Tag Archives: Read

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I Always Deserve the Best Treatment, Because I Never Put Up With Any Other.

Happy New Year!

I had a hard time trying to decide what to entitle this year’s post,was there something I cared for that was having a special anniversary? After looking through the years the only thing I found was Emma (1972) is turning 50. Of course that mean I will be reviewing it (as soon as I finish the last episode of Austentatious.

With that it means a very Emma year, which has already started. I don’t know about you all but lately I tend to waffle between these two thoughts, getting ready for things and having plans fall apart due to some new COVID related issue:

And trying to maintain a good attitude in these trying times:

But no matter how bad it gets, there is always Jane Austen to make you feel better.

Or Read

I’m going to try and carry on with the attitude of Emma. Whether you love her or hate her-she knows what she deserves.

Now on to the year in review!

The Views

This year I had over 100,000 views! That might not seem like a lot to some but I’m thankful for every one.

Wow!

The Top Five Posts

Here are the top five most viewed posts of the year, although again none were posted this year. I guess whatever I post in the actual year is never popular enough? Who knows.

5) Being Friends is Good Enough: Catching Fire (2013) from Romance is in the Air II from 2014

4) Time is the Most Important Thing from 2015

3) A Real Man from 2014

2) What Happened to Ally Palmer?: The Good Student (2006) from Horrorfest VII 2018

1) Fulfilling the List: A Walk to Remember (2002) from Romance is in the Air 2013

Recipes

Who doesn’t love having a nice teatime snack to read or watch Jane Austen with?

Jane Austen Posts

It’s the name of the blog, of course we need posts on Jane Austen or her works!

Jane Austen and the Regency Era:

Sense and Sensibility:

Pride and Prejudice:

Emma:

Northanger Abbey:

Persuasion:

Tea Time Posts:

Jane Austen Birthday Tea Party

Last year I turned 29 and decided to throw myself a Jane Austen themed birthday party!

Jane Austen Runs My Life Collaboration with Madsen Creations

This year I collaborated with Madsen Creations and made some Jane Austen themed clothing and household items!

JARML collab with Madsen Creations recreating the Selena top:

JARML Spooky collab with Madsen Creations

Catherine Morland’s Viewing List

Similar to Catherine Morland’s Reading List, this is a list of gothic films I recommend for the Henry Tilneys and Catherine Morlands who are looking for something spooky to watch.

Spill the Tea, Tea Reviews

I’ve wanted to do this for a while and last year I started reviewing tea places, more to come soon!

Horrorfest X

31 reviews of horror films, mysteries, monsters, etc; and of course Northanger Abbey.

BookishFirst Bingo

On Instagram (@janeaustenrunsmylife) I try to achieve a Bookish Bingo every month. I usually read whatever I like and then see which slot it fills. I write how it fits the categories in my stories and save them for the moth and the one after, replacing it with the new month’s selections. It is a lot of fun, and I recommend trying it out.

July Blogiversary

For my Blogiversary this year my niece reviewed Northanger Abbey (2007) and on my Instagram I asked a series of questions and posted the results. I asked the following questions this year:

  • Unpopular Jane Austen Opinions
  • What Pop Culture book/film/movie/idea do you think the Jane Austen characters would be obsessed with?
  • If there was a company that allowed you to hire Jane Austen cosplayers would you? Who would you want to hire?
  • Which Jane Austen Character is the most annoying
  • What is a Jane Austen adaption you like to watch or read over and over again
  • If you could cast any actor (alive or dead) as Mr. Darcy who would it be?
  • If you could cast any actresses (alive or dead) as Elizabeth Bennet who would it be?
  • Which Jane Austen adaption needs to be turned into a film, TV show, or needs to be remade?
  • If the characters from Jane Austen lived today, what would their fashion style be?
  • Should I make some Jane Austen Runs My Life stickers?
  • Which Jane Austen hero is actually the worst? And why?
  • Who is more desperate to marry off their children: Mrs. Bennet or General Tilney?
  • If you could cast Aiden Turner, Lee Pace, Kit Harrington, or James Frain in a Jane Austen adaption, which one and which character?
  • Which Jane Austen Parent is the worst?
  • If you could cast Emily Mortimer, Natalie Dormer, Rachel Weisz, or Michelle Dockery in a Jane Austen adaption, which one and which character?
  • Which Jane Austen adaption is the worst?
  • What Jane Austen opinion will you not be talked out of and believe until the day you die

MadsenCreations Noirvember

I assisted MadsenCreations in her Noirvember and posted my reviews of the films on my tiktok. We reviewed the following films (although I still need to post the remaining few reviews). Don’t be surprised if some of these pop up during this year’s Horrorfest.

