DJABC 2015 Reading List

HAPPY NEW YEAR! A new year, a new reading list!

This year we are planning to mix it up and stray into our darker interests. We’ll be reading some novels, novellas, poetry, and even writing some flash fiction. While we continue to adore Jane Austen we will be exploring other authors who may or may not have ever read Austen themselves. Please, note that this is only the list of featured selections for each month; however, we reserve the right to add in any book that falls in our path as we are always open to assisting the promotion of any Austenesque author. We also may add in related works to Austen or any author hereafter mentioned.

  1. The Watsons – Jane Austen
  2. Sanditon – Jane Austen
  3. She – H. Rider Haggard
  4. Undine – Freiherr de Friedrich Heinrich Karl La Motte-Fouque
  5. Shakespeare Undead – Lori Handeland
  6. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
  7. Raven – Edgar Allan Poe / Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti
  8. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
  9. The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
  10. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
  11. Austenland – Shannon Hale
  12. Write your own flash fiction featuring an Austen character.

The Watsons and Sanditon are Austen’s unfinished works that have been completed by other writers. We will be reading the unfinished manuscripts as Jane Austen wrote them first (as found in Jane Austen Lady Susan/The Watsons/Sanditon published by The Penguin English Library). Then we will be reading one of the completed versions for comparison, critiquing, and discussion. As for which completed version of each of  these novels, we leave that up to you as it will further our discussions. Recommendations welcome.

As March is Women’s History Month we’ve elected to read She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1887. It is a book that has inspired and influenced many for better or worse.

Undine by Freiherr de Friedrich Heimrich Karl La Motte-Fouque is a novella, fairy-tale.

Vampires and the undead abound in Shakespeare Undead. This novel features William Shakespeare as a character and proposes to answer the questions surrounding the Dark Lady featured in many of the Bard’s most tantalizing sonnets.

Edith Wharton is largely recognized for her many novels touching on affluent society and the complicated lives they lead in order to maintain the tenuous nature of a good reputation while attempting to get what they want out of life. But did you know she also wrote a few ghost stories?

July will be our poetry month featuring The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti.

Helping out a woman in need is just a good deed, right? Things aren’t always as they appear and getting to the bottom of the mystery is dangerous. The Woman in White features madness, mistaken identity, intrigue, and murder.

Neil Gaiman writes many great stories largely for children and young adults, but The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fairy-tale written for adults.

A Discovery of Witches is book one of the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. While researching our heroine discovers more than an old book in a library. A whole world–or underworld, rather–is opened up and she must face what lies ahead.

With Austenland we take a vacation from modern life into the world of Jane Austen’s novels. Can a thirty-four year old spinster abandon her modern notions and embrace proper etiquette to truly find her Mr. Darcy?

For December we will be ending out the year by writing our own flash fiction pieces featuring an Austen character. You are welcome to join us, link up, or submit for the fun of it. Flash fiction is roughly 300-1000 words. Think of it as a micro-short story, a scene, a moment. Have fun with it! We will.

We hope you’ll join us for some or all of these.

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