Janespotting: Lost in Austen

I had heard inklings about this 2008 British TV miniseries—someone commented about it on an earlier Janespotting post, and I recently read that director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) is producing a film version of it—so I thought I would keep on the lookout for it. The premise sounded fairly intriguing: a modern Austen fan somehow exchanges places with Elizabeth Bennet, right at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice. When I saw a marathon was airing on Ovation TV, I set the DVR and thought I'd watch the four hours over the next week or so.

Whoops. I started watching the first hour on a Sunday night, and got completely sucked in. The main character, Amanda Price, finds herself in the Bennett household and attempts to make the events of the book happen, even though Elizabeth is not there. Because of her modern dress and knack for saying or doing the wrong thing, everything gets messed up. By the end of the first episode, Bingley is infatuated with Amanda, not Jane; Jane ends up married to Mr. Collins; and Charlotte Lucas has left for Africa to become a missionary.

Well, I had to watch the second episode right away, and thought about starting the third, but decided I should get to bed before 11. I went to sleep wondering what would happen, and woke up thinking maybe I'd just watch a little bit. I managed to hold off—I had an assignment due that day—and watched just a little bit at lunch. I finished my assignment and was sucked back to the TV. I devoured episode three and had to leave episode four behind to go help teach TKD class, but all the while I was wondering how in the world they would resolve Amanda's dilemma: would she fix the storyline of the novel—messed up even more in episodes 2 & 3—or would she find a way to stay with Darcy? I wasn't sure which ending I wanted to see, but I was ultimately pleased with it once I got back home and forced the boys to let me finish watching. The DVD goes on sale in a week and I'll be snatching up my own copy.

Give credit to writer Guy Andrews, a longtime British TV screenwriter who will also be writing the film version: it's a wonderful concept, one that I'm sure many readers have imagined. What if I could live in the world of P&P? I bet I could be just like Elizabeth, and have Darcy fall in love with me. This series explores this idea to the hilt, complete with all sorts of anachronistic amusements; yet there are several poignant moments as well. The series somehow re-creates and reimagines Austen's world and characters (many have backstories to discover), at the same time it explores our fascination with it. While there were a few logical holes (for someone who gets thrown out of polite society so often, Amanda keeps getting invited back), I thought it was clever and funny and tender and just plain hard to stop watching; I loved it and I'm sure it will be in regular rotation with my favorite Austen-based DVDs in the future.

If you want a peek, take a look at the trailer here; be prepared, you may want to freeze it around the 1:20 mark, to enjoy the full "wet Darcy" effect.

Photo of the Week--3/30/09

Well, if you're going to visit a medieval walled city, it's a bonus when you get the kind of eerie foggy weather that lets you imagine you're back in the 12th century. (Although this wasn't the oldest site we visited during our trip to the southwest of France: we also saw rare prehistoric cave paintings at a site which only allows around 30 visitors a day, in order to preserve the site.) Today, on a "spring" day that required me to shovel the driveway, a little fog seems like perfect weather.

The Quilt Files, Episode 9

There are times when someone very conveniently announces an engagement months before the wedding, giving you time to plan the quilt. And then there are the times when someone has a whirlwind romance and gets married when six months ago you didn't even know they had a boyfriend. In that case, it's time to dip into the stash.

I don't think I've spoken of the stash before, but most quilters have one. Of course, it contains all the leftover fabric scraps from quilts you have finished; it also contains fabrics you saw in the store that you just had to have, even if you didn't know what to do with them. In any case, to make a quick log cabin quilt, all you need to do is raid your stash for some scrap strips (these were 1½" wide) in a variety of colors, and you're on your way.

I wanted to make this log cabin entirely from batik fabrics, but at the time I started this project, I'd only finished a couple of projects. Luckily, my grandmother and mother lent me some of their own stashes. That gave me most of the color groups I needed, so I only needed to buy a few fat quarters of oranges and pinks to create log cabin blocks that were half cool tones (green, turquoise, blue) and half warm tones (pink, yellow, orange). Of course, the centers were red, according to the tradition that they represent the hearth (or heart) of the home.

There are half a dozen ways to arrange log cabin blocks; after making a few, I tried a couple different arrangements and discovered that for these colors, I preferred the one called "barn-raising." I modified it a bit with some three-quarter/one-quarter light/dark squares, to get better defined corners for the center diamonds. Then I put all my leftover strips together and sliced them smaller to make the borders.

I found some suitable fabrics for backing, and machine quilted some large diamond patterns in each quadrant. For a project that had no real planning beforehand, and which took me three to four months to finish, I thought it came out pretty well. Maybe sometime I'll return to my stash and make a smaller version for myself.