25 Films of Christmas

  • The Thin Man (1934)
  • The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
  • The Lady in the Lake (1947)
  • Backfire (1950)
  • Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
  • Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
  • Die Hard (1988)
  • Batman Returns (1992)
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
  • The Santa Clause (1994)
  • Jingle All The Way (1996)
  • You’ve Got Mail (1998)
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
  • The Santa Claus 2 (2002)
  • Love Actually (2003)
  • The Polar Express (2004)
  • 12 Men of Christmas (2009)
  • A Christmas Wedding Date (2012)
  • The Christmas Candle (2013)
  • A Cinderella Christmas (2016)
  • The Mistletoe Promise (2016)
  • Marry Me at Christmas (2017)
  • Love Hard (2021)
  • Spider-man: No Way Home (2021)

That’s it for 2021, here’s hoping 2022 will be better!

For 2020 in review, go to I Will Be Calm. I Will Be Mistress of Myself

For 2019 in review, go to The Mysterious Affair at Jane Austen Runs My Life

For 2018 in review, go to The Future is Bulletproof

For 2017 in review, go to Life Seems But a Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

For 2016 in review, go to A New Hope

For 2015 in review, go to To Boldy Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

For 2014 in review, go to Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

For 2013 in review, go to Looking at the Past, Focusing on the Future

For 2012 in review, go to Looking Back, Moving Forward

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Jane Austen (Little People, BIG DREAMS)

Jane Austen (Little People. BIG DREAMS) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

Another Jane Austen biography for children?

What can I say?

But before I start my review, let me pause and say:

Happy Birthday Jane Austen!

Yes, today marks her 246th birthday, and I thought what better way to celebrate than by reviewing a Jane Austen biography.

This year for my littlest niece’s (5 years old) Christmas gift, I bought her some tiny tea cups that she could have tea with. You see when she visited this summer I converted her to a love of tea and tea parties and want to reenforce that as much as possible.

Party time!

Of course something else I am trying to brainwash encourage in the younger members of my family is a love of Jane Austen. I had already bought this niece the Babylit books and needed something else Jane Austen related that fit her age. I thought about gifting her the same book I gave my 10 year old niece, A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice, but decided to wait as that book was more advanced and designed for older children. Instead I starting searching for something suitable for a 5 year old.

Hmm…?

I started searching through Amazon (I don’t have a local bookstore) and found this biography from the Little People, BIG DREAMS series. It looked cute so I ordered it, and of course had to give it a quick read and review.

I really liked the amount of pictures to text this book had as it was a great balance for a children’s book. It gave a basic biography in easy to understand terms, while still telling a cute story that children in the age range of 4-7 years will enjoy following.

I also loved how it highlighted her playwriting and the way her family would act her works out.

But the thing I enjoyed most of all about this book is that instead of just mentioning Pride and Prejudice or Elizabeth Bennet, it actually highlights all the heroines of her novels. You hardly ever see anything that mentions Fanny Price/Mansfield Park, Catherine Morland/Northanger Abbey, or Anne Elliot/Persuasion in kids books and I’m so happy this one did. I need to lay the groundwork for Northanger Abbey.

If there are parents, or kids, who are interested in knowing more about Jane Austen, there is an expanded short biography in the back of the book.

I thought it was a cute book and a great one for kids.

If interested in purchasing, click on this link. (If you do choose to purchase through the link provided, a small percentage does go to me through the Amazon affiliate program).

For more Jane Austen children’s books, go to A Most Clever Girl: How Jane Austen Discovered Her Voice

For more Jane Austen biographies, go to Jane Austen: Her Heart Did Whisper

For more picture books, go to How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea

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Why Don’t More People Talk about Mrs. Goddard?

So to be honest, I never really thought about Mrs. Goddard, from Emma, other than she was the woman who ran the home/school that Harriet lives and attends.

Emma 1996 AKA the Gwyneth Paltrow version.

In fact, I never gave her a second thought until a while back I read the book A Visit to Highbury: Another View of Emma.

But when you think of it, Mrs. Goddard is a pretty amazing woman. She is a widow who has managed to not struggle in poverty but become a mistress of a school-not a college or upper education, but a really pleasant place for kids to learn some skills and live and grow.

“Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a School-not a seminary, or an establishment…where young ladies for enormous pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity-but a real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price.”

She has a house and garden, feeds the children good food (that in itself is an amazing kindness-think of Jane Eyre and the slop they eat), let them have freedom to play in  the summer, etc. All I could think when reading this was all the horrible girls schools you read in fiction-Jane Eyre’s terrifying experiences, the way everyone bullies and looks down on Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, the mean Miss Minchin in A Little Princess, etc. I would much rather go to Mrs. Goddard’s than any of those other ones.

