Search - The Jane Austen Book Club

Just finished reading this book this weekend and would have to say this book gets a "skip it" review by me. I had checked it out of the library (prior to joining paperbackswap) as I had seen it on a shelf at B&N store. Please note I have not read through any Jane Austen books myself, I have skipped around P&P, but didn't read all of it.

The Jane Austen Book Club story itself is sweet, even though it was hard to keep the characters names straight. Had the title been "A tribute to Jane Austen and EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about her books and references to her books" then I would have been warned. There were just too many instances where I felt like I was left out on the story because of the continual references to Austen's work itself and there was an implied importance to the story that was lost on me.

The author is creative and talented, just didn't work for me given my NON Austen background. It appears to me if you are a Jane Austen fan having READ all of her books and know all of her characters you would love this book, as it would give you the opportunity to vicariously be in a modern day book club with her books as the centerpiece.

The book did bring up some names of some science fiction authors that I will check out.

This is a book I would not recommend to my friends who have limited leisure time to read, nor would I recommend it to anyone who isn't familiar with Austen's works, UNLESS you want to dig in and start learning all of it.

I was surprised at how much I liked this book. I hate to say it but anything with 'book club' in the title makes me think the book might be a bit trite; but I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the characters, and the way the author tied in Austen but didn't overdo it and make the book inaccessible. It really is a great story as well as a contemporary tribute to the essence of Jane Austen's writing. Highly recommended.

This is a dry, witty, satirical, slender little story that made me pause and re-read certain sentences again, asking myself, "Did Fowler really go there?" Indeed, she did. The book focuses on a group of middle-class Californians, mostly women, who meet every month in an "All Jane Austen, All the Time" book club. The characters' reflections on Jane Austen's books offer insights into the choices they've made about their own lives. (The book is related in the plural first-person viewpoint, as "we," a brilliant strategy.) The book contains many stories nestled within stories, which makes it a little digressive, but hang on, it's worth following any of Fowler's side-roads. The post-modern twists are wonderfully funny, rather than annoying. (For example, the book club members in the book pose some book club questions about the book in which they have appeared at the very end. So don't stop when you think the narrative's done, keep reading.) While I think the book has got so many strands going every which way that there are still some sticking out at the end, I really enjoyed myself while reading it. This isn't a hilarious, knee-slapping comedy, it's more a comedy of manners (yes, I suppose I'll have to allude to Austen). And like Austen, it doesn't just skim the surface; it leaves little cuts after it delivers its sharp little observations.

No particular plot line to the book. The characters were all pretty bland. And NOTHING happened in the book.

Couldn't finish it... I tried but just found it slow. I am a huge Jane Austen fan but couldn't get into the characters here. Hate to say it but saw the movie instead to see what I missed (and that wasn't one of my must haves either).

Smart, funny, easy read. One reviewer says, "If I could eat this novel, I would." She demonstrates that follies of human nature are as prevalent today as they were two hundred years ago.