A new Little Women miniseries is in the works! Of course, once I heard this I had to find out who’s playing who. Here are the actresses playing Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, as well as Aunt March:
Mr. Laurence and Marmee! (And Aunt March again.)
Professor Bhaer (always a controversial casting question) . . .
. . . and Laurie!
I. CAN’T. WAIT.
I was lucky enough to score an advance reader’s copy of Joanna Shupe’s A Daring Arrangement, which releases next month. If you’re a Gilded Era fan, like me, you’ll love this beautifully written book!
More about Joanna here.
One of my favorite RARM features is the author recommendations — discovering new authors from other authors. And my top recs?
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That is, a little more from my Read a Romance Month contribution. Please enjoy. :)
I read my first Georgette Heyer novel when I was fourteen, and even though I understood very little of the period terminology, and in fact barely knew where Bath, England, was, I did manage to decode the erotic disjuncture between what the protagonists are saying, and how they’re actually feeling about each other — how underneath their witty and civilized conversations, and despite the elaborately codified manners of their time, a powerful, primal attraction is drawing them inexorably together. Talk about the sizzling power of romance! It caught me as a teenager — hook, line, and sinker — and, to my joy, has never let me go.
When I was dating the man who was later to become my husband, as February 14th approached — our first Valentine’s Day together — he asked me what I would like to have as a gift. Flowers, chocolates, jewelry . . . all floated through my mind as obvious possibilities.
But then I thought about what I really wanted. I said, “A bread machine.”
Did he say it was a silly idea, or boring, or an overly prosaic one? No, he went out and got me my very own Breadman. Which to me — then and now — is a powerfully romantic gesture. (By the way, we’re still happily married. And I still use my Breadman, too.)
That word is “yes.” To me it signifies hope, forward movement, possibility. So my ongoing goal is to say yes to change. To trying new things. To continue to learn and grow. And finally — yes to writing books which I hope others will enjoy and find meaningful.
The Book of Joy, which features the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu in conversation, is a powerfully inspiring treatise on finding balance and peace in a turbulent world. And I must also mention Sarah MacLean’s just-published Day of the Duchess: a beautifully written, powerful testament to the capacity to both change and wholeheartedly love.
Jane Austen has long been an influence and an inspiration to me as a reader, a student of history, and as a writer of historical romance. Set in an era during which women all too often had little real power, her books make a radical claim for a woman’s right to independent thought, for the importance of happiness, for the overriding value of love over cool pragmatism. These are compelling — and fun! — issues I like to explore in my own novels set during this time, and I’ve got Austen to thank for boldly leading the way over two hundred years ago.
A speculative “spontaneous composite portrait” of Jane Austen by Lance Bertelsen, Iris Howard Regents Professor in English, University of Texas at Austin
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Something every book lover understands. :)
Tom Gauld’s playful speculation about Jane Austen’s creative process in writing Pride and Prejudice.
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It’s Thursday, which means it’s official Getting To Know You Day on my Facebook page! Here’s today’s question, which I need to regularly ask as I always love hearing what people are reading . . . and it’s a great way to add on to my TBR pile. :)
Would you like to join us? Please do!
