WWW Wednesday - 8 December 2021

 

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

My Current Read : 

I started reading Jane Odiwe's Mr Darcy's Christmas Calendar in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning after finishing and posting Darkness Falls. It has been sitting on my Kindle cloud for years and I finally decided to start it .... and I almost finished it the same day, but decided to take a couple of breaks for actual work-related nonsense and sleep and such. There are twenty-five short chapters to the book and part of me wishes that I had thought to spread it out and read it a chapter a day starting on the first, just like an Advent calendar. It never would have worked, though, because each time I picked it up I had difficulty putting it back down. As of right now I have 24% left to go and only because I opted to sleep in the afternoon and binge-watch Succession for the first half of my super-quiet shift tonight.

It's the story of twenty-one year old Lizzy Benson -- Jane Austen superfan. She made the trek from London to Chawton in order to visit the house where Jane Austen lived and wrote. She arrived during a snowstorm and, at first, is told that the house is closed by a brusque (but quite dashing) Mr Williams. A rather exuberant woman arrives just as Lizzy is about to be turned away and assures her that everything will be fine. Lizzy picks out an Advent calendar from the gift shop and then things start getting weird. She's instructed by the Mrs Bennet look-like to go get changed into a Regency costume and, while she's at it, she might as well open the first day of her calendar since it's December 1st. After she does she's transported to an alternate reality and the people she believes at first to be actors and staff are the actual Bennets and they're all at Chawton House where Jane has been writing and revising what will become known as Pride & Prejudice. And, of course, there's still Mr Williams. There is not, however, a Mr Darcy. In fact, there are several aspects of the story that seem "off." Of course, Austen is still revising ... as the story is being lived out and the revisions happen in "real time" (if there even is such a thing).

This is the third of Jane Odiwe's that I've read and they have each been delightful. Jane Austen Lives Again is, undoubtedly, my favorite (and even got a bit of a shoutout in this one) but Mr Darcy's Christmas Calendar was a lovely little change from eerie gothicness and serial killers. I have at least four more Odiwe books between my actual bookshelves and my Cloud. Maybe 2022 will see them all being read.

Recently Finished :

I didn't get much read this week, but what I did was most excellent.  Click on the book covers to get the teasers/rambles/whatever. 

This one actually got TWO posts ... the second is here.

It's the third Kate Marshall book. 

Yes, read the other two first.

What's Next :

It has been a great debate as tomorrow I leave for my much-needed trip and I'm hoping that I won't have much time to read or blog while gone ... but since I know that I must have a book with me for the long airport waits if nothing else, this is getting packed in the top of my carry-on even though it may not get read or rambled about until next week: