Persuasion, Jane Austen

"Upon my word, Miss Anne Elliot, you have the most extraordinary taste!  Everything that revolts other people, low company, paltry rooms, foul air, disgusting association, are inviting to you."

As I read these lines, I knew I had found a literary companion in Anne Elliot.  A sensible twenty-something among the vain, silly, proud, and rank-obsessed, Anne seems almost too perfect to be palatable.  Yet her faults - timidity, relying on the opinions of others, thinking perhaps too much about duty - do indeed make her human (though still enviable in my opinion).  Believable characters are key in a novel with a lot of talk and very little action.  Persuasion was engaging and funny - especially if you are used to Jane Austen's irony and sarcasm.  It was a fast read for me, and I certainly recommend it - if you have patience for a book of conversations.

As a bit of an introduction to my literary tastes, I float between 18th-20th century literature, history and historiography, anthropology and archaeology, Annie Dillard or Elizabeth Gilbert-style nonfiction, historical fiction, religion and faith, and the occasional just-for-fun read.  Hopefully I'll have some good reviews to come.

"She was feeling, though not saying, that after being long in the country, nothing could be so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness."