Rating: 
Summary: It's not actually ABOUT Jane Austen, folks
Review: Anything with an unusual premise grabs my attention--you know, something that not only has a good idea going for it but a great author to carry thought with the exectution? Enter JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. If you go into this little romp thinking that it's going to be all JANE with various tangents thereof, think again. The book is really about the members of the book club, and many of them are fascinating. The title is really not misleading when you think about it--the same way Jackson McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood--A tour of southern homes and gardens" isn't really about a "tour." But all that's for another discussion. Bottomline is this: JANE AUSTEN is a great read and will probably be enjoyed all the more by REAL book clubs.
Rating: 
Summary: Idea-10, Execution-1
Review: Creative idea around which to construct a book - 10, Execution of said neat idea - 1, Number of pages I lasted before bailing - 83.
Maybe I'm too harsh since I've not read much Jane Austen, but this book really is thin. The characters are sterotypical and the plot just doesn't go anywhere. Where's Moe with the cream pie when you need him ?
Rating: 
Summary: Drab
Review: I adore Jane Austen and was more than willing to try to enjoy this book if only for that reason (though I read a wide range of fiction and non-fiction). Right from the start I was irritated because the author described a Rhodesian ridgeback barking mere feet away from where the club members were in discussion. As the owner of a ridgeback, I know that absolutely nobody can talk or hear a thing while it barks. But that complaint is slight compared with the utter banality of the shallow storyline and the tedious characters. I only regret going to the trouble and expense of buying a hardback copy. If I could I'd award this book no stars.
Rating:
Summary: not as good as I was hoping
Review: I found The Jane Austen Book Club a very light and fast read that was amusing at times, but overall I was disappointed. Very little happens in this book, far less than the happenings of a real Austen novel, and the book club characters don't even discuss Austen's novels that much. Fowler can be witty here and there, but her characters are flat or at least flatly written. We learn ancedotes from their pasts, but it is not clear how these memories have shaped the characters into who they are in the story. Fowler fails to convey any of the real pain or happiness of the characters; she tells us when they are happy or unhappy, but I certainly didn't feel it. She writes about the book club members letting Austen into their lives to look around and influence them, but in this I could see no connection between what the members discuss about the books and then what they did in the story. I was hoping this would be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Meaningless - Poor Jane !!!
Review: I LOVE, simply LOVE Jane Austen... Unfortunalety, I decided to read this book because of her. I guess that the author thought the same: people will buy this because of Austen's name...
Poor thing, dead for almost 200 years and people milking her name for idiotic reasons...
I gave up on page 168. It was going nowhere. The story is completely lukewarm, there is no conflict, the characters don't inspire any sort of feeling, nothing makes your continue reading it.
I think this was the most shameless attempt to get money from a beloved author that is no longer alive to defend herself.
Skip this one... go read or reread Jane's books instead!
Rating:
Summary: It's a fine book- if you like Jane Austen
Review: I purchased "The Jane Austen Book Club" for one simple reason: there was a jacket blurb from W.S. Merwin. Could W.S. Merwin be wrong? I certainly didn't think so.
I don't consider myself a "Janeite" (as the term sounds vaguely foolish, and I would never go to a convention of devotees) but I have read and loved all of her books, several biographies, and I developed the ubiquitous crush on Colin Firth in the 90s.
I find it curious that hating Jane Austen has become such an institution. I fail to detect anything in her work (or her life, certainly!) which merits such hostility.
The (negative) reviews of "The Jane Austen Book Club" appear to fall into three groups: People who can't stand Jane Austen and thus hated this book; People who haven't read much Jane Austen and thus didn't really care about the book; and people who adore Jane Austen, and felt betrayed when the book didn't proceed in the direction which they deemed appropriate.
To all of these naysayers I respond: Pooh!
True, it is fluffy, but surely there is a place for such things. And to the reviewers who called it "Chick Lit" - it is no such thing. I don't recall a single mention of Manolo Blahnik, which is, I believe, a requirement for inclusion in the genre.
If you are familiar with the works of Jane Austen (and the cast of characters therein) you will enjoy this book, as long as you know at the start that this novel is not about Jane Austen or her books. It is about a book club and its members.
And after all, would W.S. Merwin lie?
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing waste of money
Review: I rushed out to buy this book, thinking it would be as wonderful as the local book reviewer declared it to be. Well. It isn't often that I fail to finish a book out of sheer boredom but this was one of those times. Not even the slyly incisive wit of the writing style could redeem it, or persuade me to keep going, following the stereotypical characters and their cliched backgrounds. I simply didn't care about any of them or feel any stimulation through their stilted engagement with the Austen novels. I put this book on a par with "A Year of Reading Proust" by Phyllis Rose - writing without passion or plot hanging off the coat-tails of true greatness. Save your money!
Rating:
Summary: The Jane Austen WASP club
Review: I've had some extra time this summer to catch up on some reading. I've even been able to explore some of the newer books that are out and with all the reviews I've read here and the ads that are blarin all over the place, surely, I thought this would be a good one. Maybe I'm not exactly up on Austen--I realize this could be the problem--but the story and its characters didn't fulfill. I liked "The Secret Life of Bees" (and that is a bit corny) better only because, at least, the writer aimed to entertain and to give us a story and a bit of the "brown suger". Sorry, but this book pales (pun not intended) next to "Simon Lazarus". It's a totally different book from this, true, but readers will be delighted, fulfilled, and yes, perhaps, enlightened. Now THAT book's a winner. And deserves so much more praise than this--I'm sorry. And as far as that WASP, Alice Sebold--she can eat this all she wants--honey, I read that very WHITE chick's book and after the first 125 pages (which were actually good!)--it was all downhill in a Presbyterian handbasket!
Rating: 
Summary: A funny, fabulous book
Review: I've loved Karen Joy Fowler's books for years, and this newest is a wonderful, wonderful, blissfully happy and funny novel. My mother and I have been calling each other up on the phone to read our favorite sentences. I can't think of another writer where I've done that. One favorite bit: "Bernadette was our oldest member, just rounding the bend of sixty-seven. She'd recently announced that she was, officially, letting herself go. 'I just don't look in the mirror anymore,' she'd told us. 'I wish I'd thought of it years ago . . . . 'Like a vampire,' she added, and when she put it that way, we wondered how it was that vampires always managed to look so dapper. It seemed that more of them should look like Bernadette." I'm a recovering member of a book club, and now wish desperately that I was in one again, so that I could talk about this book, and about Jane Austen. I'm also a former bookstore clerk, so I also have a final recommendation: if you like The Jane Austen Book Club, and want more Fowler, then go hunt down a copy of Fowler's The Sweetheart Season, which is about a women's baseball team at the end of WWII. Three cheers (and five stars) for The Jane Austen Book Club! Three cheers for Jane Austen! And three cheers for Karen Joy Fowler!
Rating:
Summary: "Jane Austen all the time."
Review: Karen Joy Fowler's "The Jane Austen Book Club" is a delightful blend of the old and the new. With smooth and effortless style, the author relates how six people, one man and five women, come together to talk about Jane Austen's books. During the meetings of the book club, not only do the members explore Jane Austen's life and novels, but they also reveal a great deal about themselves. Jocelyn and Sylvia are in their early fifties and have been friends since they were eleven. Bernadette is sixty-seven and although she has made a career out of being married, she is currently single. Allegra, Sylvia's daughter, is a blunt and beautiful woman, with a quick wit and an acerbic tongue. Sylvia's husband, Daniel, has just asked for a divorce after over thirty years of marriage. She is still bewildered by the changes in her life. Prudie is the only happily married member of the club. She teaches French and has an irritating and pretentious habit of dropping French phrases into the conversation without translating them. Grigg is a man in his early forties who doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the book club, but he does provide a much-needed male perspective. Fowler is deliciously witty. She pokes fun at and deconstructs, among other things, book clubs, friendship, marriage, and Jane Austen. At the same time, Fowler brings her six protagonists into focus, giving us a peek into their childhoods and providing perspective on how they became who they are now. Jane Austen's books are worlds unto themselves. Austen cleverly and astutely examined the mores of her time, especially as they related to love and marriage. Fowler does the same. She reveals that each of her characters has suffered disappointments and harbors painful memories and secrets. None of them, however, has given up on life. The dialogue in this novel is hilarious and poignant. The author includes a summary of Austen's novels at the back, along with a droll, tongue-in-cheek "Reader's Guide" that is the essential element of all modern book clubs. In addition, Fowler adds a lengthy section in which she gives critics of Jane Austen their say. Whether or not you are a lover of Jane Austen or a member of a book club, you will find much to enjoy in this breezy and entertaining novel.
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