I am in a book club with some friends.
It is a Jane Austen Book Club.
One month we read a Jane Austen book and meet to talk about it.
The next month we meet to watch a film adaptation of that movie while we make crafty things.
Because we are dorks and apparently miss book reports from grade school, we even have a blog where we talk about the books. It is called A Truth Universally Acknowledged. We discuss the books, apply them to life, share pictures, and post recipes from the food we eat at Book Club. Feel free to check it out. You can either add to the conversation or (nicely) mock us for our mild obsession. Remember, I already admitted that we are self proclaimed dorks.
This all started when we were together one night and watched The Jane Austen Book Club. Six people, whose lives were all completely changed by the time they finished reading six Jane Austen books. We thought we should give it a shot. And to be honest, it is a really nice excuse to get together with a group of friends on a regular basis.
Because the four of us all happen to be single, Christian women, and we are reading some of the most romantic books written in the last couple hundred years, our conversations naturally turn towards relationships and marriage. We have some interesting connections to events in the book. We also lingered over quotes like these:
"But if a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavor to conceal it, he must find it out."
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."
"She began to now comprehend that he was exactly the man, who, in disposition and talents, would most suit her."
"But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe, I thought only of you."
It seems that our relationship "problems" parallel some of the problems in the book: women with too high of expectations or who are too focused on marriage alongside men who are intimidated by the gang like quality of single women and don't pursue them. My friend Kayla emailed us a link to a great article called Dude, Where's Your Bride?. I loved it, and it fit so well with our Jane Austen conversations. There is a great line about creating a church full of Yentas, and here are a couple of my favorite direct quotes:
"Men, you don’t have to be rich and you don’t have to climb corporate ladders. You don’t have to fix cars and grow a beard. But it’s time to take a little initiative–in the church, with your career, and with women. Stop circling around and start going somewhere. It’s probably a good idea to be more like your grandpa and less like Captain Jack Sparrow. Even less like Peter Pan. Show some godly ambition. Take some risks. Stop looking for play dates and–unless God is calling you to greater service through singleness–start looking for a wife."
"Women, don’t settle and don’t ever compromise on requiring solid Christian commitment in a husband, but make sure your list of non-negotiables doesn’t effectively exclude everyone outside of Mr. Darcy."
Just to be very clear, just because I am in a Jane Austen Book Club, that does not mean I am all wrapped up in thinking Mr. Darcy is the ideal man for me.
He actually looks a lot more like Mr. Knightley, to be honest.
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