A Walk with Jane Austen by Lori Smith
Review by Emily
from Whimsy Books and Whimsy Daisy
A Walk with Jane Austen is a quiet ride through Jane Austen’s world. This book is not what I expected it to be. It is less about Jane Austen and more about author Lori Smith. It is a soft memoir. Smith’s talented writing weaves countless connections between the life of Jane Austen and her own.
Lori Smith finds herself growing older and unmarried, a position she never expected to find herself in. She tours England to visit the remaining sites of Austen’s world. During this trip, Smith discovers who she is, why we face challenges, and how faith can get us through.
From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In this engaging, deeply personal and well-researched travelogue, Smith (a PW contributor) journeys to England to soak in the places of Jane Austen's life and writings. The book is sure to ride the wave of Austen-philia that has recently swept through Hollywood and a new generation of Americans, but this is an unusual look at Jane Austen. Readers will learn plenty of biographical details-about Austen's small and intimate circle of family and friends, her candid letters to her sister, her possible loves and losses, her never-married status, her religious feelings, and her untimely death at the age of 41. But it is the author's passionate connection to Jane-the affinity she feels and her imaginings of Austen's inner life-that bring Austen to life in ways no conventional biographer could. Smith's voice swings authentically between the raw, aching vulnerability of a single Christian woman battling a debilitating and mysterious chronic illness and the surges of faith she finds in the grace of a loving God. And yes, she even meets a potential Darcy at the start of her journey. This deliciously uncertain romantic tension holds the book together as Smith weaves her own thoughts, historical research, and fitting references to Austen's novels into a satisfying whole.
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Blog: Deliciously Clean Reads (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jane Austen, memoir, adult, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, review by Emily, Lori Smith, Northanger Abbey, A Walk with Jane Austen, Emma by Jane Austen, review by Emily, Pride and Prejudice, Lori Smith, Northanger Abbey, A Walk with Jane Austen, Emma by Jane Austen, Add a tag
By: Aline Pereira,
on 6/22/2007
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: pirates, Children's Books, Picture Books, animals, audio books, Barefoot Books, Books at Bedtime, reading to children, folktale retellings, The Emperor Who Hated Yellow, The Gigantic Turnip, The Great Race, Whole World, Add a tag
I have just received this lovely e-card from Barefoot Books , which I would like to share with you all – it’s based on their recently-published Whole World, which not only celebrates the world we live in but reminds us that we need to look after it - something that Barefoot Books are really focussing on with their new “Go Barefoot, Go Global” emphasis on environmental issues.
As well as family favourites like The Emperor who Hated Yellow, The Gigantic Turnip and The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac, we love Barefoot Books’ anthologies of stories from around the world. Son Number One has taken The Barefoot Book of Knights out of the library on a regular basis over the last three years. I like its format of the traditional tales being woven into the story of a young steward who is learning to be a knight, although it does sometimes mean reading time goes on for much longer than you intended!
Generally, however, these anthologies are great for (more…)