Madison Reads Books

I love Pride and Prejudice and this is an excellent audio adaptation. The production value is very high and the voice acting is excellent. My only nitpicky issue is that Darcy and the Bingleys were given strong regional accents. I believe the accents are accurate to where the characters are from, but historically, people of their class would not have had strong regional accents.

Half Sick of Shadows is a feminist retelling of Arthurian Legend focused on Elaine, the Lady of Shalott. I really wanted to love this book, and it was good, but just good. The story switches tense abruptly between the present tense and the future tense when Elaine is seeing possible futures, and it made the story hard to follow at times. Its also sold as "The Lady of Shalott reclaiming her story", and I don't feel that it fully follows through.

This is an interesting biography that compares the lives and works of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by alternating chapters. It is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in late 18th and early 19th century literature and the start of the women's rights movement. I was only vaguely familiar with both women before going in, and this book gave a good overview while focusing mainly on how Mary Wollstonecraft affected her daughter Mary Shelley, even though they never really got to know each other. Overall this is a good all encompassing book if you're vaguely interested in both women, and a good jumping off point if you'd like to do further research.

I loved this fantasy retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in a regency world where magic is an integral part of society. While there are changes to plot and some situations to fit in with the fantasy world, all of the characters are still true to Austen's original. Lizzie Bennet is a powerful mage in a world where women are only supposed to learn small household magic and Fitzwilliam Darcy is a member of the committee that unanimously voted to deny her access to the academy.From there we get to see the familiar development of their romance within this magical world as Lizzie overcomes her Pride and Darcy his Prejudice. Overall this was a 4 star read for me, and one of the better Pride and Prejudice retellings I've read.