Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA.org)

I have set up an RSS feed for News and Events for the Jane Austen Society of North America: jasna_rss. Enjoy.

Camel Bookmobile

naomikritzer mentioned this a little bit ago, and I thought I'd pass it on, too. Apparently, there is a camel bookmobile in Northern Kenya. Now come on, how cool is that?  (The link leads to pictures of it: Here's one of a young girl totally absorbed in a book.)

An author who wrote a novel about this mobile library has organized a book drive for it. She notes that the bush is hard on books (and the books in the pictures are clearly battered), and that children's books are in the highest demand. She also notes that the library patrons particularly like it when a book has been inscribed by the donor. They need books in both Swahili and in English (which is taught in the schools).

Becoming Jane

I'm afraid that if I see the forthcoming "Becoming Jane" with Anne Hathaway (see the trailer here) and have the temerity to say that I like it, I will be ruthlessly lynched by the snarky ladies over at Austenblog (austen_blog). Or at least skewered with their razor sharp quill pens.

Too bad. I'm planning on seeing it anyway.

Edited to add: I like the opening of the Independent's article about the movie: "Jane Austen, handsome, clever, and posthumously rich, lived nearly 42 years in the world with, it seems, quite a bit to distress and vex her..."

Stress

Today was really stressful. All my attorneys were out except one, but my god, they kept me hopping without a break through e-mail and voice mail. I didn't get either my mid morning or midafternoon walks in. At lunch, instead of relaxing over a book, I had to run to the county building to get a copy of Fiona's birth certificate that she needs to take with her to Mexico. I got out of there a half hour late. When I got home, I had to drive the girls to karate immediately. To my intense irritation, Fiona had a class mate over because they had been working on a history day project together. Fiona had forgotten she had karate, too. Since there was no time for his mom to come pick him up, that meant I had to drive the girls to the dojo, and instead of relaxing over a book for the first time all day, I had to beat my way through rush hour traffic to drop this kid off at his home and then beat my way back before their class ended. It took me forty-five minutes in all to make the cross-town trip. I went to get the girls out of the dojo and led them to the car, where I discovered that someone had boxed me in to my parking space. It was now 6:30 p.m., and I knew that Rob had left the dishes undone. By the time we got home, it would be past time for dinner, but I would have to cook it in a messy kitchen.

I lost it. I just lost it. I started sobbing, right there in the parking lot.

The girls put their arms around me, patting my wet face with their soft little hands, resting their cheeks on my shoulder. "Don't turn the news on," Delia told me consolingly. "Put your iPod on. Pick something nice and soothing."

I grabbed a paper towel from the floor and blew my nose. "Um. I'll pick Enya."

So I mopped myself up and put on Shepherd Moons. Eventually, I managed to maneuver the Jeep out of the parking space and I drove home. Rob was already there. He took one look at my shattered face, and when I told him what had happened, he volunteered to do the dishes immediately.

I made tortellini for dinner. Boil the water, throw it in, seven minutes later it's done, boom. Dinner's on the table. Throw some butter and parmesan on it. So it's not a balanced meal.

Bite me.

I'm going to bed.

Someone still needs to take me out drinking.