Dress the Part

Here's the necklace that I forgot to wear for the official P & P Book Club Meeting.

It will make an appearance at the movie viewing.

 Pretty, huh?  My sister had it made for me through Vintage Chick Designs .

-Katie

Why Jane Austen Ruined My Chances of Getting Married

Let me preface to our extended family of readers, who were not in attendance at our last book club, that I believe in jest we were on a roll thinking of book titles based on Jane. And thus, I spewed "Why Jane Austen Ruined My Chances of Getting Married." It was meant to get a few laughs at the time.
But then I thought, this is true.

Okay, well, it's not entirely true, but it's more accurate that I would like to admit.

In fact, when this book club was birthed into existence, I was nervous that we would be mourning our singleness instead of having intellectual conversations based literature. As we discussed Emma, I was pleasantly surprised. We talked governmental scandal (Pat Tillman specifically was discussed in depth), social norms, and funerals. (Note: I wrote a really well constructed, poignant article about this very topic, and my laptop, I believe, ate it. It really made me sad.)

So then we read Pride & Prejudice. Which I have read six times, all before graduating high school. And I decided somewhere during college that the book was over-rated. Who cares about Mr. Darcy anyway.

But this time around it struck a cord with me.
Because, despite the fact that there are much more exciting leading men out there than Mr. Darcy (not to mention all of the sports figures I have fallen in love with over the years), there is this innate desire to be swept away in a love story.

And then there is this tension with, do you just go for the nice guy because he likes you? That's what Charlotte did. And it seemingly worked out for her. 

Round and round this argument in my head goes. 

And now that I have been sitting here for the better part of half an hour and am just as confused as ever. 

Wait around for Mr. Darcy? Or Mr. Knightly. Or Tom Brady, for that matter.

Or do you marry the Mr. Collins? Because Mr Collins wants to be married and so do you.

Because I have let go of a few Mr. Collins who could have been potential Mr. Darcy's 

This is why Jane Austen ruined my chances of getting married. Thanks to her detailed character development and her interwoven relationships, I am more baffled than before. 

Now all I can do is rely on God's grace. 

And listen to this song on repeat. For King & Country says it best, "I have got a busted heart. I need you now. I'm desperate for grace." (Sorry, not the best version I could find.)

Thanks for reading my mess of a post,

Kayla

(Please disregard the scattered sentence fragments.)

Pride and Prejudice Quotes of the Night

Betsy: I read 20 pages.

Kayla: We’re talking about the book anyway, according to the rules.

Karla: I think it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man possessed of a good fortune must be in want of a really big TV…

Kayla: …and a gaming system.

Kayla: Jane Austen ruined my chances of getting married.

Betsy: I’m not going to give her that much credit.  I think I was pretty well screwed up before I read Pride and Prejudice.

Betsy: We never did get our token male.

Karla: We would have been fighting over him.

Katie: It’s a lot easier when one of us is getting back together with our ex-husband, one of us is a lesbian, and the other isn’t looking.

Betsy: (Talking about picture poses.)  We could look coyly over our shoulders.

Betsy: Make sure you have excellent posture.

Katie: I was trying to look amiable.

Karla: You took a picture of me?

Katie: Did you not see the flash?

Kayla: You came in and said we needed to take the picture because your hair was fading fast.

Kayla: And she seeks justice… for the children of Uganda.

Betsy: Dirty, rotten scumbags.  (In response to “Women fancy admiration means more than it does.  And men take care that they should.”)

Kayla: What did you all think…? I mean just Katie, because you’re the only one who read it.

Kayla: I’ll probably be blessed with five girls like Mrs. Bennett.

Katie: And they’ll all be out at once!

Katie: The books look much better at the end of the evening than we do.

Retroactive Emma Viewing Party Quotes

To be posted whenever I find the pieces of paper I wrote them on...

The Common Work Basket

We learned from Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners by Josephine Ross that it was typical in the Regency era to have a Common Work Basket available for visitors.  While sitting and conversing with guests, it was acceptable to sew, mend, embroider, etc. The Common Work Basket held mending, baby items, or things for the poor that any visitor could pick up and work on during the visit.

Here is our Common Work Basket:

I think that it needs some help.

Should we embrace the idea of the Common Work Basket again? :)

The Men of Austen: P & P Today

The men of Pride and Prejudice certainly are something else.  We got to wondering...what would they be like in today's world?  Here's our take on the modern day equivalent of these Jane Austen characters.

