Jane Austen July 2025

Jane Austen July TBR

Jane Austen July is a month long readathon all about Jane Austen, her works, and her time period. Last year was the first time I had time (and small enough TBR!) to join the readathon, and I had a blast. So naturally, I want to take part this year as well.

There are seven challenges in this readathon: five books and two screen adaptations. There is also a readalong associated with the challenge. I won’t be participating in the readalong because I had already decided what I wanted to read before the readalong book (which is Emma this year) was announced. You can find more information about the challenge from the Youtube videos posted by the hosts of the challenge (Katie from Books and Things, Marissa from Blatantly Bookish, and Claudia from Spinster’s Library).

Anyway, without further ado, here are my choices for this year’s readathon and my reasons for picking them.

 

Challenge 1: Read one of Jane Austen’s six main novels

This is obviously the main reason for a Jane Austen readathon: choosing one of her main novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, or Northanger Abbey.

My choice for the readathon is Sense and Sensibility.  It’s probably my least favorite of Austen’s novels, but that’s partly the reason why I want to read it. It’s been several years since I last read it, and I want to see if my opinion of it has changed. Who knows, maybe I realize that it’s a hidden gem!

Last year, my pick for Jane Austen July was Pride and Prejudice, my favorite of Austen’s novels. It’s also one of my all-time favorite books, and the perfect book to practice something that I hadn’t done before, which was annotating a novel. I haven’t annotated other books since, but it was so much fun that I want to do it this year again. I hope that annotating will help me pick up things that I haven’t noticed before and deeper my understanding of Austen’s genius.

For that reason, I will mostly be reading a Wordsworth paperback that I bought cheap decades ago. I don’t have to worry about “ruining” it with annotations. I also own a pretty Penguin Clothbound edition of Sense and Sensibility, and I’ll try to carefully read the introduction and the notes from it, hopefully without ruining the cover. The illustrations have an unfortunate tendency to rub off.

 

Challenge 2: Read a Jane Austen work that is not one of her six main novels

This can be her unfinished novels, her juvenilia a.k.a. the works she wrote between eleven and seventeen years of age, or her letters. I read all of Jane Austen’s juvenilia and Lady Susan last year, and it hasn’t been many years since I read her letters. That leaves me two of her unfinished novels, The Watsons and Sanditon. I might read both, but if I’m short on time, I’ll only read The Watsons.

 

Challenge 3: Read a non-fiction work about Jane Austen or her time

There are tons of nonfiction works about Jane Austen and her works as well as the Regency period in general. This year my choice is a book I’ve heard a lot of good things about, What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan. If I’ve understood correctly, this is a literary analysis of Austen’s novels.

Last year, I read an Austen biography by one of my favorite historians, Lucy Worsley: Jane Austen at Home. I highly recommend the book if you’re looking for an Austen biography. Worsley also has made a Jane Austen documentary, and I probably can’t resist the temptation of watching it yet again.

 

Challenge 4: Read a retelling of Jane Austen book or a work of historical fiction set in Jane Austen’s time

Last year, I decided to read a Persuasion retelling, Much Ado about Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin. I enjoyed it so much that this year I decided to read her other Jane Austen retelling, this time a Pride and Prejudice retelling Ayesha at Last. I expect it to be similar to Much Ado about Nada with a Muslim family living in modern day Toronto, Canada.

Last year, I also read a really fun Pride and Prejudice retelling, Amanda Darcy’s Of Love and Beer. If you’re looking for a kiss-only smalltown enemies-to-lovers romance between a brewer and a vintner, I highly recommend her book.

And I obviously can’t pass the chance to do some self-promotion. My novel Caytee is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. The main character is an avid reader of Young Adult paranormal romance novels and absolutely certain that the guy she has a crush on must secretly be a vampire. If you like snarky narrators who constantly break the fourth wall and make fun of overused tropes in YA books, Caytee is a fun light summer read!

I’m also hoping to read the first draft of the as-of-yet-nameless Pride and Prejudice retelling I wrote last November. I’m planning to start the second draft this fall.

 

Challenge 5: Read a book by a contemporary of Jane Austen

There are so many options to choose from for this challenge. Last year, I read Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda. It wasn’t as good as Austen’s books, but I did like it well enough. One year, I want to year Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, but that will probably be the year when I also read Northanger Abbey. I also remember liking Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, one of his books would be a nice alternative for this challenge.

But this year, I decided to go for a book I contemplated last year but decided not to read due to its length. That is Frances Burney’s Cecilia. I loved her Evelina and I’m eager to read more from Burney. Because my edition has around one thousand pages, there’s no way I’m going to finish the book in July. I’ll probably finish it in August or early September.

