Hang a Left!

I've decided to take my blogging in a slightly different direction. Yes, I'll still gush about good books and graduate school, but I also wanted to explore some of my other interests.

I changed the title. I like this title. I think it captures three important bits of my current interests: literature (duh), food (I love good food!), and running (yay for fitness). This will by no means turn into a fitness/food blog, but I thought it'd be fun to talk about literature one day, then share a tasty recipe the next. For those of you who have talked to me, you know that I'm passionate about healthy eating and running, so sharing those passions--as well as my love of all things literary--would be appropriate for a blog named "Eat, Read, Run".

I hope you all will enjoy a little variation in topic--I think I'll enjoy writing about it!

Rain Rambling

Caveat: this post contains a major amount of rambling and slightly jumbled thoughts.

So remember my last post where I talked about getting some kind of weird virus? Well, I passed it to Lance last week. And then we were both healthy again, and I managed to develop a sore throat that I'm increasingly suspecting is the result of the weird weather and vigorous Arkansas vegetation growth. Thus, I've been taking it easy yesterday and today, sipping on Masala Chai* and reading.

Speaking of rain, I ran a race in the rain on Saturday, while I was still well. It was an interesting experience, since usually the rain deters any exercise attempts or causes me to head to the HPER instead. I actually found the experience fun, although the stream of water into my right eye was a little annoying. I see why runners often wear hats.

The rain also brings me to a link I'd like to share with you: Robin McKinley's blog**. I love Robin McKinley; she's a fabulous writer and is responsible for several of my favorite books. Her blog is entertaining and quirky, and I'm enjoying reading about the personal life of a favorite author. Of course, now I remember that I wrote about this last time. Duh. Oh well, I'll just leave it.***

So now on to my reading. I've finished three, no, four books in rapid succession (man, I love the start of the summer, when I can gulp down novels that have been tempting me all semester). I started off by reading The Jane Austen Book Club, followed by The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which led me to polish off In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I then moved on to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is a YA book, so it read REALLY fast. Yum. I promise to talk about each of these books individually for the rest of the week.

Well, I'm off to do some more reading. A trip to the library brought me Lady of the Snakes, Lost and Found, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Bee Season. And yes, I do realize I need to do thesis reading. Soon, I tell myself.

*Thanks to this guy. It's almost all gone, so I'm trying to savor the last few cups.
**She's been complaining about the rain. She's also the reason I'm using lots of footnotes lately.
***See caveat.

In Which Jenn Gets Sick (and Knits)

Some of my fellow knitters (and readers of this blog) will notice a sudden increase of posts on the Kniterati group blog. Apparently I can post there a lot and ignore this blog. I'll try to swing that a different direction--more posts in both places, perhaps?

My semester finished out nicely (still sporting a proud GPA, yay!). The weekend after the end of classes was crazy and full of activity, including seeing my parents*, seeing Lance's parents**, attending parties, and trying to sleep a little more. Fun times.

Then Wednesday, I got sick. Really sick. I ran a fever for a day and a half and lay on the couch and watched Gilmore Girls. It was great fun, really.

This week, I'm back at work. I took last week off from schoolwork, read a book for fun (The Jane Austen Book Club), and knit a lot and got sick. This week, I planned to start thesis reading, but I'm still feeling like I want to enjoy more of a work-free summer. I just got over feeling guilty for doing fun stuff instead of doing homework. Lance and I went and saw Prince Caspian last night, which was a lot of fun. We'll probably go see the new Indiana Jones next week.

So that's what I've been up to! (Basically a whole lot of nothing). I started reading Robin McKinley's blog, who happens to be one of my favorite writers ever, so it's been loads of fun.*** Time for me to go outside and play in the sunshine...

*After some arguing and cursing because they refused to tell me WHAT WAS GOING ON. We ended up meeting at a Denny's^, where the waitress looked at me funny for ordering a veggie burger (she didn't know what it was) and wanting to substitute fruit for fries^^. Then then "forgot" to tell me that my brother was in town this past weekend and that they were having the family over for a barbecue. Argh, family. Mine is terrible about communication.

^Gross. And in the armpit of NWA, no less!
^^Because apparently the usual patron of Denny's would sniff suspiciously at anything not made of beef or chicken or pork, then demand a bucket of meat and eggs. And forget substituting fruit--bring on the fried potatoes!

**And grandparents and brother and uncle. After seeing my family, I headed over to Lance's grandparents' house, where I received a warm welcome and many proclamations about how I was missed at church and lunch. Why is it that seeing Lance's family is less dramatic than seeing my own? I want to steal them.

***And has inspired me to make use of copious footnotes, just for the hell of it.

I Owe Them Nothing

This post is mostly frivolous. But it's Friday, a time for frivolity. Enjoy.

The federal government, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to give me money. Since this money was fairly unexpected, I decided that I would pay off the last bit of my student loan (since I'm not paying interest at the moment, I decided that I had no reason to pay it off before). So now I'm all debt-free and stuff. And man, it feels great--25, and I owe nobody anything. Or I owe nothing to nobody.

Now for the frivolous part:



Kitties on a treadmill! I popped over to You Tube, and found many, many videos of kitties on treadmills. And I watched several and giggled a lot. Mostly because cats are kind of lazy, so it's funny to watch them willingly walk on the treadmill, then give up and fly off the end.

In Which Jenn Concludes Her Semester

I just got back from turning in my final paper for 18th Century Novel (about the Arabian Nights' Entertainments). I was reluctant to let it go--I had fun writing it, and I really am interested in the ideas I had. As I was revising it, I thought about how the reader's relationship to Scheherazade is similar to the sultan's. As readers, we find the stories so compelling that we are reluctant to close the book; in effect, we are reluctant to cause the 'death' of the story, just as the sultan does not want to kill Scheherazade because the stories bring him pleasure and delight. Isn't that a cool idea? But I didn't have time to flesh it out--it became relegated to a sentence tacked on to a paragraph about the interaction between reader-audience, textual-audience, and the frame tale.

I think I'm going to keep working on that paper. It was so much fun.

Now for a bit of listiness--Things I learned this semester

• I really shouldn't put off doing a paper. It turns out that I really hate rushing through writing and wish I could spend weeks working on a topic that I'm really excited about.
• Procrastination only leads to my grief.
• I eat a lot more when I'm working hard on something.
• Exercise clears my brain to concentrate harder.
• Sleep is not overrated, and coffee should not be consumed past 8pm if I want to sleep.
• I have the ability to read and write a lot in one night, but it is an unsustainable ability
• The Marquis de Sade makes me want to puke. But he's actually pretty interesting in his own right. (Damn my academic brain)
• 30 Rock is a really funny show--and good procrastination/reward fodder. (It was actually a good reward once I stopped watching several shows in a row.)
• I love the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.
• Being in grad school means you can drink with (some of) your professors.

I've obviously learned much more, but I think it's time to go do some work...(job work, not school work--I'm taking a break!)

What's Jenn Been Doing?

On May 1st, I had the grand plan of writing here everyday. I still feel like it's pretty important.

Then I forgot to post--it was a busy day!--and have since been absorbed in finals. I had a take home final due Monday along with a project write up, and tomorrow I have a 15-25 page paper due for 18th century novel.

Let me tell you, though, this paper I'm writing is so much fun. I have no clue how good it is, but I'm really enjoying it, so perhaps that'll shine through. I'm looking at narrative strategy in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments (1001 Nights in other translations). I get into a long discussion about how there are two different audiences--and embedded audience, then an audience of the text--and I use my favorite essay ever, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" to further examine what the text does and why it's so powerful as a story. I'm really loving it right now. Oh, and I use The Princess Bride in my introduction. Neat!

What else have I been up to? I got to hang out with an awesome pal for a month (yay!). I ran into a former friend and, treated with complete coldness by someone who once I considered a good friend, decided to let that relationship go (I have since deleted that individual from my e-life). I've been procrastinating a lot. I've also been watching 30 Rock because that show is hilarious. (I like it so much that I want to take it behind the middle school...)

Anyway, my paper is due tomorrow, then I'll be free (sort of) for the summer! I already have a list of books I'm going to attempt to read...

New Things

I bought a new computer recently--I'd been saving up to get a kick-ass desktop that will (fingers crossed) make me through PhD school until I start earning the big bucks as a professor. I'm pretty happy with my new computer, so it inspired me to upload pictures off of my camera. Which inspired me to actually sort them into neat little folders (new computer and all), and since I have a nifty card reader built into my computer, I didn't even need to plug my camera in.

Needless to say, I really like the new desktop. It's inspiring me to new levels of procrastination--I'm juggling cooking and sorting pictures, browsing the internet (I finally am paying for internet at my home instead of just using it at school and attempting to use someone else's unsecured wireless). All this inspired me to actually post.

That...and I wanted to show you all my pretty new bowl that I bought at a local art sale today:


It's a watermelon! It's really big, and I bought it for cheap because the glaze cracked the bottom of the bowl, so it's technically non-functioning. However, it will function quite nicely as a thing to set on my counter and be pretty and hold fruit and stuff. So I'm quite happy with my steal.

Maybe E-Books Aren't So Bad...

I'm suspicious of E-Books. Why would I take a beautiful thing like a book and transfer it to an electronic medium? I love books--especially when they smell a certain way or have a particular heft. There's something comforting about the physicality of an object that is also full of non-physical entities, such as characters and ideas that only come to life when I, as the Reader, participate. Transferring reading to a activity mediated through technology robs the Book of some of its magic and charm.

Perhaps, however, electronic books can still be useful. I've heard nothing but rave reviews of this one, the one that I now want. The Kindle looks amazing. And there are sites like ManyBooks.net that let you download free classics. Classics that I want to read.

It also appeals to my environmental side. Even if I got a free book download, I'd still want to print it out, using lots of paper. The Kindle is created to dodge the tricky issue of using a computer for reading--and it allows you to take notes on what you're looking at. It's also searchable ("What's that book with the thing about green spaces? Oh, let me search my Kindle...there it is!"). I can suddenly see the possibilities for research and travel--if I need to read some books for a project, but I also have to fly somewhere? No problem--I can carry all I need in one tiny device!

One drawback is that it doesn't seem to easily accept PDF files--something that would make it perfect as a research tool. I get a lot of ILL articles and book chapters in PDF format, and to upload them to a Kindle instead of printing them off would be better than anything I could imagine. It seems that they are working on this--and reading the reviews, there are certainly ways to get the PDF file on the Kindle by connecting it to a computer. Sweet!

Needless to say, I'm going to be saving up for this little device. If you'd like to contribute to the Jenn's Kindle Fund, please do! It'll be infinitely useful for my personal enjoyment and my academic career.

I Get it Already!

I've begun skimming the novel I have to read for Thursday.

Before you gasp in shock and despair at my sloppy English student ways, let me explain: Marquis de Sade. (People pause. They know that name. The term "sadist" comes to mind. Didn't he get thrown in jail and wasn't he the subject of a movie?).

We're reading Justine for 18th Century English novel. I'd already read a shorter piece by Sade that involved a man who raised his daughter up as his mistress, so I thought I was ready for anything he could throw at me. Boy was I wrong.

Justine is about 350 pages of unrelenting aberrant sexual practices: rape, sodomy, incest. And there is no glossing over these occurances, no making it easy for the reader--nope, Sade seems to take a sadistic (haha) pleasure out of describing scene after scene of the horrible acts that can be done to poor Justine. It's pretty terrible, though the story itself and the writing isn't too bad.

I'm only mildly prudish, I promise--I don't usually shy away from stark descriptions of sex, even violent sex...but usually those descriptions are one moment of a book. In Justine, they occur over and over again. And again. I wonder at the number of "libertines" who are after some crazy, weird sex. After reading the book for about three hours straight, I suddenly couldn't take anymore, and I had to stop. I was physically sick to my stomach.

Therefore, I'm skipping the rest of the horrible passages. Since I have less than 100 pages left, I think that I get the idea of what Sade is after.

The Number 4

Since Secret Knitter so kindly tagged me for a meme, I thought I'd respond within 4 days.

The meme is "4 Things"--I went back to Secret Knitter's source, but I think you can pick any number of four things to write about.

4 Jobs:
1. Resident Assistant: 4 years in college, and I loved all but the last year. The last year taught me that a pleasant supervisor can make all the difference in the world between loving and hating your job.
2. Writing Center Assistant: 3 years of tutoring writing and speech taught me a lot. I like tutoring writing--and my future career is along those lines.
3. Secretary, Civil Engineering: my first "real" job outside of college, it was supposed to be a placeholder until I departed for graduate school, but then I got promoted to...
4. Admin Assistant for the College of Engineering. I like it (mostly), and it is a fantastic way to save money and get cheap graduate school tuition.

4 Movies I could watch again and again:
1. Ever After: I think I adore this movie because she rescues herself at the end of the movie and generally represents a strong female character. I like that. I first watched it in high school and have adored it ever since.
2. Gilmore Girls: I've watched each season repeatedly--it's quirky, has great dialogue, and even when it gets dramatic, I still like it.
3. Moulin Rouge: I LOVE this movie--and sing along loudly every time I watch it.
4. Sense and Sensibility: I also adore this movie; it's a fantastic adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, and it's like watching the novel come alive. I didn't realize until recently how very good it was and faithful to the novel.

4 Places I've lived
1. Modesto, CA: from a wee tot until age 10, my home was in California. My parents fled to...
2. Harrison, AR. I finished growing up here, went to high school in the area, and found out that I was "smart".
3. Since I was "smart", I managed to get a scholarship to UCA, so I moved to Conway for 5 years, becoming the first person in my family to complete a Bachelor's degree. Since a BA wasn't enough for me (and I was dating someone pretty cool), I took off for...
4. Fayetteville. My current home, and where I work and attend graduate school. Fortunately, I'm still dating the feller that I followed up here, so I can pretend like I moved for other reasons than him, though everyone might think differently.

4 Places I've been:
1.) Guadalajara, Mexico: my first study abroad experience. I was sooo young and didn't take as much as I could have from the experience, but it was still quite educational and life changing. (I also lost 20 lbs because I didn't eat much and walked a lot during my 5 week stay).
2.) New Mexico/Arizona: another travel trip through the university, where we set out to study Native American history and culture. We visited the Navajo, Hopi, and Pima reservations, read great books, saw the Grand Canyon, visited Flagstaff (a lovely town), and played in the desert. It was also a great experience that I wish I could go on again, but alas...
3.) Wyoming/Montana: we set out for Montana on a road trip (we were invited to a wedding!) and ended up playing in Yellowstone and seeing some awesome stuff. The wedding was fun, the camping was great, and I had a blast on this trip--in fact, we might repeat it soon.
4.) Spain!!: our most recent trip abroad. It was two weeks of traveling, seeing cool stuff (the Prado! La Sagrada Familia!), and I would do it again in a heartbeat (but I'd also buy Eurorail passes before I went--trains were way too expensive).

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Curry (Thai/Indian): I once did something slightly embarrassing for leftover Thai curry.
2. Broccoli/greens/asparagus/brussels sprouts/peas: I love them green veggies.
3. Beans: especially in bean burger format. Or really any format; I'm not too picky.
4. Ice cream: mmm, ice cream. Delicious. (If it was all healthy food, someone might suspect me of lying!)

4 Places I'd rather be (than work):
1. Home
2. Camping
3. running around the park
4. Colorado

...and
4 people to respond:
1. Justin
2. Aimless Wanderer
3. ADAllen
4. Kerry

(and whoever else might like to, like you, Tim.).

Running Away

With the end of winter and the promises of cute bathing suits for the summer, I have started running again like crazy. I love running, and I've set forth some lofty, marathon-length goals for the future. In pursuit of building up for it, I've implemented a weekly long run. This weekend, I signed up for a 5k, the first of several I will run this month.

The Hogeye 5k was the shortest of several running events that took place yesterday. I've not trained enough to run the half-marathon, let alone the full--so I signed up for the 5k. It was nice to wake up, stroll to the starting line (warmed up from the walk), run the race, then stroll home in the beautiful spring sunshine.

This race showed me the results of my training: I was able to run it easily--even with all the Arkansas hills--and finished strongly. I saw the faces of several others who finished around me, and they looked like they were going to fall over, yet I felt invigorated and like I could run more. I passed one girl on a steep hill who was running too hard: her breath was labored and she sounded as though she might keel over at any moment. I was expecting more of a challenge, but this race was...effortless. That tells me I need to start training to run a 5k distance faster, and also start training for longer distances.

I like running races for the competitiveness and challenge: I feel bad if I try to "compete" with the other runners on the track when I'm just working out, but in the race setting, it's perfectly okay to pass someone and feel good about it. I especially feel good about passing men. A couple of guys I know ran the race as well, and I beat them.

