A Charming and Compact Compilation of Helpful Hints!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Review Copy from Publisher
There are have been many readers and writers who have turned to Jane Austen’s words for guidance. Through her characters, her quotes, and her letters Jane Austen has left us with a fair amount of wisdom mixed in with her satirical wit and depictions of Regency country life. Even though times have changed, and there are societal and cultural divides, Jane Austen’s words and gentle tutelage can be useful for modern-day heroines no matter what century they live in. I guess Jane Austen was quite proficient at sharing universal truths!
In this elegant and exquisitely handsome handbook, Sophie Andrews shares what lessons she has learned from Jane Austen – important lessons about being confident, having patience, and refraining from jealousy or impetuous behavior. The individual passages that highlight lessons of friendship, love, happiness, and the role of women are succinct and well-written. I really appreciated the concluding reminders at the end that truly helped the reader “Be More Jane.” While many of the lessons may not be new to readers, it is very satisfying to discover the ways we already are/learned to be more like Jane. I like to believe Jane Austen deserves large credit for shaping my behavior and outlook. 😉
I must devote the next paragraph of this review to the exceptionally beautiful illustrations provided by the talented Jane Odiwe! They truly do enhance this work and help highlight various scenes readers can recognize from Jane Austen’s novels. I especially want to comment on the detail in theses illustrations. Whether it is in the foreground or background, Ms. Odiwe included minute details that I cannot help but marvel at! Truly remarkable!
Be More Jane is a light-hearted and lovely handbook that is a wonderful choice for readers, young and old!
I hope you enjoy this little video preview I made!
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GIVEAWAY TIME!
The lovely people at CICO Books have kindly offered to do a giveaway in conjunction with my review and in celebration of Be More Jane‘s blog tour! One hardback copy of Be More Jane is going to be given away to ONE lucky reader!
To enter this giveaway, leave a comment about my review (or maybe share a lesson you’ve learned from Jane Austen!)
- This giveaway is open to readers in the US, Canada, and Europe. Thank you, CICO!
- This giveaway will end April 22nd.
Interesting review and I loved the video.I can see where this book would be a lovely addition to our P&P books Thank.you got the chance to win a copy.
I am so grateful for the video, it really helps show how physically pretty the book is – if I say so myself! Good luck and thanks for stopping by 🙂
Thanks so much! Best of luck!
A beautiful feature and giveaway. Thanks for this lovely video and review.
Good luck with the giveaway!
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Oooh. That book looks delightful! It is definitely going on my “absolutely must have” list!
Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy it!
Awesome! Hope you get the chance to read it soon!
I’ve learned that even if called a stubborn or an obstinate headstrong girl, you can grow into a strong woman.
denise
Most definitely! I am proud to call myself an obstinate headstrong girl! Good luck – thanks for following the tour 🙂
That is so true, Denise! And what a great thing for Jane to teach us!
Loved the review and the video of course.
Good luck! Thanks for stopping by!
Awesome! Thanks for checking it out!
I loved your video preview of this book, Meredith!! Jane’s illustrations are so beautiful, warm, and welcoming! I would LOVE to win a hardcover copy of this lovely book!! 😀
Warmly,
Susanne 🙂
It was a lovely way to show my book 🙂 I am very grateful! Good luck!
Yay! I am so happy to hear that! I love the illustrations, Jane did such a marvelous job!
It is true that part of the appeal to Austen’s stories is seeing good principles that can be lived by in real life. Loved your video highlighting the beauty of the physical copy, too.
She really is still so relevant. Good luck and thanks for following my tour!
So well said, Sophia!!
You did a lovely job of reviewing the book. I enjoyed the video and yes, the drawings are wonderful.
I love her review and video. Thanks for coming to read it!
Thank you, Tammy! I appreciate your kind words!
Thank you so much for the video and the soundtrack of P&P 1995 that went along with it! Lovely review and one book I want to own! Those illustrations from Jane Odiwe are exquisite! Thank you for a chance at the giveaway!!
Thank you for following my tour. good luck! I hope you like my book and add it to your collection one day!
I’m so glad you liked the video, Carole! I always have to add some Jane Austen music to these video previews. 😉
Love the video. I am such a visual person. Beautiful illustrations as well.
It really helps to show how pretty the physical book is. 🙂 good luck! thanks for stopping by!
Me too! Which is why I always love to do video previews on books that have illustrations or other features!
What a beautiful book! For all the time I spend with Austen and her characters, I could certainly use some reminders about how to “be more Jane.” Thanks for the review and the giveaway!
