To date, JASNA has only one member in North Dakota, Andee Davis of Bismarck. From her driveway, Andee can be “in country in five minutes, and far from any traffic in about fifteen.” With no region of fellow Janeites to sustain her, it is just as well that Andee has “always loved our remoteness,” but Andee is far from anti-social, and she celebrates and champions Jane Austen in her own ways.
Andee’s first encounter with Jane Austen was reading Pride and Prejudice “as a very young woman, but I missed the wit the first time around. I really ‘got’ Jane Austen when I next read Emma.” Emma has remained Andee’s favorite Austen novel: “I love the humor; I love Miss Bates and her non-ending monologues. I like the fact that the heroine doesn’t quite know how self-centered she is, but as the book progresses, her understanding improves.”

The internet led Andee to JASNA when “about three years ago I ran into it somewhere online.” According to Andee, she joined JASNA because “I want to know more about the woman Jane Austen, and as much as I can glean about her times.” Andee is also a member of the Republic of Pemberley website, but she qualifies her RoP postings: “I’m more of a purist, not just a person who wants to chat online.” Andee keeps an eye out for other North Dakota Janeites, “I meet a few now and then,” and she loans her Austen film collection to the uninitiated, “people who are unlikely to read Austen and find that they like the movies.”

Andee has also “shared my love of Austen’s books with my Latin students, and one of them is thirteen and the bookworm type. She is headed in the direction of becoming a true Janeite,” so Andee may not be the only JASNA member in North Dakota for long.
Andee celebrates Jane Austen’s birthday at home every year with her grown daughters: “We watch one of Jane’s books on video.” Her favorite Austen film is the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma: “It’s full of wit and fun.” For 2008, Andee’s Austen birthday festivities included trying recipes for dishes that Jane Austen would have eaten, and Andee also has plans for her future December 16 celebrations: “One of these days I’m going to sew a Regency gown and wear it.” When you do, Andee, please share a photo with JASNA News. ••
The above article is excerpted from JASNA News
Volume 25 No. 2, Summer 2009.

Colonel Brandon’s Diary takes us into the Point of View of one of my favorite Austen heros, though I think that I like him as much as I do because of the favorable representations of his character in recent Sense and Sensibility movies.   In this book, Ms. Grange goes back into Colonel Brandon’s history to his first love, his father’s ward, Eliza.  Amanda Grange fills in ‘what might have been’ with enough insight for us to deveop an understanding of the colonel’s psyche.  Staying close enough to Jane Austen’s original story to keep most Janeites happy, the author adds some satisfying final scenes, as one of my very few criticisms of Miss Austen is that her books leave us wanting more.  No, not a criticism, really, but a longing to find out what happens after the last word.  (As we know, Jane Austen wrote no sequels.)  I appreciated how well Grange had Brandon care for his ward Eliza Williams and her baby.

I’m rating Colonel Brandon’s Diary an 8.5 out of 10 just in comparison to Mr. Knightly’s Diary and Mr. Brandon’s Diary, which I liked better.

But Shadow Music was better.  Though there was eventually a scene between the protagonists, (they were married by then) it was less graphic and near the end of the book.  Personally, I find reading sex scenes tedious and a little ludicrous.  When I read a historical romance, much of my interest is in the setting and the characters.  A great plot helps, but what goes on behind closed doors…or in the forest…does not enhance the story for me. 

In Shadow Music, Ms. Garwood provided enough interesting characters and a plausible plot, to keep me interested.  And of course, in addition to Highland warriors, a princess, royal secrets, monks and an abbey, there were castles!  What didn’t I like?  Two pesky little boys who needed a good spanking and never got one.  They did eventually advance the plot, but not until the end.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I will rank it a 7.

I have been doing some arm chair studies of castles in England…ironically while my sister takes a cruise around the British Isles… and have rapidly come to three initial conclusions.  Medieval castles were dark, cold, and smelly.

Dark… My first obvious observation is in the construction of castle windows.  Since castles were built primarily as fortresses against attack, the windows on the lower levels by necessity had to be very narrow to keep invaders or their weapons out.  Higher up, the windows were considerably wider and allowed in more natural light.  All the same, the lighting was an issue, exacerbated by England’s penchant for cloudiness.  At night, huge fireplaces and dozens of strategically placed candles gave uneven lighting where needed.

Cold… This, too, varied.  Unlike in my northern state, England hasn’t the extremes that we experience here, and preliminary research suggests that the weather during the Middle Ages was milder in England than it is now.  Nevertheless, acquiring fuel for fires was a constant job; warming the stone fortresses ever only partly successful.  In living quarters, tapestries were for more than adorning the walls…they kept out the cold, as well.

Smelly…  Needless to say, our modern flushing toilets were centuries away. Higher-ranking castle-dwellers had their garderobes, which resembled stone outhouses, built over shafts in the castle wall.  The waste was periodically cleaned out of the cesspool by mudator latrinaurm or‘gong farmers.’  Oddly, the odor was thought to kill germs, and the garderobes were used to store clothing, for sanitation purposes.

Now a young man with a degree from an eastern college, Thomas Ollenburger seeks direction for his career.  Having seen more of the world than his sleepy little home town ever provided, he must sort through the proverbial wheat and chaff to discover what God has in store for him.  Mix in the distractions of two pretty but very different young women, family struggles back home, and the lure of journalism and politics, and Thomas finds himself challenged to define success as he fine-tunes his faith.  I think you will enjoy the surprises this story has in store.