This is the Jane Austen Reading Challenge for 2011 featured on Austen Prose, one of the blogs I follow here.



Novels in the Series


Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor (1996)
Jane and the Man of the Cloth (1997)
Jane and the Wandering Eye (1998)
Jane and the Genius of the Place (1999)
Jane and the Stillroom Maid (2000)
Jane and the Prisoner of the Wool House (2001)
Jane and the Ghosts of Netley (2003)
Jane and His Lordship’s Legacy (2005)
Jane and the Barque of Frailty (2006)
Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron (2010)
Jane and the Canterbury Tale (2011)


Challenge Details
Time-line: The Being a Jane Austen Mystery Challenge runs January 1, through December 31, 2011.
Levels of participation: Neophyte: 1 – 4 novels, Disciple 5 – 8 novels, Aficionada 9 – 11 novels.
Enrollment: Sign up’s are open until July 01, 2011. First, select your level of participation. Second, copy the Being a Jane Austen Mystery Reading Challenge graphic and include it in your blog post detailing the mysteries that you will read in 2011. Third, leave a comment linking back to your blog post in the comments of this announcement post. If you do not have a blog you can still participate. Just leave your commitment to the challenge in the comments below.
Check Back Monthly: The Being a Jane Austen Mystery Challenge 2011 officially begins on Wednesday, January 12, 2010 with my review of the first mystery in the series, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. Check back on the 2nd Wednesday of each month for my next review in the challenge.


Your Participation: Once the challenge starts you will see a tab included at the top of Austenprose called Reading Challenges. Click on the tab and select Being a Jane Austen Mystery Reading Challenge 2011. Leave a comment including the mystery that you finished and a link to your blog review. If you do not have a blog, just leave a comment about which book you finished with a brief reaction or remark. It’s that easy.


The Prizes
Oh, of course there are prizes! Author Stephanie Barron has very generously offered one signed hardcover or paperback copy of each of the novels that we will be reviewing each month here on Austenprose to be drawn from comments left with each post, and one signed paperback copy of each of the eleven novels in the series to one lucky Grand Prize Winner to be drawn from comments left at any and all of the reviews left on this blog or yours. Yes, that means that your readers who comment on your challenge reviews have a chance to win too. Winners will be announced monthly two weeks after the blog post, and Grand Prize winner will be announced on January 01, 2012. Shipment to US or Canadian address only.
Bonus Stuff: Yes, of course there is more to get happy about. Availability of each of the novels in the series is great. The books can be purchased or eBooks download at most online etailers and brick and mortar stores. Since the series is so popular, your local library should be a great resource too.


One of the delights of the series is the incredible historical detail that parallel Jane Austen’s life. To expand upon our reading journey in 2011, author Stephanie Barron will be blogging about researching and writing each of the novels as we progress through the series at her Stephanie Barron blog. What an incredible resource and motivation for your reading challenge!
So, make haste and join the challenge today. I am so looking forward to revisiting all the novels in the Being a Jane Austen Mystery series in 2011 and hope you can join in too.
Cheers,
Laurel Ann


Participants
Laurel Ann – Austenprose
Theresa – The Treehouse
Ruth – Book Talk and More
Ruchama
Karen Field
Joanne – Slice of Life
Kimberly – Reflections of a Book Addict
Bella
Kristin
Dana – Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Stephanie
Staci – Life in the Thumb Reading Challenges
Meredith – Austenesque Reviews
Katherine – November’s Autumn
Luthien84 – For the Love of Jane Austen
Joan
Wallace – Unputdownables
Lauren Cartelli – The Literary Gothamite
Brooke – Bluestocking Guide
Angie – Attentively Attentive to All Things
Jenna – Face to Face with his Heart of Mine
Mimi – I Have a Writers Blog
Susan
Amy L.
Velvet – vvb32 Reads
Kerri
Alice
Emilee Turner – Another Binkley Sister Blog
Lee Smith – Butterfly Blessings
Mags – AustenBlog
PJ – Book Reviews by PJ
Nicole – Infusions of Wit From An Everyday Girl
Valerie
Krystal
Whitney – She Is Too Fond Of Books
Angela Traubel
Katherine Keenan
Anna – Diary of an Eccentric
Andrea – Custard Kisses
M. C. – This Life for Rent
Patricia Gulley
Alice – Jane Austen is My Wonderland
Kim – Love Letters to the Library
Valerie
Kelli
C. Allyn Pierson
Jessica M. – Goodreads Bookshelf
Angie – Never a Dull Moment
Karen V. Wasylowski – Author Karen V. Wasylowski’s Blog
© 2007 – 2010 Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose

Seventeen days left

Day three of my blatant pandering to Lucy and now Meredith. I found this great Youtube video of Colin with David Letterman. I am liking Letterman more and more as he, and I, get older. We are both mellowing. Interesting that Colin lived in St. Louis and his mother is from Iowa or something like that. Of course Colin is his usual relaxed elegant self.

