This book tells us more about what Jane Austen looked like in real life than any drawing does. I love how Hilary Davidson delves into every possible piece of evidence for what she wore and provides illustrations from contemporary drawings and actual bits of clothing that survive.

Some of them actually belonged to Austen–like her turquoise ring and topaz cross, her lace shawl, and her brown silk pelisse. How amazing is it to see these items that Austen herself wore and to see the evidence that she was over 5 foot 6 inches tall! 

I always enjoy Bill Bryson’s stories, wherever he travels. He’s like my favorite funny uncle, and I never tire of hearing from him.

After a couple of decades as a Yank in the UK, he was going to move back home. First, he takes us on one last meandering trip all around the nation, to pay homage, to enjoy good memories, and to get amusingly grumpy about inconveniences. His sense of humor is self-effacing, silly, bungling, and very entertaining.  

I love his keen nose for the absurd differences between the two cultures, his collections of comedy place names, and the British slang phrases he never understood. I grew up in the USA but spent all my adult life in the UK, and this had me laughing out loud, frequently. 

Figes argues that although women novelists did not directly challenge the rules of a patriarchal society, they challenged its assumptions by protesting the restrictions on women’s lives and severely criticizing the clergymen, enablers of the patriarchy. My favorite section of the book is her interpretation of the Gothic novels, which she calls the female equivalent of picaresque novels. Women, she points out, were not permitted to roam the world like Tom Jones, having adventures. Instead, these novels presented women, who, through no fault of their own, are imprisoned by evil men. Their adventures, as they find their way to safety in foreign lands, prove their courage and intelligence.

I love this book because I love Jane Austen. Although Northanger Abbey is ostensibly a gothic novel, I would call it light gothic or a parody of Gothic.

The heroine, Catherine Morland, is slightly naïve and is obsessed with gothic literature so when she gets a chance to stay at Northanger Abbey, her imagination goes wild. This is part of the fun of the novel but I also love Austen’s insights into character and English society.

Partly as a result of one of my numerous misguided educational choices and partly out of genuine interest, I did a lot of work in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century English literature. I wish I’d had Ashton’s book, as it’s a social history of England back then and a basic anthology of what was being reported at the time, with dozens of reproductions of drawings. 

Jane Austen is a favorite novelist of mine, and when you look at the section on women’s fashions, it definitely changes how you see her women—and how the men saw them. 

At the same time, the picture of an England beset by riots, mutinies, and social chaos is not only a useful corrective but a potent reminder of how little our society has changed.

When Covid came for Christmas 2022, there was no better comfort and joy than Georgette Heyer’s Regency Romances. The Talisman Ring kept me going when confined to bed because of the humor that never dates.

With two love stories, a murder mystery, and a treasure hunt, the reader has as much fun as the characters. Even the villain twirls his mustache charmingly.

Ingenue and romantic novel reader Eustace is determined to find a suitor to ride ventre a terre to her deathbed and so runs away from staid Sir Tristram. Eustace encounters a smuggler who is heir to the talisman ring and is wrongfully accused of murder. Fortunately, the adventurous pair are sheltered by redoubtable Sarah Thane, who fully sympathizes with Eustacie’s plans to die for love.

Don’t let terms like “neuroscience” and “psychology” scare you away.

This text is a must-have for any writer curious about why people still love basic storytelling despite our technological advances. Storr makes learning fun through the use of myths, archetypes, and man’s ambition as well as the works of Jane Austen and pop culture favorites like Breaking Bad—perfectly curated examples to help us make our stories more compelling.

Rutherford’s saga follows the story of the New Forest in southern England, a place a number of my own books are set.

He has a deep love and fascination for the places, people, and traditions of the Forest, all the things that make it unique. I love how the stories shift and blend into each other, how details of history flow forward century to century into the future, and the many different ways people love and make choices about their home and the land they live on.

Most of all, Rutherford simultaneously puts a very human face on the New Forest, without losing any of the power and magic of the woods and bogs, plants and animals of the land itself.

I laughed a lot reading Eligible. Yes, it’s silly, but this version of Pride and Prejudice had me hooked from the outset, probably for no other reason than that it forced me to consider the Bennet family and the sisters, in a new, twenty-first century light.

Liz, late 30’s, magazine writer, and her older sister, Jane, a yoga instructor, live in New York, whilst youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia, are busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to consider careers. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree. And, yes, Mrs Bennet just wants to marry off her daughters.

I loved the five sisters’ dynamics: at times sweet, bitchy, caring, dismissive, rude, and compulsively dishing out home truths. I also appreciated the women were trying to break away from family expectations and controls. After reading this, I was very glad I only have one sister… show more.

I am a sucker for Jane Austen retellings, and this one is my favorite. Kamal’s characters are as vivid as their original inspirations from Pride and Prejudice.

The Pakistani setting also adds a layer of complexity. Even as the novel sweeps charmingly along, moments of social commentary cut through the lightness. Perhaps most satisfying is how Charlotte Lucas, here Sherry Looclus, gets a happier ending.