Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen's first published work Sense and Sensibility has been read over and over again for more than 200 years. It is a classic that has been loved and survived the years because it's a good book full of vibrant characters and an engaging story.  

After the death of their father, Elinor, Marianne, Margaret, and their mother are forced out of their home to live in a cottage in a different county while their half brother and his wife take over the family estate. Their time in this cottage, making new acquaintances and enjoying the countryside, is quickly changed to lovestruck conversations when Marianne is saved by a young gentleman and love blooms. For Elinor though love is a trying thing when she learns that the man whom she admired is in love with someone else whom she also is acquainted.

I think this book has stood the test of time, unlike many of the other romantic stories of the time, because it hits home more than some of the others. The things that Elinor and Marianne deal with, loss of father, home, loves, sickness, surviving monetarily as well as plain surviving your family relations and acquaintances. These are things that we all struggle with at one point. We read things that are often similar to our own lives via theme or circumstance. Sense and Sensibility does that, even to today, which is fascinating. There have been many critics, papers, articles, and readers of this book over the years and if you search them out can find a lot of enlightening information and opinions.

I like the play on opposites that is presented here. Elinor is the sensible one in the family (rather logic based) and Marianne is full of sensibilities (and can often let her emotions run rampant). Willowby vs Colonel Brandon, The Ferrar's brothers, John Dashwood vs Sir John Middleton, even the rolls that men play vs women and how they are portrayed (hunters vs mothers). The way Austen plays with opposites is engaging and can be thought provoking.

The characters, though, aren't only opposites of one another, but they are their own people. They aren't merely a stereotype but do have their own personalities and quirks that make them unique.

This, again, is an older book. Classic for a reason, but not everyone's cup of Sleepy Time tea. It's language is different and more wordy than what present novels give. There were times when I needed to put it down because my head was starting to ache or I couldn't pay attention because of how the language was constructed. It is what it is. I also have the Oxford World Classics edition which honestly read more like a textbook than a novel which might be published in a different format. But it did have a lot more insights, critiques, and definitions which were very much helpful and fun to look up without having to go very far. It also had a good introduction by Margaret Anne Doody who has done many other critiques and papers for the Oxford World Classics company. Again it was very enlightening to aspects that I didn't see my first "read through" during college. In the end, be forewarned that it is older, wordy, and "harder" to read for the "modern" reader.

Read it. Enjoy it. Take it slow if you need and please go and find articles about it. They can be very enjoyable.

Be Prepared

Be Prepared was a cute little story about the trials of a ten year old misfit.

Vera doesn't really fit in with all the rest of the girls in her neighborhood. They are more wealthy, they have both parents, and they don't come from Russia. She moved to the USA when she was five, but the rest of the kids don't get it. They invite her to things, but she still feels like the outcast. During the summer they all go off to their own camps and she stays at home, until she finds out that there is a Russian kids scout camp. After some begging, her mom lets her and her brother go the following summer. Only summer camp isn't what she expected it to be. She finds that it's more of the same. She's the youngest in her troupe, they are all already friends and have known each other for years, and she's very much alone. Invisible. This is where she was supposed to find friends, so where are they?

It was a well drawn true-mostly story of Vera Brosgol's time at camp. She even has some of her letters and pictures from her time at camp. Vera is also the author of Anya's Ghost, which I didn't realize until I read the author bio.

I think this is a very potent and prominent story for many people. Trouble with friends is always something hard and pretty much everyone goes through it at some point. So it touches many people right in the hearts.

I think many people would enjoy this simple, well depicted story. It might even be one that I'd put on my bookshelf. Eventually.

The Watson's

I have learned now that it is important to read through all the introductions first in a book. They can be very helpful.

When I came across The Watsons at the end of my Northanger Abbey book, I started reading it just as I did Lady Susan not realizing that The Watsons was an unfinished work, almost along the lines of a blip from one of her other stories.

Our main character is Emma Watson who is invited to go to a Ball by a neighbor. She is set apart by her family as she looks over her invalid Uncle and doesn't get out much. She is given a diagnosis of the people going to the Ball and told whom to look out for. She is given offers to dance, seen by many, and gets the basic notions of those around her. There are visits after the Ball along with her family coming into town and trying to get her to come back home instead of enjoying the solitude and pleasant companionship of her Uncle.

It is only about forty pages and doesn't have much in the way of extended plot, but, as I said earlier, it's not finished. I think someone described it as a scribble. There is definite possibility for this story, and it resembles a bit of Pride and Prejudice in some aspects, but it is it's own story.

I found it very funny that the main character's name is Emma Watson, though I'm sure the actresses parents didn't know about this story. It made me happy. As for the other characters, there were so many in such a short period of time that it was hard to keep some of them straight. Few had solid characteristics in my mind that it was hard to keep many of them separated. I would have liked to read more about this particular story, but, alas, no such luck.

I did really enjoy one part of the story where the gentleman who would, if the story went on long enough, and Emma sat somewhat awkwardly in silence and talked some. It seems to be that that particular part might have been the founding part of this short story. It fit well and made me smile. Jane Austen has it well written, all of the story, but this part had that extra bit of "umph" to it that made me rather like the story and want more.

One other thing that I did struggle with, and it might just be that I have an "older" copy of the text is that there are sometimes four to five pages of text without a paragraph break. Pages full of conversation that has no breaks for the mind. This, I believe is only on my Oxford World Classics edition (that had awesome footnotes and explanations about the times) that had it that way. If I were to read it again, I'd go for a different edition, one that made it easier to read.

Miss. Jane, you need to "have an affair with the tab key." ~Mr. Bradley

Northanger Abbey

Upon reflection, I realized I haven't written about Northanger Abbey and how much I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Austen's first written novel, thought it was published after she died in 1817 alongside Persuasion.

Catherine Morland was not born to be a heroine. That is how Jane Austen starts it. She isn't particularly pretty. She isn't super accomplished. As she grew, she started to love novels and reading. But being born out in the country, she didn't have much in the way of possible social interactions which is what a young girl in her station needed in order to find a good husband to marry. So, joining a family friend in Bath in hopes of finding that social interaction, she runs into a boy--well, man--who seems shrouded in supernatural mystery. Or maybe she's reading too much into his family secrets. Mr. Tilney isn't the only one looking to become better acquainted with the somewhat naive Miss. Morland as well. Love and potential Gothic encounters are in the air. Or maybe she's reading too much into all interactions.

This is one of my favorite Jane Austen books, so much so that I wrote my under-graduate thesis on it in college. Jane has her satirical fingers all over this book as she's poking fun of the Gothic novels that were circulating around her in her teenage years, when she started to write. Catherine reads these types of books and when presented with Northanger Abbey, which is Mr. Tilney's family home, she can't help but imagine secret passageways, diabolical schemes, ghosts, even vampires that reside behind each fluttering curtain. Jane Austen was critiquing The Monk, The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Uldolpho (which she names specifically) and many others (none of which I've read). She pokes fun of them all because, in her opinion, they are kind of ridiculous.

I love the fact that Catherine isn't really the heroine of her own story. It says she is and it is her story but she doesn't save the day, she didn't solve a mystery (maybe I could give that one to her, but I probably wouldn't), she wasn't taken captive by a roving spirit where Mr. Tilney had to come and save her from a fire that the ghost started. No fainting spells, no vampires, no vindictive vendettas she needed to evade, or whatever. In part, she nearly lost it all because her imagination was wild and got the better of her.

Catherine and the rest of the characters are fun. Jane Austen is really good at making her characters human and realistic. Even though her writing style is older it works and stands well against time. Honestly, not many can do that well. They are human with fault and problems, with family who are sometimes the problem, with tempers, and schemes for marriages, for wealth, for love, for stability and survival. Jane Austen took the situations, and sometimes the people, around her and gave them to us to see. One could say she gave a big portion of the truth of Society to Society. (It kind of make me think of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Such a great book.)

I think the biggest hang up that people have for this is the older writing style of Jane Austen's books. Modern minds have to take a second and slow down to actually think about what is being said instead of having the language be as simple as it is today. It's like they have to adjust their eyes and minds to the colorful words.

Lady Susan

Jane Austen is a well known name for many of her works. Mainly Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, &c. but there are some of her works that people don't know. Lady Susan is one of those, though it has risen in popularity though people may not know it.

Lady Susan is a story written in letters between the different characters about the flirtatious whims of Lady Susan. After making a quick leave from friendly relations, she imposes herself on her brother and his family for a time. She is an expert in the ways of speech and a ridiculous flirt. Mrs. Vernon--Lady Susan's sister-in-law--after being invaded by this woman with a sour reputation, has a full house when her brother, also a lover of flirtation, comes to meet her and have lively conversation. But then Lady Susan starts captivating the young Mr. De Courcy. She has snatched away his sense and has him completely wrapped around her finger. Other characters are introduced that shed light on Lady Susan's character, or lack there of, which characters include her daughter and a certain Mr. Manwaring and Mr. James. People all around her can see her intentions and falsehoods, yet are still bewitched by her words.


This story has recently been retold in the movie adaptation "Love and Friendship" (Not to be confused with Jane Austen's satirical story "Love & Freindship," which is also funny, but different). I think Kate Beckinsale did an amazing job at this proud, rather obnoxious character.

I think Jane Austen did an expert job with the letter writing between characters. It gave enough information to not lead the reader astray, but also make it feel like they were letters to friends or family. There was even voice change, even slight at parts, between the different writers, which (as a writer) was fascinating.

I really like the characters. I like they they are a family that has to work through a family problem and that this story doesn't have a "we fixed her and she's not who she was." There is no way to fix Lady Susan because she doesn't think she needs fixing. She is insufferable, but she doesn't think so.

I like how this also shows Jane Austen's humor. Honestly, how many people were writing books like this where the title character is willingly being a lover to a married man and thinks its the wife's fault, and writing this story at the turn of the 19th Century? I mean this two decades before the Victorian Era where they were the most prude and proper society. Twenty years, that's not a lot. (Yes, I know Shakespeare made fart jokes, let us move on.) That is not what we think of when we think Regency, not initially any way.

