From Publishers Weekly
Fowler's fifth novel (after PEN/Faulkner award finalist Sister Noon) features her trademark sly wit, quirky characters and digressive storytelling, but with a difference: this one is book clubâ€"ready, complete with mock-serious "questions for discussion" posed by the characters themselves. The plot here is deceptively slim: five women and one enigmatic man meet on a monthly basis to discuss the novels of Jane Austen, one at a time. As they debate Marianne's marriage to Brandon and whether or not Charlotte Lucas is gay, they reveal nothing so much as their own "private Austen(s)": to Jocelyn, an unmarried "control freak," the author is the consummate matchmaker; to solitary Prudie, she's the supreme ironist; to the lesbian Allegra, she's the disingenuous defender of the social caste system, etc. The book club's conversation is variously astute, petty, obvious and funny, but no one stays with it: the characters nibble high-calorie desserts, sip margaritas and drift off into personal reveries. Like Austen, Fowler is a subversive wit and a wise observer of human interaction of all stripes ("All parents wanted an impossible life for their childrenâ€"happy beginning, happy middle, happy ending. No plot of any kind"). She's also an enthusiastic consumer of popular culture, offsetting the heady literary chat with references to Sex and the City, Linux and "a rug that many of us recognized from the Sundance catalog." Though the 21 pages of quotations from Austen's family, friends and critics seems excessive, the novelty of Fowler's package should attract significant numbers of book club members, not to mention the legions of Janeites craving good company and happy endings.

Sending to nwpassage from my RABCK draws - ENJOY!

Received today - thanks so much Rosie!!! TBR

From the front cover:

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

"If I could eat this novel, I would."
-- Alice Sebold

KAREN JOY FOWLER
AUTHOR OF SISTER NOON

From the back cover:

"This exquisite novel is bigger and more ambitious than it appears... Fowler's shrewdest, funniest fiction yet, a novel about how we engage with a novel. You don't have to be a student of Jane Austen to enjoy it, either... Lovers of Austen will relish this book, but I envy any reader who comes to it unfamiliar with her. There's no better introduction."
-- Patricia T. O'Connor, The New York Times Book Review

"Karen Joy Fowler creates a novel that is so winning, so touching, so delicately, slyly witty that admirers of Persuasion and Emma will simply sigh with happiness."
-- Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

"The Jane Austen Book Club amounts to a witty meditation on how the books we choose, choose us too."
-- David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] terrific comic novel about a closed society merrily transforming itself by reading."
-- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's All Things Considered

"[Fowler] does so terrific a job of bringing her characters to life that Austen's work falls away like a husk. It's an impressive feat of homage, since Fowler essentially borrows Austen's great themes... and makes them her own. Miss Austen would be proud."
-- John Freeman, The Denver Post

Read today. This was an easy, enjoyable read. The only Austen I've ever read was Sense & Sensibility (and that just because I adored Hugh Laurie as Mr. Palmer so much in the film) but though I'm sure I missed some things in this book because of my unfamiliarity with her works, this was still a very accessible book for a non-Austen fan.

I found my reaction to the characters very strange... I neither loved nor hated any of them, rather, I found things to like and to dislike about all of them, leaving me with a rather tepid feeling towards them all. I think my inability to truly connect with any of the characters is what left me feeling that while this enjoyable, I think it will also be quite forgettable as well.

There were 2 passages I wanted to quote:

"Cameron had that peculiar mix of competence and cluelessness that marks the suburban computer geek." [I work as a computer programmer, and I know exactly what she means.]

And this passage, spoken by Bernadette, is just wonderful, and really sums up how I feel about relationships:

"My husbands weren't any of them bad men. I was the problem. Marriage seemed like such a small space whenever I was in it. I like the getting married. Courtship has a plotline. But there's no plot to being married. Just the same things over and over again. Same fights, same friends, same things you do on a Saturday. The repetition would start to get to me.

And then I couldn't fit my whole self into a marriage, no matter who my husband was. There were parts of me that John liked, and different parts for the others, but no one could deal with all of me. So I'd lop some part off, but then I'd start missing it, wanting it back."

This book is now Reserved for SimplyCee, who won this in in my International RABCK Contest.

Mailed today - enjoy!

Thanks! I really appreciate your offer.
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October 10, 2008:
I put this one in the 2003 or Newer VBB so I wanted to get it read, whittle down my TBR pile. I wanted to read this book because I saw the previews for the movie. I didn't like it. I got about 100 pages into it before I gave up. For the most part, I found the book to be boring. I probably could have finished it, but I would not have enjoyed the journey. And now, I'm fairly certain I don't want to see the movie.

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December 9, 2008:
Sent off to bartonz today. :c)

It's here and I look forward to reading it!