I'm pretty motivated to keep running. I want to improve my fitness, run faster and farther, and have awesome running muscles. Next weekend is another 5k that a friend signed me up for, and then the week after that is the Race for the Cure that I promised to run with a friend. Should be exciting!

"Sad Trash"

I am working my way through my G-mail box when I discovered this poem I wrote in 2005:

Ion

There's a humming, a buzzing
Energy crackling in my finger tips
Flowing from my Soul
Creative life to waiting to conceive
A burst of divine Light—

The Poet is divine
Did you not know?

All our levels of humble existence
Seek to reach a better plane—
Achieve Nirvana, or Heaven,
Or Enlightenment.

Perhaps Artists are more aware
Of this amaranthine Struggle
Or perhaps we simply
Seek ephemeral perception—
Through Words—
On Page.

It has some issues (I'm not a very good poet), but really like the phrase "amaranthine Struggle". And yes, I like Emily Dickinson. Just thought I'd share some creative writing, since I hadn't really done any lately.

Monolingualism is American?

My Applied Linguistics course confronts several issues of language and literacy, one of which is learning a foreign language and the persistent monolingualism of the United States. As someone who can be considered proficient in a second language (I did manage to get around Spain for two months), I always feel a bit of smugness that I don't fall into the "monolingual" category.

Then, however, I run into students from all over the world who not only know two languages, but usually are proficient in three or four, and have a working knowledge of several others. It's crazy how sheltered we are when it comes to language.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published a commentary on the the foreign language requirement for English graduate students. The author, Edward White, thinks programs should be more serious about the requirement--which means bringing it to students' awareness before they start graduate school.

White is absolutely correct. Graduate programs shouldn't get rid of the foreign language requirement because there are valid reasons for its existence. The advantages to learning a foreign language are numerous, one of which is a better understanding of your own language--several concepts in English clicked for me after I started learning Spanish. Also, there is more to literary studies than English literature (or literature in English). Being able to familiarize oneself to other languages is a step toward learning about other cultures, philosophies, and a rich world literature.

I'm looking forward to PhD school when I have the excuse and opportunity to learn another language. I always debate on what it'll be: French? German? Greek? More students should learn foreign language--and help reverse the trend that classifies Americans as persistently monolingual.

The Return

A brief list of what's been going on (with a promise of more detail later):

• I think I've formed my thesis committee, so
• I've begun working harder on my thesis.
• I'm enrolling in thesis hours this summer, and taking my final class in the fall.
• Family drama: a dear cousin passed away, and my parents are incredibly selfish through it all. I wish I could go to the funeral, but it is impossible with work (priority registration started) and school. (It's in Colorado).
  
• Miniature books!
• Work, work, and more work. It's my life.
• For the first time in my academic career, I took advantage of a professor's good nature and got an extension on an assignment. Then it took me three weeks to finally complete it. I feel pretty horrible, so maybe it won't happen again.

Anyway, sorry I've been away for a bit. I'll post more details about all the exciting stuff going on.

I Think I'm Stressed...

I keep thinking about all the stuff going on, and feel a little smothered--too much to do! Not enough time! It's a bad place to be.

Thank goodness it's Spring Break next week. No playing for me, though...just straight up catching up on everything.

Note Spoilers

I don't like having endings spoiled for me. When I read a story, I want to savor it, to follow the dips and twists and turns, and finally come to that satisfying conclusion when everything is resolved. It's part of reading/hearing a story--or least a successful story.

However, apparently in academia, we no longer read for enjoyment. Frequently, endings are spoiled by well-meaning editors. The site of the crime? Footnotes and endnotes. These editors put in the notes with the good intention of explaining bits of the narrative that might get lost because of antiquated language or conventions that are lost.

However, occasionally editors have the urge to insert interpretive material in their notes. Sometimes that interpretive material gives away a major plot point. I'm barely a third through Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, and now (because of a damned note), I think I know how it's going to end. I don't like having ends ruined, especially when I'm really getting into the story. Why do they assume that we read for information and not enjoyment? I may be studying this text for class, but I also enjoy reading a good story. And this is a good story*.

*With sex. Lots and lots of sex. In fact, this novel is also considered one of the most famous English erotic novels. For all the pornography, it also has a good story. More about this later.