 

Challenge 6: Watch a direct screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

For this challenge, I’m going to watch two Sense and Sensibility adaptations, a movie version from 1995 and a BBC miniseries from 2008. I also have a 1981 BBC miniseries on DVD, so I might watch that as well if I have time. It’s not as good as the later adaptations, so I don’t mind skipping that, though. I’d rather rewatch yet again the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, as it’s become a bit of tradition for me to watch it every summer.

 

Challenge 7: Watch a modern screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

I haven’t decided yet which modern adaptation I want to watch. Last year, I watched Clueless, which is always great fun. I might see if I can get my hands to Bride and Prejudice, or I might finally watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (I can’t believe I still haven’t seen it!).

~ ~ ~ 

Are you planning to take part in Jane Austen July? What are you going to read?

Book Review: Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night
by Amélie Wen Zhao

Book title: Song of Silver, Flame Like Night
Author: Amélie Wen Zhao
Genre: Young Adult fantasy
Published: January 3, 2023
459 pages
My rating: 4/5

“The Elantians destroyed everything that made the roots of our kingdom: our culture, our education, our families and principles. They wish to take us out on our knees, to subdue us so that we will never lift our heads again. But what they do not know is that, so long as we live on, we carry inside us all that they have destroyed. And that is our triumph, that is our rebellion.”

For years, the Hin kingdom has been occupied by the Elantians, a metal-magic wielding nation determined to destroy the Hin culture. Eighteen-year-old Lan entertains the occupiers by night and by day scavenges the remnants of the past for anything that might help her understand the mysterious mark her mother left her right before she died. She meets Zen, a practitioner of forbidden Hin magic, who saves her life and teaches her to use magic. Together, they hold the power to liberate their land – or to destroy it.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night is the first book in the young adult fantasy duology Song of the Last Kingdom. I have to admit I’m not one hundred per cent sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story and thought the description of colonialism and oppression was well-done, but at the same time there were a few things that stop me from giving it five stars. The first is the writing style. The text was slow to read, and especially the first half of the book was full of exposition that was done in a clumsy and info-dumpy manner.

Collected Ancient Greek Novels

Collected Ancient Greek Novels

Book title: Collected Ancient Greek Novels
Edited by: B.P. Reardon
Genre: ancient literature, ancient Greek novels
Published: July 8, 2008 by University of California Press
835 pages
My rating: 5/5

Collected Ancient Greek Novels presents in modern English translations nine complete prose narratives and several fragments commonly included in the genre of ancient Greek novels. These prose narratives were written in the first centuries of the common era. I’ve read B.P. Reardon’s seminal edition several times over the years, and it is always a pleasure. Needless to say, I love the ancient Greek prose narratives, especially the five romance novels.

Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirhoe is most likely the earliest of the novels, possibly written in the first century CE. It also provided the model for the plot that the other romance novels follow. The two titular characters are a young couple of noble birth. They fall in love at first sight and get married. Chaereas’ jealousy leads him to kick Callirhoe, and to all appearances she dies from the attack and is buried. However, she wakes up after her funeral when pirates rob her grave and take her with them to be sold as a slave. After a long separation, during which time Callirhoe has to marry another man and thwart the advances of several other men, Chaereas wins her back and they return to their home town.

May Wrap-Up and June Goals

May Reads

May Wrap-Up

• Finished: 4
• Started/continued but not finished: 3
• Total pages read: 2,278
• Average rating: 3.75

Book Review: The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

Book title: The Final Strife
Author: Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Fantasy
Published: June 23, 2022
502 pages
My rating: 4/5

“If your blood runs red, go straight ahead
If your blood runs blue, you’re not coming through
Translucent hue, who are you, who are you, who are you?”

The Warden’s Empire is divided by blood: the red-blooded Embers rule over the blue-blooded Dusters and the clear-blooded Ghostings. Sylah Alyana, a twenty-year-old Ember, was stolen as a baby and forged into a weapon to change the empire from the inside – until her adoptive family was killed. Anoor Elsari has been told her whole life that she is worth nothing by her mother, the Warden of Strength. But when Sylah crashes into Anoor’s life, Anoor is determined to show her mother wrong by entering Aktibar, a competition where the next Wardens are decided.

The Final Strife is an adult fantasy and the first book in The Ending Fire trilogy by Saara El-Arifi. The story is told from four points of view: Sylah’s point of view is the most prominent, followed by Anoor’s. Small parts of the story are also told from the points of view of Hassa, a Ghosting transwoman, and Jond, Sylah’s friend and part-time lover.