What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown

I'm reading this romance novel that was nominated for an award.

The author displays quite an impressive amount of knowledge of Regency Era customs, from marriage mores to dress design to cuisine.  I was quite impressed.

The story has a few paranormal elements:  there are a couple of charming ghosts, some time travel, and a good-looking rake! who turns out to be a spymaster in the Napoleonic wars.  There's some steamy sex.

As is pointed out in the novel, in 1814 Britain was at war with both France and America.

And, to the delight, I am sure, of Jane Austen fans everywhere, Jane Austen makes an appearance in the novel (accompanied by her sister, Cassandra).

And, perhaps more important than any of these things, if you're a big Jane Austen fan, the climax of the novel does turn on the advice (what Jane Austen would do) Jane Austen gives our heroine regarding her perplexing love life.

Well Read and Dead by Catherine O'Connell

What a cute book, set in Chicago and published in 2009.  This book is a cozy mystery, and just barely a mystery in the classic sense:  the body doesn't appear until the last quarter of the book and I'd say the sleuthing doesn't begin until the last third of the book.

Before that, we get a very tongue-in-cheek portrait of the rich on Chicago's North Side.

I read this with a book group (they all loved it) and while my overall impression of the book was that it was an entertaining romp, the others disagreed about whether the heroine, Pauline, was overly materialistic. Some thought she was; others thought that a girl should get, and have, her own.  Some defended her by saying that she came from money:  they seemed to believe that it was natural to think that money was important if you'd grown up with it.

The others enjoyed the settings:  Chicago, Cambodia, Thailand and Aspen.  They approved of Pauline's loyalty to her missing cat, Fleur; Pauline's quest to find Fleur drives much of the plot.

O'Connell's first book was Well Bred and Dead, and apparently, Well Wed and Dead, is planned.

The most important part of the book, to me, was that the two main characters actually recited poetry to each other.  I don't believe anyone has fallen in love over poetry, in fiction, since Captain Benwick and Louisa Musgrove (in Jane Austen's Persuasion). Marvell was quoted, Milton too (!) and Sonnet 73, "Thou Mayst in Me Behold," also made an appearance.  Further, O'Connell gave all of her chapters the titles of famous novels, such as Pride and Prejudice.  I loved this, and I wonder if some other book-loving readers would alos enjoy this.

This author has a website (www.catherineoconnell.net), and if you take a look you can see that she is really part of the world that she depicts in her book, and, that she is not Catherine O'Connell, the Irish-American singer and Chicagoan.

There's quite a bit of romance, and quite a bit of comedy.  I objected to the denouement of the plot; the others expressed surprise.  If you like to be surprised by the ending, I recommend Well Read and Dead to you.  

In the Land of the Young by Lisa Carey

I checked this book out accidentally, or perhaps, saw it and couldn't resist it when I was looking for a children's book on St. Patrick.  I thought I remembered that the Land of the Young is the translation for Tir Na Nog.

I read the first chapter, and it broke my heart.  I assure you, if you read the first page you will be compelled to read the entire first chapter.  It's about a shipwreck of Irish immigrants off the coast of Maine in 1848, and how the fishermen ran to their boats when they saw a ship in distress, and how they tried to save everyone, and how a man lost his life saving a child, and how she passed, anyway.   After I read the first chapter, I said to myself, "I can't read this book; it's just so sad."

But later on, I found myself feeling curious about the book I wouldn't read, and I picked it up and started reading it in the middle or perhaps farther on, and I found that it seemed to be a domestic drama about a man caring for a girl .. but was caused me to read on, and on, was the prose.  I don't know if it was sparkling, but it was good.  It was plain and poetic and it made you want to know more.

I don't know if I will ever find time to read this book; I hope I do.  The jacket flap tipped me off to the fact that it's a ghost story, and I bet it has more sorrow to dish out than that I've already encountered.  I'm sure it's all about loss and how it haunts us and how the past gives us rich gifts and cripples us at the same time. And there are a lot of books about that subject.  But I think, based on what little I've read, that Lisa Carey is a wonderful prose stylist and her book is one well worth reading.