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.

Read the book some time ago and was not really impressed by it. I assume I expected more Austen in it. Now I got this second copy and it can travel the world

Edit 2009: first time I say this, but I really prefer the film :-)

RELEASE NOTES:

Travelling to Helsinki

The book had arrived while I was away for Easter. Thank you so much, Leseschaf!

This was a nice light read but nothing special really. There could have been more analysis on Jane Austen, now they just discussed the books really briefly and then the book went on to tell about the person that was hosting the book club that time. Took me the first one and half chapters or so before I realized that the characters and their favourite books were related.

I didn't like it that at the end of the book the books by Austen were all summarized and there were also far too many comments on Austen by other authors etc. People who read this book are likely to have read Austen anyway, and if they haven't, they should!

Caught the book in a BC meeting in Helsinki yesterday. Have heard of the book from a friend of mine so plan to read it. Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors so a book that talks about her books will certainly be interesting.

Finally finished the book, had so many others to read as well. Took some time to get into it, but after that, reading was fast. As the other journalers said, nothing really special, but a nice read. I found I didn't like Allegra's character, as I thought her as selfish and thoughtless as Marianne Dashwood, but the author's comparison of Jane Austen fans and science fiction fans was interesting. Both can be very passionate about their genre. Liking both Austen's books and science fiction and fantasy, I can relate to that.

Now I just have to re-read my favourite Austens, Persuasion first.

I'm giving this book to a friend of mine today as she expressed interest in it.