Snow Day, Snow Day

I'm hanging out at home currently, reading Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (ooh, racy!) because there was tons of ice and snow this morning--though, it's somewhat melted currently. I was happy to get a day off to get some things done, like clean the house, read books, bake a tiny cake, play in the snow.

On our way to walk somewhere for lunch (and to play in the snow), something amusing occurred: My cat hadn't come home last night or this morning, which was extremely unusual--usually she is waiting at the door before bedtime. As I was walking in front of my downstairs neighbor's apartment, I noticed something sitting in the window--Rory! She sees me and starts meowing and rubbing on the glass. I knock, no one answers. I knock a little harder to make sure they hear me--I turn to Lance to appraise him of the situation, saying loudly "I just want my cat" when I hear a noise, and "Oh! Oh!". I turn in time to catch a glimpse of flesh. The door opens and what would appear to be a naked neighbor (hiding behind the door) tells me that she thought I was her roommate. She was a bit sleep fuddled, poor girl. Rory follows me out and promptly goes to my apartment and falls asleep.

It was pretty funny--I assume they saw it snowing, saw Rory outside, and felt sorry for her. In reality, we had just let her out, and would have let her back in when we returned an hour or so later. And she would have been fine outside for that length of time--she's smart and knows that we wouldn't leave her outside to freeze.

Well, back to making the most of my free day. Go snow!

Speaking of Snow

Weirdly, the last post I write involves snow. This post too deals with snow. You know, as I type this, it's snowing thickly outside. I'm trying to decide if snow/Arkansas weather is taunting me again. I suspect it might. In my heart of hearts, I hope that it's not.

Lance is so positive that we'll be free from our employment obligations that he bought bread and milk--not because we'll need to survive the harsh winter conditions (like most other Arkansas think as they fill up their gas tanks and wipe out the bread, meat, and milk). Rather, he wants to make grilled cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate and walk around in the snow.

We have snow traditions. One of them usually involves walking in the snow at night, when the world is silent and peaceful, wrapped in white. I love the sound of snow--it's like a pressure on my ears or a lack of noise or the barely perceptible melodies of snow striking surfaces. Something about the way the world is when it snows delights me; it becomes a land out of Faerie, a magical place. And that magic is most perceptible at night when there are few cars or people or creatures stirring about, and anything--anything--could happen.

So my cynicism toward snow is melting, and I'm hoping to enjoy the beauty and magic outside of my office, unlike the last day it snowed.

Something Snow-Related

I love snow. It was flurrying the other day, and I cursed Arkansas for being fickle with me, especially on the snow-front. Capricious state. Give me my one snow day!

Anyway, I stumbled across this SnowDays site, which is fun--it lets you make your own snow flake! If you do a search for "Jenn" and "AR" you can see the one that I made. Pretty fun, a total time killer, and I can sort of believe it's snowing.

Sorry for the gap in posting as of late. Hopefully I'll work up some posting motivation soon, especially since I still need to talk about Spain...

Who's that Austen Person?

Jane Austen: you either tear through her (fabulous!) novels with reckless abandon, or foster some vague idea of "chick-lit" or novels about "getting married and stuff." Well, I'm obviously of the former camp--since I started reading Austen for class, I voluntarily read through the rest of her canon with delight, finding her prose witty and ironical.

My interest in Austen led me to rent Becoming Jane. Little is known about the exact details of Austen's life, so much of the movie is speculation about why she never married based on what scholars do know.

The film seized on the angle of a unfulfilled romantic relationship as a possible influence on Austen's writings and explored the nature of this relationship.

I loved this movie. It might be over-romanticized, but it offered some interesting speculation about the life of a wonderful writer. The film itself was full of little references to Austen's works, something I found fun. I also enjoyed the scene where Jane met Ann Radcliffe, famous Gothic authoress who was a little boring (in contrast with her wild tales). It also showed the relationship between Austen and Tom LeFroy as an inspiration for her most famous work, Pride and Prejudice.

Anne Hathaway did a decent job portraying Austen, and I had to give her extra points when I learned from the special features that she is an Austen fan (she wrote her senior thesis at Vassar on Austen) and she read the Austen's entire body of works as well as criticism as research for this role. Impressive!

Taken with a grain of salt and viewed as a story based on limited knowledge, Becoming Jane offers a lovely possibility in the story of an author's life.