First quarter book report

At the end of 2008 I saw many bloggers list all the books they had read that year. I read a lot of books, too, but since I didn't write them down I'm not sure how many I actually managed to finish. (With over 200 newspaper and magazine issues that make up most of my reading during the year, I have less time nowadays for books.) I decided that for 2009 I would keep track of all the books I read, and make note of it. So here's my report for the first quarter of 2009; there's a guide to abbreviations below, and the number in parentheses refers to how many times I've read the book.

Key: F: Fantasy; H: Historical; M: Mystery; MG: Middle Grade (ages 8-12); NF: Nonfiction; SF: Science Fiction; YA: Young Adult (age 13+)

01/08/09: Leslie Connor, Waiting for Normal (MG, 1)
01/05/09: Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (1)
01/19/09: Kim Stanley Robinson, Forty Signs of Rain (SF, 1)
01/26/09: Robinson, Fifty Degrees Below (SF, 1)
01/30/09: Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (10? 15? I've lost count)
02/01/09: Richard Peck, The River between Us (YA, H, 1)
02/08/09: Robinson, Sixty Days and Counting (SF, 1)
02/12/09: Julia Barrett, Presumption (H, 1 or 2)
02/15/09: Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (MG, F, 1)
02/18/09: Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (YA, H, 1)
02/20/09: Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary (3 or 4)
02/22/09: Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now (YA, 1)
02/26/09: Emma Tennant, Pemberley (H, 1)
02/27/09: Tennant, An Unequal Marriage (H, 1)
03/05/09: The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century (SF, 1)
03/07/09: Richard Peck, The Teacher's Funeral (YA, H, 1)
03/10/09: Stephen R. Donaldson, The Mirror of Her Dreams (F, 4-5*)
03/12/09: Donaldson, A Man Rides Through (F, 4-5)
03/14/09: Jane Dawkins, Letters from Pemberley (H, 1)
03/15/09: Stephenie Meyer, Twlight (YA, F, 1)
03/21/09: Carrie Bebris, Pride and Prescience (H, M, 1)
03/24/09: James Kennedy, The Order of Odd-Fish (YA, F, 1)
03/31/09: George Cantor, A Season in the Big House (NF, 1)

*but not in the past 10 years

Statistics:
23 books total
8 middle-grade/young adult
6 Sci-Fi or Fantasy
7 Austen-related

That's actually more books than I thought I'd read, almost two per week. It's because I'm spending at least 30 minutes a day on the exercise bike, which is great reading time. It's also more first-time reads than I usually have; most often I'm re-reading an old favorite, but this year I'm trying to keep up with the children's marketplace. It will be interesting to see if the proportions change next quarter. How many books have you read so far this year, and which was your favorite? I believe of the books I read for the first time this quarter, I would choose either The River between Us or The Graveyard Book as my favorite.

Pick my next project!

I'm feeling the need to try something new. I have two fantastic ideas for projects, but I just can't decide which has the better prospects. So I thought, let's see what my readers think (all six of you). Consider these two great ideas and let me know which one you like best.

1) I was browsing the TV the other day and turned to my favorite channel, Lifetime Movie Network. I got caught up in The Loneliest Runner for the fortieth time. I was sobbing (again) as the young protagonist (whom writer Michael Landon based on his childhood self) ran up to his house where his urine-stained sheets hung from his bedroom window. And I thought about all those poor children around the world with bed-wetting problems: there should be a book for them! So I thought I would use my researching skills to create a bibliotherapeutic guide for children dealing with enuresis (bed-wetting). Of course, it will be written in verse. The tentative title? I Wish My Bladder Were Fatter: A Child's Guide to Incontinence.

2) The other day I was driving down Ford Road, the 55-mph route towards Ann Arbor, and I noticed signs of spring: dead raccoon. Dead possum. Dead squirrel. Dead raccoon, dead raccoon, half a dead raccoon. Dead deer. I asked that timeless question all authors use for inspiration: What if? What if I were a little kid riding the bus down Ford Road, so bored that there was nothing to do but look out the window? What might I imagine, gazing down at all those squashed animals? They wouldn't just lay there, that's for sure. They'd get up and play, they'd jump and cavort, ... they'd run away from the bus. And little Bobby would see himself out there with his slightly flat friends, playing tag and chasing them. The tentative title of this one? Road-Kill Rodeo.

So note in the comments which one of these two projects you like best. I can't wait to get started!*

*Or you could take note of the date and suggest your own horrible children's book title.