We should all be more Jane! Thank you 🙂 and good luck!
😉 I’m sure you will be surprised to see all that Jane has taught you!
I am so happy to see someone’s passion for Jane Austen blossom into something so delightful.
You are very kind, thank you 🙂
Isn’t it exciting?
That looks great! So delightful!
Thank you so much 🙂 good luck!
So glad you think so!
Thank you Meredith and everyone who has kindly commented on the illustrations. This was such a lovely project to do- Sophie writes beautifully, and it’s been such a pleasure to be invited to take part.
It was such a lovely journey, this book, and I am so glad you were my illustrator!
I’m thrilled you were part of this lovely project, Jane! What fabulous illustrations! <3
Thank you so much for your lovely review. I am very glad you enjoyed my little book. I love your video too, thank you!
My pleasure, Sophie! Congrats on your release! It was a delight to read and I am happy to have a chance to review it!
Lovely review. Fantastic artist. Looks fun and enjoyable.
I hope so! good luck 🙂
Thanks so much! 🙂
This book is amazing, loved to read it. Great video and review.
You are very kind thank you !
Thanks so much! Best of luck in the drawing!
Wow! There is so much to appreciate about this book and the wisdom of JA. Loved the video. It would be an honor to win a copy of this wonderful little book.
Thank you very much. Good luck with the giveaway!
I’m so happy to hear you are interested in this lovely book!
The moment I heard the music from your video, I was mesmerized. I have missed your videos. I could use some of Jane’s advice right now.
Its such lovely music! We should all be more Jane in life. Good luck!
Awww! Thank you so much, Eva! I don’t know a lot about making videos so I’m glad you like them!
Thank you for this review! Love all things Jane!
So do I! and we all need to be more Jane! Good luck 🙂
You are in good company, my friend!! 🙂 We can never get enough!
The book looks so beautiful! Great review too
It is! Such lovely illustrations and elegant formatting!
Lovely review of this book Meredith and I especially liked the beautiful video you created. Looking forward to reading it, so please count me in to the giveaway.
I hope you enjoy it when you read it. Good luck in this giveaway!
Thank you, Elaine! I appreciate your kind words!
This book sounds wonderful and it looks stunning too!! I would love to read it and become more Jane 😀
Thank you very much. We all need to be more Jane! Good luck.
Awesome! I hope you get the chance to read it soon!
This book looks so cute!! I’m excited to read. One of my favorite life lessons from Jane Austen is she was her own woman. She marched to the beat of her own drum, and was true to herself and pursued her passion for writing regardless of the social norm.
Thanks very much. I hope you enjoy it! she really was amazing how she stood up for herself and didn’t conform to society and what was expected of her. Such a role model.
Yes! She was very brave to do all that!
What an adorable book, I would love to add it to my “modest” Jane collection. Sounds fun and such pretty pictures, what a great book Sophie!
Thank you very much. I really hope you enjoy it. 🙂 good luck!
It would be a lovely book to grace your collection with!
Can’t wait to read this book. It looks wonderful.
Hope you get the chance to read it soon!
Loved to read this book, it is fantastic and I love so much Jane Austen.
Yay! You are definitely in good company!
Love the review and the video, Meredith! Great to see the book and your choice of music is impeccable. 🙂 I think we can all strive to be more like Jane – – I love that she wrote about what she wanted (and with obvious finesse) and didn’t give in to the social expectations of the time.)
Congrats, Sophie, on your publication! Thrilled to see that Jane Odiwe illustrated!
Aww! Thanks so much, Lori! So true, she paved the way for so many!
Am pretty new to all things Jane Austen and would love to learn more about ”being Jane” myself. What a great introduction to this beautifull book ! I loved the video and a great review Meredith. It would be wonderful to win this so please count me in, Thank you !
That’s awesome, Silvia! Jane has so much she teaches us! Thanks so much for your kind words!
It looks like a nice book, especially with the pictures.
For sure!!
Jane just reinforced my habit of being an observer and not taking people on that first impression as being all there is to them. Thanks for a chance to win. Sounds very interesting.
Very good, Sheila! I feel the same way about being an observer…I still need to work on the first impression bit though! 😉
What a lovely video – thanks Meredith for sharing this book. I would love to add this to my Jane Austen collection. Thanks for the giveaway. –Leslie
Thanks so much for checking out my review, so glad you liked the video!
Congrats again Sophie, I’m looking forward to reading it.
This book looks very interesting.