite of all Austen's work I've read thus far, which is 3 books. You know if I lived in this world I wouldn't be hurting in finding a husband, every busybody would be doing it for me. With in these pages I found a character that was the equivalent to nails on a chalkboard John Dashwood, the sisters' half brother. I cringed reading his parts. Everything was about money with him, uh he drove me bonkers. I will say before I read this book I did read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters. Now that I've read the original I can tell the different styles of writing from what's mostly a Jane written part and a Winters heavily written one.

Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan
In Mr Penumbra's we delve into a world of coding, books, and an old mystery. It was an good read, I can't give the best review due to the pure fact I was physically sick, and having a depression spell, so some topics in the book, like the one character's obsession with the briefness of life gave me a weird feeling, but it was interesting enough to keep me going.

Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
If you love the anime of the same name, then you should enjoy these books. The first book kinda follows the anime, but we get more info about the characters than we get from the movie, such as learning Howl's country of origin, and a few things about Sophie that we didn't know either. The second book in the series focus's on a carpet seller in what would be an Arabian land type setting, but I assure you it is the same realm. There is a third book called House of Many Ways that sadly the library does not have, so I can't read yet. *pouts* But yes this is one of those times I suggest reading the book even if you've already seen the movie, it'll provide add ons to the story, and of course continue the series if you want new untold adventures from this fun world.

The M Train by Patti Smith
I discovered this book through the Daedalus Books catalogue. I was very intrigued by it. Well I learned my library had it so I of course checked it out. This is a great read into a unique mind. It's like some Alice in Wonderland trip. Smith defiantly has a poetic air about her. She talks about the dreams she has, actually opens the book I think with a dream, about coffee, crime dramas, whatever comes to her pertaining to the events going on in her life at the time. Y'all she even talks briefly Doctor Who. The over all feel I got from it was poetic and gritty if that makes sense? I defiantly wanna add this to my physical library.

The Aunt Dimity series- by Nancy Atherton
I've seen books for this series in various book catalogues. My library has many of them, I've managed to read the first 6 books in the series. This series is very enjoyable, one problem with my speed reading skills, that are only worse when it's a good read, I breeze through them too quick. It has romance, but nothing smutty, mystery, a bit of paranormal, and a lovely main setting in the Cotswolds. So far the first book in the series Aunt Dimity's Death is my favorite we are introduced to Lori Shepherd, Aunt Dimity, Reginald the pink bunny, the Willis family, and all the other characters that you'll be revisiting frequently as you journey forth with the books. You'll find yummy sounding treats in the books, a recipe is usually added in the back, but you can get it from them from the website too. It's just a cute series, if you like some quick mystery reading try it out.

Rules of Magic and Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
I love the Practical Magic movie, so I was excited to read the book and prequel. Now I had read Practical Magic back in high school, the Captain let me borrow it, but I don't recall anything except the death beetle being mentioned. Which is odd given I usually recall books I've read, if not I remember once I get started reading it, but for this it was like reading it for the first time.

With Practical Magic I will say I did like that we got to see the powers Sally's daughters have, and good things coming Gillian's way. With Rules of Magic I liked learning of the sisters past and about their brother, Sally and Gillian's grandfather. I liked Franny was a bit of a scientist and as a child decided to do experiments on her baby sibling, I mean yeah it was mean, but just humorous in her mind this was a serious study.

My cons with both books is the depressing vibe I got from them. See I'm the type of reader that takes on the emotions or feelings from what I read and already having anxiety and depression makes these rough to read, I mean don't get me wrong intriguing reads and I wanted to keep doing so, but unlike the movie which yes had a lot of sadness and darkness, but had humor to lighten it, I didn't get that in the books.