• Mr Bennet- Works hard enough at a boring desk job to get by.  Comes home and secludes himself in his den playing video games channel surfing.  Can't be troubled to set boundaries for his children when it comes to dating, cell phones, or online social media, resulting in lots of scandalous behavior.  Would divorce his wife, if it wasn't so much work.   
• Wickam- Suave.  Never admits this, but can't actually hold a job for more than a year.  Dresses like a model out of GQ, but has credit card debt up to his ears.   Practically has multiple personality disorder making every woman love him.  Somewhat regularly attends a church to keep up appearances, and the nice old church ladies think he is the cutest thing.  Acts like a wealthy businessman, but actually never finished college.  Is about to have his Hummer repossessed.  Can smell a single girl all the way on the other side of the crowded, swanky clubs that he frequents every night.
• Bingley- The perfect "Mr. Nice Guy." Has enough money to live in a McMansion in the burbs, but still goes home so his mom can do his laundry.  Great socializer, but oblivious to the need to actually pursue a girl in order to win her.  Has lots of buddies.
• Collins- Lives in the online world.  Holds several advanced degrees, but still cannot share that knowledge being condescending.  Maybe even a stuffy college professor. Closet Dungeons & Dragons player.  Would have actually have proposed to Charlotte through a text message. 
• Darcy- Engineer, hence some trouble communicating with the real world.  Partner in the successful and lucrative family business, and everyone thinks that it is just an honorary position, but he is actually the most talented one there.  Runs in the right social circles, drives the right car, and lives in the right neighborhood, but is tired of fake people.  He is not looking for a wife- he doesn't need one judging from the ridiculous women he encounters or the divorce rate prevalent in his family.  Travels all over the world supposedly on business, but has actually started a mission in Uganda which he supports and visits monthly.  We think that Elizabeth is a lobbyist that starts fighting against something his family business is doing.  She is so set apart that she makes him reconsider everything he thought he used to know.

What do you think?

-Katie

P & P Pictures

Four Books:

Four Friends:

More than four hours of conversation.

We Eat Well at Book Club

I (Betsy) didn't have a lot to contribute to our Pride and Prejudice discussion last night due to the fact that I hadn't finished (a.k.a barely started) reading the book.  Oh, I read it a long time ago, but my procrastinating self did not start it early enough this time to read more than 20 pages in time.  I will finish before we watch the movie in December, though.

So, I decided that my main contribution to last night's Book Club was in the way of food.  I do not pretend to be a fabulous cook, but I do enjoy hosting meals and feeding friends.  Here are the recipes that I made for our little group last night.  I apologize for the lack of pictures... I'll have to remember to take some to post later.


White Chili
4 cups chopped, cooked chicken

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. vegetable oil

2 cans (15 ½ oz. each) Great Northern beans, drained

6 cups chicken broth

2 (4-oz.) cans green chilies

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. oregano

½ tsp. pepper

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (optional- I leave it out)

1 cup sour cream (I used ½ cup)

½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

In a large saucepan, sauté onion and garlic in oil, and add chicken.  Add beans, broth, chilies, and seasonings.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes (or transfer to a slow cooker if you want to just keep it warm.)  Before serving, add cheese and stir until melted.  Remove from heat; stir in sour cream.  Serve with crackers, cheese, and sour cream, if desired.  Double this recipe for a large crowd. 

Yields about 8 servings  

Fudgy Chocolate Chip-Toffee Bars

Photo borrowed from Pillsbury.com

You will find this recipe on Pillsbury.com.  The only alteration I made to their recipe is that I used butterscotch chips in addition to the toffee bits, because I didn't have enough toffee.  I also forgot to add the vanilla, but I don't think any of us could tell.  They are good.  

Retroactive *Emma* photos

Well, I dropped the ball.

Nearly two months ago I was supposed to post photos of our Emma book discussion, but I didn't.  I have a hard time remembering to upload pictures from my camera to my computer, so by the time I finally did that, a long time had passed, and then I just decided I would procrastinate even more, because I've never actually posted on our blog.

Fast forward to tonight's (rather, last night's since it is after midnight) Pride and Prejudice book discussion, and I decided that I better get my act together. So here you go.  A few photos from October nope (checked my calendar), it was September 17th:

A precarious pile of Austen reference material

Some of the reference options

...a few more options (plus a Catholic reference book from Katie's collection, and now I can't remember why we used it that night, but we had a good reason!)

Our editions of Emma

Our food choices

Mmmm hot mulled cider

Hostess Katie's pretty table

-Betsy

Emma Viewing Party

Images from the Emma Viewing Party:

 Yummy Food-

 Dessert Choices-

 Messes were made,

more than once-

But we still had a great time :)