The Bedside, Bathtub, & Armchair Companion to Jane Austen

The Bedside... compiles just about everything you want to know about Jane Austen and then some. There are detailed summaries of all of her novels, her incomplete works, and her juvenilia. It also includes some peculiarities of Regency England (such as a ha-ha, which is a ditch to keep livestock off the lawn and gardens of a manor house. I got to see a ha-ha when I went to Wales.). Need to know the difference between a curricle and a barouche? This book gives an entire rundown of all the types of carriages in Jane's world. [Note: a curricle is a sporty 2 seater carriage that is driven with 2 horses - sort of a Regency version of a Miata (all the wealthier single young men - Mr. Darcy, Henry Tilney, etc. - drive this). A barouche is like a Rolls Royce - luxurious, roomy, and very expensive (Lady Catherine de Bourgh's favorite means of travel).] If you have a curiosity about the food (white soup, for example, is made of veal stock with almonds and cream - very expensive ingredients) of Jane's day, it's here. This includes the "meals" - breakfast and dinner (no lunch until after Jane's death) - and what and how the food was served (2 courses). There is a splendid essay on the clothing of the Regency period with JASNA's costuming expert Baronda Bradley (someone I know! We're both members of the JASNA - North Texas chapter).

The book is partitioned into several chapters and subsections of related material of short(ish) essays and analyses. It is very well written - lots of information with lots of humor. These editors know their Jane, definitely. What's nice about this compilation is that you don't have to read the whole thing at once. I dipped into sections of interest every so often - and read leisurely. It took a couple of months to read the entire thing. It was a joy.

This book is a MUST for Janites.

Madeleine Albright, as the secretary of state for President Clinton, made a name for herself using her brooches as diplomatic statements. This new book features those pins in connection with an exhibit of her pieces at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. I heard her interviewed on NPR about the exhibit and the book so I had to check it out. The book is a beautifully photographed coffee table book of a number of her pins, though not all. Intermixed are the stories of those pins and how she came to collect them. Her collection started with inherited jewelry and then expanded as her career developed. Soon her pins began to be interpreted in diplomatic circles, though she didn't wear them to send messages initially. But soon she would wear them to send non-verbal and sometimes not-so-subtle communications to various world leaders.

As I said, this is a coffee table book. Her pins are quite spectacular and quite funny. She has all kinds - expensive gemstones, costume (mostly), and really inexpensive handmade pieces that she's picked up on her travels. I wanted every one of them! While the pins and the photographs are quite glorious, if you want more information about the effectiveness of those pins in diplomacy, then I would suggest another book. This is Madeleine-lite. There are a few charming and anecdotal stories about her life, but not much detail. I wanted more. Maybe I picked the wrong book to read about her. But if you're interested in her exhibition pieces, then this is the book for you. If you're looking for more meat, try something else.