I stumbled upon All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith while searching for an ebook to read on the train this summer. I browsed through Freading ebooks since I knew everything would available for download immediately (no wait list!) While I'm not an Austenite, I do seem to gravitate to books centered around Jane Austen's books ... The Jane Austen Book Club is a good example of this.
I'm also an armchair traveler so I really liked that All Roads Lead to Austen is part travelogue. During a yearlong sabbatical from teaching, Smith journeys to six countries in Latin America (Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina) to conduct reading groups using three of Austen's novels - Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma - in an attempt to discover if Austen's books translate across time and culture. Since this book is a memoir, it was lots of fun for me to "meet" real people from these Latin American countries, not just fictional characters created by an author.
My absolute favorite part of the book is when Smith asked the members of her reading groups to suggest the authors from their country that they thought she should read. I diligently jotted down the author's names, vowing to read as many of them as I possibly can (translated into English, of course). I won't embarrass myself by revealing how many of the authors were new to me.
If you are curious about All Roads Lead to Austen, you can check out additional reviews on Goodreads.
This book review was submitted by Jill S.
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