My Love for Jane Austen

Rating: ★★★★/★★★★★ This is the second book about Prince William and his fiancée's Kate Middleton's romance that I read after previously reviewing Robin Nunn's charming book, William & Kate: Celebrating a Royal Engagement here . Penned by James Clench, the Royal Reporter for UK's The Sun tabloid newspaper and includes photos by Arthur Edwards, this 208-page hardcover book tells the relationship between the two love birds. For your information, this is the first book available on the market since the official announcement of the couple's engagement on 16 November 2010. For this review, I will make a fair and honest comparison between both books. This book contains a more intimate and elaborate account of the couple's love story. It briefly talks about the holiday vacations that they spend whether together or with friends and family. Compared to Robin Nunn's book, it definitely has more pictures of the couple's time together and individual photo...

The Austenesque scout is happy to let readers know about book giveaways for this week. Blogger mistress of My Jane Austen Book Club , Maria Grazia is interviewing Ms Syrie James as a weekly post featuring Austenesque author. Syrie is the author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen , The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë , Dracula, My Love and her latest novel, Nocturne . The transcript of the interview is available here if you would like to read it. There is a giveaway open for US and Canadian residents only. The prize up for grabs is a copy of Nocturne if you comment on this post . Be sure to leave your email address so that Maria can contact you if you are the winner. This contest ends next Wednesday, 2 February 2011 . Janet Mullany, author of several books including Jane and the Damned , Bespelling Jane Austen and other Regency romance novels, will be releasing a new Little Black Dress book titled Mr. Bishop and the Actress next week on 4 February 2011 to be precise. ...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ After some male colleagues recommended that I watch the latest animation of Tangled , Disney's take on the Brothers Grimm folk tale called Rapunzel , I was initially baffled and curious about what made them (the boys) very keen on this type of fairy tales. As far as I could recollect, most girls who grew up reading a healthy dose of fairy tales like me would find this movie fascinating and delightful to watch with a happily-ever-after ending. So I decided to view this movie with an open mind and I enjoyed this hilarious and emotional take of Rapunzel's journey of learning so much of the world before her. However, I must stress that this is not a review of the movie but rather the concept art behind this successful animation movie. I was fortunate enough to browse through this art book before it is bought by customers since it is now out of stock at the publisher's side and listed as temporarily unavailable at Amazon website. Did you know that Tangl...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ The news of Prince William of Wales' engagement to English rose, Miss Catherine 'Kate' Middleton has launched numerous books dedicated to cover this glamorous and infinitely popular event. The tabloids has and always been one of the most foreground British presses who feed our longing to know more about the soon-to-be princess because not much is known about her besides basic facts that have been covered by the media. Soon enough, other authors thought about writing their love story in printed edition to engage readers to take an in-depth look into the lives of the second-in-line to the British throne and his long-term sweetheart. One of these books that caught my attention is Kate & William: Celebrating a Royal Engagement . This is actually a picture book containing past and recent photographs of both William and Kate with brief but concise descriptions of their life. The author, Robin Nunn originally conceived the idea for his book way back i...

The Austenesque scout is delighted to inform her readers about four giveaways of three Austen-inspired novels. My Jane Austen Book Club 's Maria Grazia is interviewing Pamela Aidan, author of the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series. You can read the transcript of the interview here . There is a giveaway of Pamela's new novella Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour when you leave your comment here with your email address . This contest is open to worldwide readers and ends next Wednesday, 26 January 2011 . As part of My Jane Austen Book Club 's Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Celebration , Vic Sanborn is hosting a January giveaway for a copy of The Three Weissmans of Westport by Cathleen Shine at her blog, Jane Austen Today . This novel, published by Picador, is a new modern retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility . Just comment on this post or/and Jennifer Becton's post about 'Marriage and Money in Sense and Sensibility ' here to...

