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The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel
by Karen Joy Fowler

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2152.The_Jane_Austen_Book_Club_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1160527158m/2152.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2152.The_Jane_Austen_Book_Club_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1448.Karen_Joy_Fowler">Karen Joy Fowler</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8234075?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>I have never read any of Asten's books so I was a little concerned that I would not be able to get into the book if it was basically just a discussion of Austen and her work. The Jane Austen Book club is strange in that you may get more out of it if you have read all of Austen's work, but if not you can simply read it for the story within the story of the members of the group. Sometimes it seems that the discussion of Austen books is simply a backdrop for the real story being told of these 5 women and one man who meet and discuss books. Sometimes the author seems to draw resemblances between the characters in Austen books and the characters in her book (Jocelyn as Emma). I want to see the movie just because I always want to see if the movie ever beats the book, though it rarely if ever does. Fowler seems to even admit this point herself at one point in the book and I wonder if she knew her book were going to be made into a movie itself.
<br/>
<br/>     "You might change and your reading might change as a result, but the book remained whatever it had always been....The movies, as everyone knew, had no respect for this. All the characters had been altered..."
<br/>
<br/>I do think that I now have to read at least a little of Austen and then maybe read this book again for a little more appreaciation for all it could be.My one dislike for the book is that it keeps going off on remote stories of people that the characters met in life. ex. The woman, Cynthia, at the wedding chapel where Bernadette was married to her first husband. What does the white cat story have to do with anything? Useless filler if you ask me.
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/568109?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Lisa's review
rating:

bookshelves: books--movies, chic-lit
status: Read in February, 2008 — I have a copy to sell/swap

** spoiler alert ** I have never read any of Asten's books so I was a little concerned that I would not be able to get into the book if it was basically just a discussion of Austen and her work. The Jane Austen Book club is strange in that you may get more out of it if you have read all of Austen's work, but if not you can simply read it for the story within the story of the members of the group. Sometimes it seems that the discussion of Austen books is simply a backdrop for the real story being told of these 5 women and one man who meet and discuss books. Sometimes the author seems to draw resemblances between the characters in Austen books and the characters in her book (Jocelyn as Emma). I want to see the movie just because I always want to see if the movie ever beats the book, though it rarely if ever does. Fowler seems to even admit this point herself at one point in the book and I wonder if she knew her book were going to be made into a movie itself.

"You might change and your reading m...more

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