It seems that summer is the time of year that the whole world is hyper-aware of books.  Summer reading lists abound, and while those beach reads always sound really enticing, there's one author in particular whose siren song I cannot ignore beginning around mid-May.  That author is the incomparable Jane Austen.

So how do I indulge my obsession with a many many years deceased author who only wrote six novels, all of which I've read [several times each]?  I'm so glad you asked!

For starters, I watch the five-hour Pride & Prejudice BBC mini-series starring Colin Firth; it makes me nostalgic like perhaps nothing else.  It was my first introduction to Jane Austen as a senior in high school (I hadn't read any of her books and had absolutely no idea who Elizabeth Bennett was, crazy I know), and I remember my friends & I deciding, on many many occasions, we needed it watch it [all of it, like right now] at two in the morning.

I may revisit one or all of her books.  The first time I read Northanger Abbey, I found it puzzling, strange, & immature.  Then I realized that this book is a parody (seriously!) of the overly-dramatic gothic novels that were so popular when Jane Austen was a writer, so it is definitely worth a re-visit.  I now find this story delightful & felt truly validated when I read a Publishers Weekly article ranking the books.  (My own personal favorite is Persuasion.)

I spend time sharing Jane Austen love.  (One time I even wrote a blog entry about her for the library where I'm employed!)  When my nieces come visit me, I check out the best toddler book ever.  For adults, I take a different tactic.  I may suggest watching Clueless, a movie I think - no sarcasm, no jokes - may be one of the greatest films ever made.  It's funny & authentic, has a fabulous cast & director, has profoundly influenced youth culture - the director basically created a slang lexicon for an entire generation - & most importantly it's based on an awesome book.  For people who are skeptical that Jane Austen is little more than a glorified romance writer, I would urge them to read the book A Jane Austen Education.  This combination memoir & biography surprised me with its greatness & insight; it was one of those books that made me feel that I'd grown as a person when I had finished reading it.  It put into words everything I'd always felt about Jane Austen but had never been able to adequately explain to myself or anyone else, & frankly, it taught me a lot about life.  If there's one suggestion you take away from reading this blog entry, make it this book.

Aside from A Jane Austen Education, I'm actually not much of a biography reader (of Jane Austen or anyone else), but I do emphatically love the movie Becoming Jane for a really lovely portrait of what her life could have been.  It made me fully appreciate how terrifying it must have been for women to decide to remain unmarried in the 18th & 19th centuries, & I can't help but feel grateful for those brave women who chose that path, demanding rights & respect in a world that was loath to assent.  For these same reasons, I also enjoy watching the remake of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley.  The desperation & urgency Mrs. Bennett feels in marrying off her daughters felt much less flippant than it does in the book, so I understood why a mother would behave that way.  (Though I will NEVER approve of the last scene in this movie - it may be the absolute WORST SCENE in ANY movie EVER.)

So there you have it!  Your very own Jane Austen guidebook, courtesy of one of your Westbank librarians.  Do you have your own summer favorites you'd like to share?  Do you disagree with me about the ending of the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice movie?  Tell us about it on our Facebook page!