Ok my dears I hope you have a good rest of the week. Read a good book and may God always bless you!
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

Saturday Morning Sharings

Hello my friends,

I hope this post finds you all well. I have been in winter's grip, not as bad as the peeps in the north have had this year, but enough to turn me into a zombie* I think more so than usual, add in some other rough patches health wise and it's been a rather less than warm welcome to the new year. But we are thawed out, for now, and I'm trying shock life back into me. So for this post I'm kinda gonna channel Julie Wunder's Running in a Skirt blog where she does these posts occasionally called Currently and Things I'm Loving Lately, in which she discusses things she's doing, or into at the moment. Also probably homing in on Austin Kleon's Email Newsletters. I'm just gonna talk some things I'm enjoying or getting into right now.


Latest Movie Purchase
I don't buy movies often, but I saw Enchanted in the store and it's defiantly a top favorite of mine, so I had to get it. When this was out in theaters in 2007 I think, cause the DVD says the DVD released in 2008, I saw this twice, once with Fangirl, and then the two of us went to see it with my sister**, both times I came out of the theater feeling so happy. This is a feel good movie for me. It also is the reason I really think people need to just break into a good song and dance number a least once a day, any more than that and we're treading into Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Once More With Feeling territory in which singing and dancing not so great.

I was really happy to find the music video for Carrie Underwood's Ever After on the disc, I think I only kept catching snippets of it when it was on the TV, but now I finally got to see it all, and like the movie it makes me smile. It's one of my top two favorite songs from the soundtrack, That's How You Know is the other, and yes I purchased the soundtrack not long after I saw it the first time.

Another extra I love from this DVD is when they took three of the scenes and showed how they put it all together. Some people don't like having the secrets of scenes revealed, cause they feel the magic is ruined, it's never really ruined it for me, I find it all fascinating.


Attempting to Reread
I was hankering for some Jane Austen so I decided to reread Emma, but the mood has passed I believe I only seem to read a few sentences and I put it back down. Errr.


What's On My Youtube
I don't know how I came across this YouTube Channel but I'm enjoying it. It's called Book Roast brought to us by avid reader Gintare, I think I got that name right. She talks books, does critiques, but not in a ripping it to bits way. She also does a few subscription box openings, if I wasn't so broke I know at least one I'd subscribe to if I had extra cash to spend. She's a big Potterhead, a couple of her poxes are Potter themed. One of her bookcase shelves is dedicated to the series (I've wanted to do that too with not only the Potter series, but a few others as well).


Games I'm Zombieing Over
I've been playing Con Man: The Game a lot lately. It's based off the show Con Man with Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion. You basically get to fulfill your geeky fantasies and build your own convention. It's got everything in this game alien battles , geek culture references, and an elderly woman who has listened to Ray Steven's The Streak one to many times. There's even appearances by not only the main stars of the show, but some other members of the geek fame: Kevin Smith, Felicia Day, and Joss Whedon to name a few. If your a fan of the show, or want to run your own con I totally recommend this game if your looking to pass some time.

I've also been getting back into Dungeons and Dragons Online. I've been playing my blue haired elf trying to relearn everything. She got knocked over by a horde of trolls, one never wants to be adventuring alone and see a gang of trolls running at you.

In Memory
I sadly learned a singer who's music I enjoyed passed away. Her name was Lari White. Some of my favorite tunes included That's My Baby, Ready, Willing, And Able, and Take Me I thank her for the great music and hope she's at peace now.

I shall end my transmission here. I hope you all enjoy your weekend. God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

*PS- When I refer to myself as a Zombie or in zombie mode, it's that mind set where your just sitting there numbly going through your day. You don't feel quite all there.

**PSS- My sister was dying to get out of the house and asked Fangirl and me if we all could go out, despite the fact Fangirl and I had just came in from a out of state trip. Enchanted was still playing and they only thing I think good to see that night. I'll never for get the look on my sister's face when the opening musical number came on. One could read her thoughts "WHAT THE CRAP HAVE THEY BROUGHT ME TO?!"