Anyway, evidently my book is being shipped earlier than expected by Amazon. Can't get rid of them fast enough - the price is dropping faster than my IQ. The Fresno book signing will take place in April in a place called The Paul New Center. I was very excited about finally being united with the first love of my life when Sharon Lathan explained that it was not THAT Paul Newman.

Lucy, the trailer I was talking about before needs major work. $3,800 worth of work. The trailer isn't even worth $3,800. However, the floor in the second bedroom is sagging and the closet floor is about to give way. This is what happens in Florida. Everything gets old.

And now, for your Firth viewing pleasure....




And for the Macfadyen viewing audience...

Eighteen days to go

Hello everyone and Lucy,

As I am now forced to pay people to look at my blog I submit this Youtube of a 2003 Colin Firth and a gushing Jon Stewart. (man crush) Colin looks very young, thin and fit, as we all did seven flipping year ago.

If you go to Austen Authors you will see two posts today for books debuting on February 1. The second one is mine. Go directly to that one and say something nice about me. Supposedly the book is being shipped out earlier than they had previously said. I am including a lot of words here so that this video does not obscure my Darcy and Fitz video to the right.

Enjoy!

Join in the Story on Austen Authors!

Austen authors is having a twitter story go round with everyone able to participate in creating. They are taking story ideas now through the end of January. I imagine this as like participating in one of those Sims games. You can take your character through your story but the next person can take the story any other way. it will be fun and unpredictable - like real life. Go to www.austenauthors.com and check out the details.

Twenty days

Twenty days to go and our attention is aimed toward putting out fires here at home. We own a vacation trailer that we rent out for the Florida season when everyone over ninety-five up north decides to come here and annoy us. I am not that much younger than them anymore and it pisses me off. Anyway, we were contacted last year by a couple, held the trailer for them until they arrived New Year's Eve. By New Year's day the nasty lady was calling, eight in the blessed a.m. to complain that the family we had rented it to during the summer left the place a mess. It was immaculate. The woman is insane.

By Tuesday the couple said they couldn't live in the trailer anymore. To be fair to them the floor is a bit wobbly (it's an old trailer but really cute. It was redone to look like a little house. For vagrants.) By happenstance they have family nearby who live in a trailer park and the trailer next to them just became available. We let them go. I would have driven them over if I could.

Now we are going to rent to a nice teacher and her son. She has a relative who can fix our floor there so that's good. The trailer looks out onto a huge field so it's not a bad place to live all in all. I'd love to move back north and use it ourselves just for the winter. One day I am hoping common sense and drugs will make my husband see the reasoning in this. Until then, I am stuck here in paradise.

Twenty days to go. And now for your Colin Firth Darcyites...

My First Review - Booklist!!!

BOOKLIST

Advanced Review – Uncorrected Proof
Issue: February 1, 2011
Darcy and Fitzwilliam.
Wasylowski, Karen V. (Author)
Feb 2011. 496 p. Sourcebooks/Landmark, paperback, $14.99. (9781402245947).

Married life is bliss. At least that is what Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam’s cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy would have him believe. But Richard has no intention of stepping into the parson’s mousetrap until he encounters America widow Amanda Penrod at one of London’s innumerous balls. Instantly smitten, Richard suddenly finds himself behaving as foolishly as Mr. Darcy did when he was courting Elizabeth Bennet. While Richard is busy struggling to navigate the unfamiliar seas of romance with Amanda, an unexpected storm in the person of Caroline Bingley threatens to stir up the formerly placid matrimonial waters of the Darcy household. While staying true to the spirit of the immortal Jane, Wasylowski does bringsome subtle changes of her own into Pride and Prejudice (including giving one of literature’s great harridans, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a kinder, gentler personality), and her deftly written tale of family, friendship, and marriage should please most Regency readers
— John Charles

Pride and Prejudice