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I abandoned this a couple years ago as I couldn't stand her Feminist viewpoint and lackluster writing style, but decided to give it another try this week as I am preparing for a travelogue bookbox to come my way.

Ugh. If I hadn't already taken this same physical "walk" several times throughout England and weren't already aware of how much she completely butchered the experience, there is nothing in this book that would compel me to want to visit England at. all. She took everything that is wonderful and beautiful about the experience and made it sound like a living Hell.

I literally have pages of notes just on her self-centered, negative, totally downer attitude on almost every page, but the fact that this is a nonfiction about someone who was struggling with a serious, undiagnosed illness makes me want to go a little easier on her. Still, there is nothing uplifting in this book whatsoever and her attempts at praising God's grace and mercy are often overshadowed by immature thoughts and conversations about him. ("Anyway, Jack and I were talking with Spencer about how if heaven is this eternal hymn sing, then, please, just send me to hell.") In one breath she says she "loves God with all her heart" and in the next breath she's making fun of fellow Christians.

The way she wrote about Jack made her sound more and more psycho as the chapters went on. I kept thinking I hoped Jack had actually read this so he could see the crazy God saved him from. Yikes. She knew this guy one week. One. He told her several times he wasn't interested. Yet, she went on and on about their "shared" feelings and even intimacy. WHAT?!! This guy was from the South. I'm from the South. When Southern guys are nice, they're usually not hitting on you. They're actually just afraid their Mamas are gonna beat 'em if they're not. Southern Mamas have eyes in the backs of their heads that can see what goes on everywhere...even 8,000 miles away in Oxford.

The attempts at humor are immature and insulting. It's not funny to joke about being "blown up" on a train in the midst of a series of terrorist attacks on London. It's not funny to reference 911 in such a flippant way.

I was pleasantly and rarely surprised by a couple glimpses of maturity. At one point she talks about liturgy and rote prayers and how they bind us with one another, with Christians throughout history, and with God. Very comforting. There was also a time when she stopped to remember Anne LeFroy at her gravesite. I would have liked to see a lot more of this kind of behaviour and much less...of the other.

If you are wondering why I've not mentioned Jane Austen much it's because Jane Austen isn't the subject of this book. Contrary to a possibly stoned marketing team's promises, this book is 100% about a desperate, depressed, slightly mentally-ill woman who had an opportunity that very few women will have and spent the entire time griping about accommodations and lusting after a stranger.
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classyhomemaker | 8 weitere Rezensionen | Dec 11, 2023 |
Enjoying Lori's insights shared from the various writings of Jane Austen and benefits of seeing our contemporary life situations from her varied characters' perceptions of life and relationships.. definitely a rich benefit having these life lessons learned before mistakes and misunderstandings become our life experience ~
 
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FHC | 1 weitere Rezension | Jun 13, 2013 |
This would have been better without all the author's discussion of her Christianity.
 
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sharwass | 8 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 25, 2013 |
If you could be swept back in time two hundred years ago to have a cup of tea with Jane Austen, what would you ask her? Any question. No bars held. If I had the courage, I might ask her how did she become so wise in the ways of human nature and love? Or, did she intend to craft stories to entertain, or to enlighten?

Since time-travel has yet to be invented, we can only surmise how Austen would have replied. Yet, for centuries she has been speaking to readers in an intimate way without many of us realizing it. In The Jane Austen Guide to Life, author Lori Smith decodes Austen’s philosophy on life and love by combing through her novels and personal correspondence for lessons relevant for the modern woman. Is Jane Austen the relationship coach that we should all be learning from? Smith thinks so and has carefully selected key topics that we can contemplate and learn from such as: Living Your Dreams; Pursuing Passion; Marrying Well; Cherishing Family and Friends; Enduring the Hardest Things; and the final chapter Austen’s Ethos. You might say this is a self-help book applying the principals and morals that Austen used in writing her fictional characters translated into the nonfiction world. In the introduction, Smith sums it up very nicely…

“This book mines Jane’s life and her stories for the lessons she would teach us if she could. Thankfully, through her writing, she can and does speak today.” p. xi

I never feel more like Lydia Bennet when someone recommends a self-help book to me. Remember in Pride and Prejudice when Mr. Collins reads from Fordyce’s Sermons and she gaped in horror? I can totally relate. I deplore being preached to and am quite the skeptic. Even though I opened this book with grave trepidation, I was soon won over by the author’s knowledge of Jane Austen and her upbeat, approachable style. Each chapter is well researched offering topics and examples from the novels that modern readers can relate to. My favorite chapter was the last: Austen’s Ethos.

“As I’ve written about Austen, several themes continue to come back to me. They’ve surfaced throughout the book, but, at the risk of redundancy, may bear repeating, because in so many ways I think they capture her heart. They were lessons her heroines knew, or came to know through the course of the stories, and may in fact be the central, overarching lessons that she would want to pass on to us today. They’re also lessons that, because of two centuries that separate us from Austen, we may be less likely to take away from her light stories.” p. 197

I will leave you dangling in suspense with that tempting nugget of knowledge yet to be revealed. After reading The Jane Austen Guide to Life I understand more fully why I have been so attracted to Austen’s writing since first reading Pride and Prejudice over thirty years ago. I had the privilege of reading an early advance copy and wholeheartedly can attest that this engaging book, part biography and part self-help guide, it is all heart. Janeites will embrace its common sense and insights into their favorite author, and everyone else should buy it for their daughters and best friends.

Laurel Ann, Austenprose
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Austenprose | 1 weitere Rezension | Jun 12, 2012 |

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