Austen and Austin

Happy Monday My Friends,

Well I'm happy to say this cold seems to be loosing it's grips from me even further. I unfortunantly till have some conjestion, I think I'll use a term a girl I knew said once, lung butter, but on the positive end I can pop my ears again! I never thought I'd be so happy to be able to pop my ears. Ok enough of this episode of my strange body let's get to more literary topics.

Musings of a Budding Janeite
If had told me in High School or college I would enjoy Jane Austen I'd proabably would have fallen off my unicorn. But I think it was only a matter of time. I enjoyed movies like Clueless, which is based off Emma, and The Jane Austen Book Club, I really enjoyed the mini series Lost in Austen. The closest I came to reading Jane's words was what was used in Sense and Sensibility, and Sea Monsters. I had a failed start one night, but I did attempt later with flying success, and thouroughly enjoyed it, I was kinda suprised to be honest... Should I ever marry I fear I'll hear my husband speak of my nerves as Mr. Bennet does his wife's. Last year at Books Unlimited I found a used copy of Emma with notes made by a student. Some probably don't like having books written in, but I love it, even if I don't understand sometimes what they've written.

The whole reson I bring up Austen is because of a web series inspired by her work Pride and Prejudice called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. I discovered this while watching old episdes of Felicia Day's Flog. Actually it was more than a web series, websites, twitter accounts, and such were set up as though the characters had made them and they would post stuff to go along with the episodes. How often can one get a chance to tweet with Mr. Darcy. This year mark's the 5 year anniversary of the show so they are releasing the episodes, tweets, and all as they were released 5 years ago posting them through their Facebook Page. I was a little late when they started showing them again, but a quick binge and now I'm enjoying as it appears on my FB, I find it better this way as opposed to the huge binges sessions I did when I first watched it through. I really recommend you check it out, and when you're through with this series and are itching for more from Pemberly Digital's Austen interpretations check out Emma Approved and Welcome to Sandition, I think it's easy to guess what Austen work each is based from. The writers actually ended up combine all these Austen works into one universe, and they use the same multi media story telling format, Welcome to Sandition, if I understand correctly went as far as having their fans get involved in a roleplaying sort of thing, that was awesome. I'm kinda hoping these other two shows get the 5 year anniversary treatment next year.

When I started rewatching LBD I found this video in my Youtube recommendations. For the 5 year anniversary the cast came together to play a game called Marrying Mr. Darcy. Basically you assume the role of one of the single ladies of the book and try to end up with a suitor, or be an old maid. You know part of me wishes I had more Janeites around who would have fun with this, but at the same time makes me wander what my regular peeps would do with this.

If you've yet to tire of Jane Austen the Marrying Mr. Darcy blog shared a link to a Hellogiggles.com Article on How to Host a Jane Austen Girls' Night In. It's not an extensive list of ideas, but it does offer up some things I didn't know about.

The Austin in Austin
　A few months ago I was diving in a Goodwill Outlet bin trying to find the rest of these Fairy and Mermaid Oracle Cards for Fangirl when I found Austin Kleon's Steal Like An Artist Journal. I was excited to find this. I've been following Austin Kleon for a bit, I don't know how I originally found him, maybe through the writer Keri Smith, though I'm pretty sure it was through his black out poetry. He's a writer and artist living in Austin Texas who sends out great e newsletters each week, and keeps cool notebooks. That's actual one of the purposes of the book I found is to be a notebook to collect your inspirations.

The book also has activities for you to do to get those creative juices flowing. My favorite thus far is where we were asked to climb up our creative family tree. You pick who your most influenced by then find 3 of that person's influences, and then those three's three. It's interesting an interesting tree I must say.

Of course I'm not the first to write in it, as I said it's used, but it's fun seeing what this person, a lover of Van's Chocolates apparently, came up with for some of these prompts. That's what I love about getting second hand books, you never know what treasures you'll find within, and I love connecting with a past reader of a used book I own.

With that I hope your week is good to you friends, may good books come your way, and God bless you!




Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer