The Jane Austen Book Club-- Life imitates Art

For the past few days we have watched the film which was based upon Karen Joy Fowler's book.  This page to screen adaptation follows the lives of 5 women and 1 man as they read the 6 novels of Jane Austen.  Life imitates art as these individuals live out the desire and conflicts of Austen's protagonists in their own lives.

In Post 5, write a reaction to the film.  What are its strengths and weaknesses? What did you take away from it?  To whom would you recommend it?

Then write about a time when you have seen life imitating art.  Consider books that you have read, the characters that remind you of people you know, the conflicts that are similar to ones that you have experienced etc.  Describe a time when the world of literature has come alive.  What happened?  What is the significance?  What does this tell us about the power of literature?  What insights does it offer as to why we read?

Stepping Out of our Comfort Zones

The choice of the last book that we all read was intended to get us to step out of our comfort zones and in a sense to expand our horizons.  Reflect upon this experience in Post 4.  What did you read?  How was it out of your comfort zone?  What did you think of the experience?

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone-- Discovering an Established Writer

David Baldacci is a prolific writer whose books are regularly on the bestseller list.  Surprisingly, I have never read anything that he has written until now.  Stepping out of my comfort zone, I saw that he most recent book was at #1 on the bestseller list and decided that it was time to see what this author and his writing was all about.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  In all honesty, the focus of the book and its genre are not that foreign for me and are similar to other books I have read in the suspense and crime novel genres.  So for me, stepping out of my comfort zone and reading a book by an author that I have avoided over the years has been a positive experience adding a new author to the list of writers I put on my "To Read" list.

 Memory Man is the first of a new series featuring Amos Decker, a former detective, who has fallen on bad times after the murder of his family.  Aside from his back story, what makes Amos unique is his memory.  Amos cannot forget anything!  As he describes it, he has a DVR player in his head which enables him to play back any event in any day of his life.  It also does not allow him to forget the horrors that he has witnessed.  Events of the novel include a school shooting, an aggressive reporter, and a high stakes game of cat and mouse.  The book is a quick read with interesting insights into the mind and the resilience of human beings.  I would recommend it to any one who likes crime fiction or suspense.

If not for the assignment of stepping out of my comfort zone, I would not have read this book.  I am glad I did.  I look forward to the next Amos Decker novel and over the summer I will see what else Mr. Baldacci has to offer.