It is a great read. A short read comparatively, though it comes from a different age. Therefore, writing style and wordage's are different. (Similar to the Hardy Boys, The Belgariad, and Shakespeare.) That change in age can take some getting used to, but once you do it flows so quickly. I love it.

Enjoy the book. Watch the movie and enjoy that too.

Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting was a book I originally read in my 5th grade class and in all actuality is probably the first chapter book to read in class that I actually enjoyed. I haven't read it for years but I found that I still loved it.

Winnie Foster is a girl who is stuck in the moment of sameness. Nothing changes for her in her life, with no friends because she is to proper, to clean, and practically confined to her yard. The only conversation she gets is from a toad that sticks around her yard. So not much conversation, until a man in a yellow suit comes by and asks about a peculiar family that she doesn't know. One day at the top of summer where it is the most hot and nature stands still from heat exhaustion, she decides to run away. She gains the courage to step outside her fenced yard and starts traveling through the woods her family owns when she stumbles upon a boy drinking from spring near the base of a tree. What she is about to find out is that he's part of a family who can't die. She gets taken away to have the situation explained to her, but wait... did she just get kidnapped.

It's a sweet book about kind people who have found the meaning of death, in a not gory or creepy way. I very much enjoyed the book, even as an adult.

I love the way Natalie Babbitt used cycles and circles to convey the metaphors, morals, and themes throughout her story. They were well done and well thought out. I also very much love the characters and they are all so human. Setting was well done especially for the fact that this books takes place, for the most part, in two days. It was set up well.

I honestly don't have any faults in this story. Any major disheartening or dislikes or major troubles.

It's a good book that deserved its rewards. It also has two movie adaptations (one in 1981 and the other in 2002). I very much enjoyed the portrayal of the book done in 2002, though there are differences for exaggeration, but they were fun concepts that were played with. I'm gonna be watchin' it soon.

Please, read it. Enjoy it. You could probably finish it in a day.

The Tower Treasure

Nancy Drew is awesome. Female sleuth, solving mysteries, simple reads that can help people get into the genre. Always good times. What goes right alongside Nancy Drew? The Hardy Boys, of course!

I hadn't ever read any of the Hardy Boys books, but had grown to love the characters in Her Interactive's Nancy Drew PC Games. They are great mystery (point and click, for the most part) games starring Nancy with help from her friends with the Hardy Boys as occasional guest stars. They were so fun to play with/as and I found that I loved them as characters. I needed to read these books! So I picked it up for my son and I to read, though HB books for a six year old is maybe too young. *shrugs * I enjoyed it anyway.

The Tower Treasure is the HB's first mystery. It begins with them almost being run off the road when a crazy driver wizzes by a few times. They come to find out that robberies have been happening all over their little town and it seems to be done by the same man. When their friend's car is stolen they start their investigation off seriously to find the missing vehicle. They receive threats, find a few dead ends, get their "gang" to help as well as the police and their detective father. But it isn't only grand theft auto they are worrying about, the Applegate's--a very rich family in town--have also been burgled with jewels and other things missing from the family safe. Mr. Applegate suspects one of his employee's but the HB's are convinced the man is innocent. Can they find the crook? This is a real caper.

It was a nice mystery that I finished in two days. Clean, cut, ironed and pressed all with a sandwich for the road. Done in the late 1920's, it is simple and proper as expected and delivered.

There isn't really anything wrong with the books, especially because they are meant for a younger audience. There is the definite slang of the time: "swell," "rap" (as in knocking on the door which I guess is still technically okay, but who uses "rap" now a days?), "bucks" instead of dollars was considered rude ("not in this house"), and a few other ones I can't think of off the top of my head. It was funny and kind of shocking, though obviously not in a proverse or scared way. Just unexpected, though it was stupid of me not to.

The thing that I didn't like was the portrayal of girls and women here. The friends who are girls  or who are presented here are always shocked and don't do anything. When their father gets arrested and they find out the girls dramatically clutch their throats and their mother faints needing her smelling salts and medicine. Even Mrs. Hardy is depicted as only cooking, constantly making sandwiches, and either worried or proud and the situation calls for it. Part of me, though, was surprised that Mrs. Hardy was around and mentioned. Even in Nancy Drew, Nancy's mom is dead. Though a lot of Mrs. Hardy's time was making sure her boys were fed. I guess that's what mom's do, feed the family, but I know that's not all I do. I wish she was given more of a personality than cook. Very much playing on stereotypes all around. Mom's, fainting girls, hobos, and other stereotypes. Those were very prominent.

Though, many of the characters were very simple, almost flat. There was very little difference between Frank and Joe where they could have been the same person, which was rather disappointing because in the PC games they were very different. This could be that this is the first story and it is a simple mystery focused on the mystery instead of the characters. The same thing could be said for the setting. There was very little description actually given as the story developed.

I'd be interested to read some of the other books, though I might not read then in the publication order. Just to see how far the boys develop.

Good book for younger kids, though maybe not a six year old. Lol.