Hot on the heals of Austenprose 's The Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge 2011 , Ms Maria Grazia of My Jane Austen Book Club is organising another Sense and Sensibility celebration to mark the bi-centenary of the publication of Jane Austen's first novel. The difference between both celebration is Maria's blog will feature a year-long event of guest bloggers from a pool of Austenesque authors and expert Janeites who will post a certain theme, character or topic inspired by Sense and Sensibility . The common thread for both celebrations is that there will be giveaways to readers who kindly leave your comment(s) at the respective posts every month. How exciting! For details, please refer to this post . The schedule for blog posts are announced as follows: January: Jennifer Becton on Men, Marriage and Money in Sense and Sensibility February: Alexa Adams on Sense and Sensibility on Film March: C. Allyn Pierson on Property and Inheritance Laws in Sense ...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ The lives of European Monarchy especially the British royal family, has always intrigued me since childhood. With such a wonderful and privileged life they lead, I could not help but dream that I could travel back to the past and live like a queen or princess in my palace surrounded with luxury and splendour. Maybe due to this reason, I really love reading historical books about monarchies in Europe. When I stumbled across this colouful picture book, I vow to finish reading it first and put it on top of my ever expanding pile of books to-be-read. This 143-page hardcover book contains numerous pictures and photos of modern royal family of today's age selected from the repository of People Magazine's. I love glancing at the colourful pictures and reading the brief descriptions of all aspects of the existing royal families in the world. I have to add that this book is mainly devoted to the British royal family especially on Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of...

Rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ Considering my passion in all books about Jane Austen, it would not be a surprise that I read this book although I normally do not peruse this genre. I was eager to like this instructive guide and after reading from the beginning to the last page, I was not disappointed in spending every single minute of my leisure time. The author, Patrice Hannon wrote with such passion, determination and clarity in channeling Jane Austen through her thoughts that I had no trouble suspending my disbelief that Austen could still be alive today. Let's go back to the book before I divulge more. Written as a series of letters exchanged between modern readers soliciting advice from our beloved Jane, it chronicles problems that women still face in the twenty-first century. Whether it is about love, financial matters or noble characteristics that females should have, Jane clearly loves to dispense her advice in counseling her heroines-in-training to follow a suitable course of ...

After two weeks of absence due to Christmas holidays and the new year, the Austenesque scout is back and pleased to announce two giveaways to her readers. Crown Hill Writers' Guild is hosting a giveaway of an autographed copy of Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour , to celebrate Pamela Aidan's latest release of her novella. To be entered into the drawing for this fabulous prize, just leave your comment here before midnight (PT) Sunday, 16 January 2011 . The bad news is this contest is only open to US residents . Maria Grazia of My Jane Austen Book Club interviewed Marilyn Brant, author of According to Jane and Friday Mornings at Nine in her weekly post titled Talking Jane Austen With... . Take a look here to read the transcripts of the interview. Ms Brant has graciously offered a copy of According to Jane to readers who comment here by answering her questions about your favourite Jane Austen film adaptations or simply ask her a question . Remember to incl...

Officially released on New Year's Day, The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy is the latest offering by Mary Lydon Simonsen and it is her own take of Jane Austen's best-loved novel, Pride & Prejudice . Published by Sourcebooks, it takes readers on a parallel journey with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet but changing the outcome of a certain event to include minor characters that bring about the love match. As is usual for any Sourcebooks authors, Mary will be virtually touring blogs to promote and celebrate her novel. She will either be interviewed or posting her views as guest blogger. There will definitely be copies of her book to be given away to coincide with each visits. Because Sourcebooks will be mostly donating the books, they will only ship to US and Canadian addresses. However, feel free to visit the individual blogs below to learn how you can read her novel for free. Thanks to Mary for providing her tour schedule at her blog 's sidebar. They are ...

A very Happy New Year to you. Last Saturday, 1 January 2011 marks the end of the Everything Austen II challenge which was hosted at Stephanie's Written Word . I joyfully entered this challenge with the wish of indulging myself to reading and viewing Jane Austen's oeuvre. Suffice to say I really enjoyed completing the 12 tasks at hand and exceeded my expectations by conquering an additional task. Although my initial list was very different than my completed task, I plan in future to read, watch and review the other tasks that did not make it to the final list. Below are my completed tasks arranged in chronological order: Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners: Compliments, Charades & Horrible Blunders by Josephine Ross Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth Aston The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler Pride and Prejudice (Marvel Illustrated Comics) by Jane Austen, Nancy Butler and Hugo Petrus The Jane Austen Pocket Bible by Holly Ivins The Cookbook Collec...