2nd Favorite Authors Highlight May JASNA Meeting

At their May meeting, Middle TN JASNA members shared titles of novels other than ones by Jane Austen which they enjoy reading most. Nineteenth century classics as well as mysteries seemed to crop up frequently in their discussion. The following is a list of specific authors and titles which Middle TN Janeites highly recommend:

Carmen: William Dean Howell's The Rise of Silas Lapham, George Eliot's Middlemarch and Sarah Orne Jewett's Country of the Pointed Firs, A White Heron

Christine: Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, Edith Wharton's novels, A.E. W. Mason's The Four Feathers

Cynthia: Henry James' The Golden Bowl, The Aspern Papers, Washington Square; Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, Pair of Blue Eyes, Far from the Madding Crown, Return of the Native; Charles Dickens' Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, David Copperfield; George Eliot's Daniel Deronda

Fran: Dostoyevsky

Helen: Anne of Green Gables, The Great Gatsby, The Book of Three

Jo Ann: Anthony Trollope's The Warden and Barchester Towers, to start, and then the Palliser series: Can You Forgive Her?, Phineas Finn, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, and The Duke's Children

Kathie: Katherine Mansfield's short stories, Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman, Carlos Fuentes' Death of Artemio Cruz and Antonio Machado's poems

Mary: Alexander McCall Smith's The Space Between Us

Mildred: P.D. James and Alexandra Stoddard.

Renee: Barbara Pym's novels, especially her last novel, A Few Green Leaves

Roberta: Agatha Christie

Sharon: Lafcadio Hearn (who wrote of his impressions of Japan), Thomas Hardy (for his beautiful descriptions and sense of place), and Vladimir Nabakov (for his quirkiness and verbosity)

Susie: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series 1-7

Susan: Anne Perry (who wrote two mystery series with social causes) and P.G. Wodehouse

Yvonne: Elizabeth Peters, author of the Amelia Peabody series. Start with The Crocodile on the Sand Bank

Summer Meeting Information: Box Hill Picnic

All Middle Tennessee JASNA members are invited to a "Box Hill Picnic"

• Date: Sunday, August 23, 2009
• Time: 2-4 pm
• Location: Arrington Vineyards in Franklin, TN http://arringtonvineyards.com/
• For Directions, go to: http://arringtonvineyards.com/directions.html
• This event will be a potluck-style picnic, so bring picnic food (i.e. small sandwiches, fruit, salads, desserts, etc.) Mildred will provide plates, napkins, cups, and eating utensils as well as iced tea and water. Jo Ann is planning to bring chicken salad and deviled eggs. If anyone wishes to purchase wine at Arrington Vineyards, this is an option. Everyone should bring something to sit on (blanket or quilt) in case all of the tables are taken. We will want to carpool as much a possible, so let Jo Ann or Mildred know if you plan to attend.

Now if we can just figure out how to get all of the servants there to wait on us.........

Jane Austen

Jane Austen, one of England's foremost novelists, was never publically acknowledged as a writer during her lifetime. She was born on December 16, 1775 and died on July 18, 1817. Austen's skilled use of irony, free indirect discourse, social commentary and memorable characterization has delighted readers for over 200 years.