Everything Austen II Challenge

It's back! Hosted by Stephanie from Stephanie's Written Word, the Everything Austen Challenge is gearing up for its 2nd year of reading and watching everything Austen (and Austen related).  Here are the details:

The Everything Austen Challenge will run for six months (July 1, 2010 – January 1, 2011)! All you need to do is pick out six Austen-themed things you want to finish to complete the challenge. You have until Thursday, July 15th 2010 to officially sign up.

For any more info and to sign up, check out Stephanie's Written Word. 

I'm definitely participating! Now I just need to figure out what Austenish reads and films I want to immerse myself in. Hmmm.

Lost In Austen

This month I watched Lost in Austen on dvd for the Everything Austen Challenge. What a fabulous mini-series!!! I absolutely loved this show so much - it was just a great mix of contemporary life and Austenish drama. Basically, we have the character of Amanda Price, a modern day gal who absolutely loves everything Austen. Fed up with her love life and career going nowhere, Amanda finds Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom. Wanting an escape from the real world, Amanda switches places with Elizabeth and soon finds herself living and breathing the pages of Pride and Prejudice. We meet the Bennet family, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley and his disagreeable sister, Caroline Bingley and the rest of the cast that make up Austen's wonderful novel, P&P. We see the dances, the courtship, the etiquette and dresses from Austen's pages come to life and find that Amanda's presence tends to alter the story a bit. We have Mr. Collins marrying Jane and Mr. Wickham being the innocent with regards to his relationship with Darcy's sister and of course we have Darcy falling in love with Amanda - not at all following the storyline Austen created. There are some great moments, like when Caroline Bingley hits on Amanda and tells her that she will marry Darcy because society deems that the right thing to do, however her passionate feelings for women will require a bit of secrecy. And we have Elizabeth enjoying her time in the real world - she is working as a nanny and is now acquainted with the Jane Austen novel , P&P. Its wonderful to watch Amanda attempt to fit into a world that she thought she loved when she was reading about it at home, but is quite unsure about once she is living it. And it is quite lovely to see the characters of Amanda and Darcy falling in love and fighting against it. The ending is superb! A must watch for any Austen fanatic!!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Attack!!

I have finally finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!!! Yay!! I am just happy to be finished with the book because it took me a bit longer to read than normal. The weird thing is that normally I read rather fast, but this time round I just could not find my normal speed for reading and wound up reading bits here and there. Perhaps my mind was just not in the right frame. Anyhow, the book itself is definitely a must read for Austen fans. It was hilarious!! I found myself cracking up and wondering what Austen herself would have thought about this new interpretation of her book. The story itself remains the same, except now we have all five Bennet sisters fighting against the unmentionables (the zombies). Trained by their father in martial and weapons each young woman is more than capable of taking care of themselves and their family and friends. We find Elizabeth in the same scenario of hating Mr. Darcy for his rudeness towards her and her family and especially for his interference with Bingley's feelings towards her favorite sister, Jane. The story follows the same plot of Elizabeth slowly realizing that her feelings toward Darcy have changed from animosity to love. Throughout this discovery of love, Elizabeth finds herself fighting off the unmentionables with great speed and agility and realizing that she is not only a warrior first, but also a woman first. It is so fun to read about her and Darcy slaying numerous zombies and how they battle each other through words and fight in the book. The way the zombies are inserted into the story line only adds another dimension of fun and appeal to the book. I have to say it also added a bit of sauciness to the book. The manners in which we read about Mr. Bennet's liasons with various women during his and his daughter's trip to China (where they trained) was unexpected, along with the occasional reference to the way Darcy's trousers clung to him. Definitely a new take on an old classic. I really enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the September release of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I love the idea of taking the old and giving it a new twist. I guess this is my third item for the Austen Challenge - I can't help it! There are just so many fun things out there that are Austen related. I think for next month I will watch Lost in Austen on dvd. That will be a fun treat I am sure. Well, hope you all have a wonderful week filled with lots of fun reading! Cheers!!

Everything Austen Challenge!!

I have joined the Everything Austen Challenge that was devised by the blogger at Stephanie's Written Word. The challenge is to read/watch six Austen related items within six months. How brilliant is that!!! There are so many Austenish things out there now that finding things to choose from won't be the difficult part, it will be deciding which six things to choose. Okay, so for my six choices I have chosen the following items:

1. Lost in Austen t.v. series
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
3. Austenland by Shannon Hale
4. Becoming Jane film
5. Emma by Jane Austen
6. Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

Those are my chose six, not in that order, mind you. Of course, I might change my mind, if something else catches my fancy. But for now, I will be starting with reading P&P& Zombies. I have read so many great things about this book that I can't wait to read it. I can't wait to read about Elizabeth kicking some zombie butt!

Ciao for now and as always, Happy Reading!!!