I mean Becky is treated horribly for having a mother who was a dancer/actress (often a codeword for prostitute), but her parents were known and married. With Harriet, she doesn’t know who her father is-but she isn’t treated badly or excluded like Becky, at Mrs. Goddard’s Harriet and any girl there can have a happy and pleasant time.

I also think that for Mrs. Goddard this school isn’t just financial security, but for someone who never had children of her own, she can enjoy mothering all these girls.

I just love how in all of Austen’s stories she creates these wonderful characters and makes them so alive. Mrs. Goddard is not in the book a lot, but in it enough for ant to appreciate her.

For more Emma, go to Achy Breaky Heart: Austentatious (2015)

For more on Mrs. Goddard, go to A Visit to Highbury: Another View of Emma

For more character studies, go to Right Away I Know I Won’t Like You

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Catherine Morland’s Reading List

So I was at the library and shelving some books when I came across The Inn at Half Moon Bay by Diane Tyrell. It was described as a Gothic novel and I thought Catherine Morland would totally read this.

So if it is something she would read, I need to read it.

So then I started thinking about all the other book Catherine Morland would read. Like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Frankestein, etc. All the books mentioned in Northanger Abbey and ones that were published at the time and after.

Wow!

I then thought, oh it would be nice of I could review this on my blog and the other books.

Why not start a new series, Catherine Moreland’s Reading List? Here I would review books that Catherine Morland would read: Gothic novels.

I know, I know-haven’t I already started two other series recently?

Not to mention all the Austen remakes I have listed out to review?

Yes, but you know me. I like to challenge myself.

Yeah, plus you know I love to read.

So books on this list are going to be Gothic novels. For those wondering what classifies a book as a Gothic Novel, here is the definition.

Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance.

So some of these books I have already reviewed, and the rest are what I plan on doing in the future.

A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Poison Diaries by The Duchess of Northumberland

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Rebecca by Daphne du Marier

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex

The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Necromancer, or The Tale of the Black Forest by Karl Friedrich Kahlert

Secrets of the Heart (The Ravensmoore Chronicles #1) by Jillian Kent

The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

The Castle of Wolfenbach: A German Story by Eliza Parsons

The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” from The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allen Poe

“The Tell-Tale Heart” from The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allen Poe

The Italian by Ann Radcliffe

The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve 

Clermont by Regina Maria Roche

Cat Burglar Black by Richard Sala

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Orphan of the Rhine by Eleanor Sleath

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Inn at Half Moon Bay by Diane Tyrell

 

For more Gothic Novels, go to Book Club Picks: Wuthering Heights

For more book lists, go to The Retellings Strike Back: Pride & Prejudice, cont.

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Book Club Picks: A Light in the Window

So I have fallen waaaay behind with my posts, but as you know I started a book club this year:

Every month we read a book and I do a little post on the book we read and discussed.

There is no theme, other than with each month, a different member gets to pick a book, whichever one they want. Back in May, one member choose the first book in The Mitford Years series, so when it was their turn to pick they decided on us reading the second book in the series.

A Light in the Window (The Mitford Years #2) by Jan Karon

This book is set in the fictional town of Mitford, North Carolina. The last book centered around the Vicar, Father Tim as he is contemplating at age 60 if he should continue or retire. In that year he faces all kinds of changes from a dog adopting him, taking in a child, jewel thieves, a fake antiquities ring, health changes, a new neighbor/love interest, all kinds of secrets being revealed, and more. This town and Father Tim will never be the same.

At the end of the first book he and Cynthia (his neighbor) have become boyfriend and girlfriend. This is a huge step for Father Tim as this is his first relationship in forty years.

While he loves Cynthia, he finds himself unsure about the relationship, and draws into himself pulling away from her.

Cynthia, understandingly gets upset:

And now Father Tim has a choice to fight for her or let her go.

Meanwhile, a recently widowed parishioner has set her sights on Father Tim, not caring he’s in a relationship. She starts cooking him up his favorite dishes in the hope of capturing him.

Father Tim had just returned from a trip to Ireland and discovers that one of his cousins has followed him home and wants to stay with him while she works on her book. However, something about her is not right as she spends all her time in her room, her dishes disappear, she eats everything, she never leaves her room, etc and more.

Something is not right.

So I loved the first book

But this one, not as much. I mean it has some real good parts, funny moments, and things that I really enjoyed, but it was missing all the fun characters and their interactions from the first one.

The other thing I didn’t like was how a big part was done in letters between Cynthia and Father Tim as she has to go to New York for months to work on her book. While I like epistolary novels, this made me feel like a voyeur reading such personal mail. I was the only one who didn’t like it, as the other book club members loved it. What can I say:

So on a whole, the book was good-but I just felt it paled in comparison to the first one. It was just missing a little spark.

For more book club picks, go to Book Club Picks: A Voice in the Wind

For more on The Mitford Years, go to Book Club Picks: At Home in Mitford