Is there any felicity in the world superior to this?

[olde_fashioned]

A couple teeny real life updates, and a more obvious one:

• After what seems like a century, I've finally gone and changed my layout. I love my old one still, but it was time for a change, especially with everything in my life so different, I felt it was only fitting to have a fresh look on my LJ as well. ;-) A bright, clean look is what I was aiming for. It's a little summer-y, so we'll see how I feel when the end of the year rolls around. ;-)



• This Sunday was such an odd day...it actually rained, which is not at all normal for this time of year. Rain is so delightful and I wasn't about to miss such a rare opportunity, so I promptly ran outside and stood in it. ;-P It was so much fun, and I can't remember the last time I took the time to freely embrace the rain rather than run from it, even loving it as I do.



• I snagged a copy of Amanda Foreman's Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire biography for cheap at a used bookstore (imagine my glee upon beholding it!), so I've been perusing that of late. It's proving a fascinating read so far, and even in the first few chapters I've already learned enough to say that as miscast as I thought Keira Knightley was in The Duchess, apparently Ralph Fiennes was even moreso, since the Duke was only 9 years older than his wife, and not as dark or brooding as Fiennes. They need less grumpy and more languid...I'm thinking Simon Woods might have been a better choice, LOL!



• Thanks to my brother's generous birthday gift, I've finally read Georgette Heyer! Sprig Muslin was something I'd started while waiting in a bookstore, and wanted to finish, so that made choosing one from her vast selection of Regency romances a lot easier! It was cute, and it's obvious why she's such a natural choice for Austen fans. ;-) Not as good as JA (but then again, who is?), but I'd like to keep reading more of her work.



• Having fallen in love with Evelina last summer, Fanny Burney's Cecilia and Camilla have joined the ranks of literature on my shelves! Both volumes are, I might add, veritable DOORSTOPS, weighing in at approximately 1,000 pages each! I can't wait to start one but I confess I'm a bit intimidated since it's such a huge undertaking...
  
  Would anyone else be interested in possibly trying to start up another Group Read?

Comments

[artekka.livejournal.com]

Amanda Foreman's Georgiana biography is excellent. I loved that one.
GEORGETTE HEYER?! She's one of my very favorite-est authors! My mom started reading her to me, beginning with "Arabella", when I was like 13. The funnier her books are, the more I like them--Faro's Daughter, The Grand Sophy, and A Convenient Marriage are all particularly hilarious. No, she's not as good as Jane Austen (as you pointed out, who is?) but she's one of the two best 20th-century writers of Regency fiction that I've come across, the other being Sheila Simonson, who in general is not nearly as lighthearted as Heyer.
*much Heyer squeeing*

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Now I'm intrigued by AF's Madame du Pompadour bio as well! ;-P

LOL! I've had The Grand Sophy recommended to me many times, so I'll have to look for that one.

I've never heard of Sheila Simonson!

[artekka.livejournal.com]

i don't think she's very well known, and i don't know how much she's written. "Cousinly Connexion" is my favorite, but the "Bar Sinister" series is really good too--tho I find aspects of it depressing, probably because it's got a lot more realism about some things than your average romance novel! :P

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Well I like depressing so long as it's realistic and not let's-see-how-rotten-we-can-make-so-and-so's-life...ala Tess of the D'Urbervilles, LOL!

[artekka.livejournal.com]

omg i HATE that book! worst thing we read in my AP English class. Which means it beat out Camus' "The Stranger", which is not an easy feat. :P

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

ROTFLOL! I only saw the movie (not sure if I'm willing to tackle Hardy, ha ha) and that was uber depressing...to sum the novel up in three words; Tess' life sucks!