A Few Works by Austen

In the last couple weeks I've plowed through three different Jane Austen novels. Rather than post three times, I thought I'd just do a mini review on each of them and give you three for the price of one. Woohoo!

Emma. I'd give this one a solid A. The story is of a young gentlewoman who tries her hand at matchmaking with somewhat disastrous results. Things all end up for the best, of course, but the journey is full of mixups and general mayhem that make for an entertaining read.

Mansfield Park. This earns a B in my book. Its very different from other Austen novels--the tone is more serious and there's a real sense of social commentary that I find absent from a lot of her others. (Well, the others do have social commentary but its carried off in a much lighter manner.) The story is about Fanny Price--a young girl sent to live with her wealthier cousins. Thrown into a world with morals much unlike her own, Fanny must stand fast against the onslaught of the negatives that wealth can bring.

Northanger Abbey is also a B book, though its much different from Mansfield Park. The writing style is different than any other Austen book I have read--even just her approach to telling the story--but its still a good time all around. And short! On another site I read that scholars have called this book Austen's "Gothic parody" and I see where that's coming from. Catharine Moreland is enraptured by Gothic novels and when life seems to throw her into the middle of one...well, read the book and find out how it all goes. Oh, this was also the only Austen book with a character I just hated. I think the reader is supposed to, but STILL. Boo on John Thorpe.

Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison (B)

The title is intriguing, isn't it? It was the title, as well as the nifty lion on the front cover, that caught my attention last week at the Bingham Creek Library. I picked up the book on a whim, and was pleasantly surprised. Peter Allison worked for a number of years as a safari guide in South Africa and then in Botswana, and his stories are fantastic. I would love to sit around the campfire with this guy!

The stories range all over. Some deal with guests of the camp, other guides, or pesky camp "pets;" others take place in the bush--lions attacking, getting lost on the Okavango Delta, or watching an elephant give birth. The stories range in length as well--anywhere from a longer 12 pages to a mere 2 or 3. In and of itself, that keeps the book interesting.

I was most pleased to discover that, though a safari guide, Mr. Allison can actually write. Too often these memoir-type books are bogged down in the author's lack of writing ability. Sure they've led an exciting life, but can they write about it? I thought the writing style was delightful in this book. The pace moved along quickly, and I found myself reading "just one more story"...over and over again before I went to bed.

This book will probably never be a Classic, but it was entertaining.

I give it a B. Nothing extraordinary, but all good fun.