Jennifer Petkus's Blog, page 13
August 18, 2012
Decatur Book Festival
I’ll be at the Decatur Book Festival Sept. 1 and 2, mostly promoting my other Jane Austen-related book, My Particular Friend, but I’d be thrilled if you want to stop by and talk about Jane, Actually.
The festival, by the way, looks like a lot of fun and it turns out it’s the largest independent book festival in the country. It’s sponsored by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper and there should be 300 authors present.
I’m there at the invitation of the Jane Austen Society of North America Georgia region, in one of two tents with about 25 women (and one man) of a certain age wilting in the Georgia heat and humidity. I fear I will look inelegant, but I’m also looking forward to kibitzing with my fellow authors.
August 1, 2012
And while I’m at it, where are the American raconteurs?
Arguably since the death of actor Tony Randall, there are no mainstream American raconteurs anymore. If you’re unfamiliar with the term raconteur, shame on you if you’re an American because this country turned out some of the greatest raconteurs ever, from Mark Twain and Will Rogers to Fred Allen and Orson Welles and Tony Randall. [...]
There is a presenter gap, and U.S. is on wrong side of it
I watch a lot of documentaries because it’s really the only entertainment on which my husband and I agree. He’s willing to watch Jane Austen with me, but understandably does not have my appetite for Jane. And I can enjoy the occasional baseball game with him, but the Colorado Rockies suck this year. And he [...]
July 27, 2012
Should have been an Austen quote
The current Olympics-themed Smithsonian Magazine has been a treasure trove, but it all pales in significance to this one quote: “He may be a little dull, but after all, what a comfort it is to be cleverer than one’s husband.” That’s a friend remarking of the husband of Ettie, Lady Desborough. Lord Desborough helped realize [...]
A Tale of Two Cities, Both Called London
This is the best explanation I’ve ever seen about why there is a large metropolitan area called London (that includes Westminster) and a one-square mile area called the City of London. It explains why there are two mayors of London (Boris Johnson with the Trump-like hair is the mayor of greater London) and two police [...]
July 25, 2012
Update on the Library Passage in Worthing
From Chris Sandrawich, Membership Secretary Jane Austen Society Midlands If you have received this e-mail it means that I have written to you on this subject before. I bring good news and ‘not so good news’: the Library Passage is to be closed but Jane Austen lovers will be allowed access to it, on terms [...]
July 14, 2012
Mudlarks still exist in present-day London
On the heels of my previous post about dirty jobs, I found another article in the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine (Let the Good Thames Roll, July-August 2012) that mentioned that mudlarks still search the Thames at low tide for both history and profit. In fact, there’s even a History Channel UK series called Mud [...]
July 13, 2012
What I’m reading: Mercy’s Embrace by Laura Hile
Following on Karen Aminadra’s Charlotte Collins, where she rehabilitates one of the less appealing Jane Austen characters, I have found Laura Hile’s Mercy’s Embrace: So Rough a Course, where she tackles Elizabeth Elliot, the oldest of the Elliot sisters from Persuasion. From my reading of the Kindle sample, however, I suspect Elizabeth Elliot (Austen’s other [...]
July 12, 2012
The Speckled Band
The Speckled Band is one of those Sherlock Holmes stories that’s almost as famous for its bizarre errors as it is for the exciting story of the wait in the darkened room for the swamp adder to come slithering down the bell pull. And it was the topic at the most recent Outpatients meeting of [...]
July 10, 2012
Good Cop, Dead Cop free for Kindle July 14
You can get Good Cop, Dead Cop free for the Kindle Saturday, July 14. And Amazon Prime members can always read it for free while it is a Kindle Select. Just visit Amazon in the US, UK, Italy, France and Germany, search for Good Cop, Dead Cop, by Jennifer Petkus, to get your free copy.
