Pemberly Shades By D.A. Bonavia-Hunt

The old Rector of Pemberley has died and a suitable person must be found to take over the benefice. Although Mr. Collins is presently out of favor with Darcy’s Aunt Catherine and his living might be in jeopardy, he will, certainly, not be a candidate.
An old school chum of Darcy has a brother who has taken orders. Fitz has never met him but the brother has asked that the man be considered. After a meeting with his friend it is agreed that the brother, Stephen Acworth will spend a few days at Pemberley to see how things workout.

As Steven Acworth settles in, everyone is surprised and disappointed in the strange behavior of the man. A mild mystery develops as Acworth interacts with all of the families as Darcys celebrate a birthday by inviting the Bennets, the Bingleys, Elizabeth’s sisters and Fitz’s relatives and neighbors . Lady Catharine and her daughter and Mr. Collins were included in the company. It was fun to read about all of the characters from “Pride and Prejudice” as Ms Bonavia-Hunt visualizes how they developed in the three and one half years since Elizabeth and Fitz were married. We meet every one of them and , also, some new characters all of whom have differing feelings towards Stephen Acworth. Some light humor, a few tense moments and a surprise but an interesting and easy read about some familiar characters.

The Jane Austin Miscellany By Lesley Bolton

This is a small 128 page volume of quotes from Jane Austen’s novels and the many movie adaptations of her stories. Nice illustrations by Charles Edmond Brock and his brother, Henry Matthew Brock who illustrated some of the original Austen novels in 1895 through 1907.
An example from Charlotte Lucas in “Pride and Prejudice:

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”

Emma By Jane Austen

A rich, spoiled young girl with not enough to otherwise occupy herself believes that she is the consummate matchmaker and gets involved in other peoples lives with tragic consequences. Emma’s life is perfect as far as she is concerned but her ideas about people and relationships are badly flawed. She makes a mess of things when she tries to match a good friend with, clearly, the wrong person even though her friend is enamored with a somewhat dull but kind and caring person, a farmer. Emma, ever class conscious, does her best to convince her friend that the man is entirely wrong for her. It all gets sorted out in time and Emma is put in her place by a good friend who turns out to be more than a friend.
Jane Austen consistently draws great characters and places the reader right in the times that she lived in; a fun, lively and interesting read.

February Update - Books and Taxes

February has been a busy month; we started doing taxes at the senior citizen building in Winchester on Mondays and Wednesday and because they are short handed in Tullahoma, I go there and help on Tuesday and Thursday; it is interesting and challenging work.

I finished Phillip Pullman's trilogy and found it to be a splendid work of fantasy, adventure and story telling. "The Golden Compass" sets the stage in a parallel world where we meet the young girl, Lyra, who plays the major role throughout the trilogy as as a kind of "chosen one" whose actions will determine the fate of her world and that of the many other parallel worlds. The theme is "anti religious". Scientists and scholars are in disagreement with the controlling religious factors and the clergy have formed secret societies that are conducting vile experiments. The origin of "original sin" seems to be a matter of considerable importance. The characters are certainly interesting; Every person has his or her personal "daemon" which takes the form of some kind of animal, the "daemon" that is attached in some way to the person. is a life long companion there are Witches, evil creatures, Angels, Giant bears who work metal and wear armour, tiny folk who ride giant dragonflies and town people of all kinds. Lyra is in danger most of the time and relies on her quick wit and friends she acquires on her journey. The second book "The Subtle Knife" introduces Will who finds his way into Lyra's world by accident and befriends her. As they journey together, he acquires the Subtle Knife which enables him to "cut" a doorway into other worlds. In this book, Lyra learns more about her "purpose" and her journey takes clear direction. In the third book, "The Amber Spyglass", old and new characters are further developed and a visit to the world of the dead is made; all the elements of "Dante" are in this voyage; the hooded boatman, the trip across the river, the different places of suffering and the disappointment of of those who were promised so much by their clergy and found only chaos and pain. Lyra and her friend "cut" a way out of "hell" for the poor souls where they could become one with the stars and the universe. Great effort and a great story.

Just finished a scary, fearsome and gruesome novel by Joe Hill; "Heart Shaped Box". A man buys a suit of clothes on the Internet that is supposed to be haunted. When it arrives, in a heart shaped box, he learns that it is, indeed, haunted by a very evil spirit in the form of an old man who was the father of a girl that the man mistreated many years ago. The moments of terror are many and continues through the story. I was worn out when I finished it in one reading. Joe Hill is one of Stephen King's sons writing under a pen name and he is making quite a name for himself in the "horror story" genre.

I am in the middle of Julie Kavanagh's "Nureyev". This is an amazing story; Rudnik, as they called him explored the heights and the depths of life and was so very creative and different and ahead of his time in the dance that he was both criticized and acclaimed.

Amazon had a good buy on a single volume that contained seven Jane Austen novels so I am, again, enthralled with her genius; I am rereading and enjoying the widow Dashwood and her family in "Sense and Sensibility"; what marvelous characters!

Douglas Preston's new one, "Blasphemy" is on my reading list. It looks very interesting; a new supercollider that will cause science and religion to be in conflict (again).

Those Three Remain/ Pamela Aiden

I am posting this as a reference for a fellow Jane Austen admirer

Ms Aidan is a librarian and long time fan of Jane Austen. So much so that she wrote a trilogy
giving more color and depth and history to the characters of "Pride and Prejudice" and even made up a few more people. As usual, I found and read the last in her series subtitled "Fitzwilliam Darcy - Gentleman".

This novel picks up the story when Mr. Darcy makes his horribly stupid proposal to Elizabeth Bennet and he is, of course rejected. Darcy decides that he must change his attitude and ways and become a person that Ms Bennet could admire and, perhaps, love. The novel is fair and faithful to Jane Austin’s work and includes many of the original, poignant passages but it also creates some reasonable scenarios and details relating to what Darcy actually did to help the Bennet family (all for the love of Elizabeth) and gives plausible answers to questions one might have about what went through Darcy’s mind. I enjoyed it a lot probably because I liked the original novel so much. I will not, however, go back to the earlier novels of the trilogy.