South Orange County
Reading Group
Sunday, March 19, 2023
South Orange County Reading Group
(Formerly known as the Orange County Reading Group)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Contact
About
The Orange County Reading Group meets five or six times a year, usually to discuss a book, but members also attend movies, plays, concerts and picnics, and hold themed activities. For instance, they painted portraits of Jane Austen under the professional tutelage of Annmarie Thomas; recreated Emma’s Box Hill Picnic, with readings and food; held a Jane Austen Game Day, with Bingo, crossword puzzles, charades, Trivial Pursuit, the Jane Austen Drinking Game and more; and held a knitting demonstration.
Regular attendance is between 10 and 15 of the 25 members. They typically meet in each others’ homes, usually for a potluck lunch and conversation, but occasionally meet in restaurants.
History
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, a group of educators and professionals established the Orange County Reading Group. Founders included Vivian Hall, Anna Freeman, Tudie Ross and Karen Jackman. In 1989, Hall and her Orange County team (with Lucy McGruder from JASNA-Southwest) helped produce the 1989 JASNA Annual General Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which focused on Pride and Prejudice. Over the decades, the original reading group members were joined by new ones, and some of the founders passed on. The group disbanded in 2005.
In March 2009, Maryann Pelensky relaunched the Orange County Reading Group, with a new schedule and fresh style. When she moved away in 2014, Viki Barie became the group’s coordinator. Maryann returned to the area in 2019 and again helms the group.
Reading List Archive
2021
January 17
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
March 21
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
May 16
Jane Austen in Hollywood by Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield
July 18
The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
September 19
Sansei and Sensibility by Karen Tei Yamashita
November 21
Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
2020
January 19
Juvenilia: Volume the First by Jane Austen
March 15
Jane Austen’s England: Daily Life in the Georgian and Regency Periods by Lesley Adkins
July 19
Pride, Prejudice and Poison by Elizabeth Blake
September 20
Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
November 15
Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen
2019
January 20
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
March 17
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
May 19
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
July 21
Sisters of Fortune: America’s Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad by Jehanne Wake
November 17
The Invention of Nature: Alexander Van Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
2018
November 4
Jane Austen by the Sea: Jane Austen’s Love Story by Carolyn V. Murray
July 15
“Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers” by Brian Southam
March 18
A Short History of Lyme Regis by John Fowles
January 21
Persuasion by Jane Austen
2017
January 15
Dolley Madison: The Problem of National Unity (Lives of American Women) by Catherine Allgor
March 12
Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
June 4
Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld
July 16
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
September 17
History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
November 12
The Janeites by Rudyard Kipling
2016
January 17
Emma by Jane Austen
March 13
The Highbury Murders: A Mystery Set in the Village of Jane Austen’s Emma by Victoria Grossack
May 15
The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen by Joan Strasbaugh
July 17
Alfresco reading of Tracy Neis’ play Box Hill Picnic
September 18
“Painting Jane Austen’s Emma” (hands-on painting workshop)
November 13
Emma by Jane Austen
2015
July 19
Jane Austen’s First Love by Syrie James
September 20
Jane Austen’s Juvenilia: Miscellaneous Scraps
November 15
Jane Austen’s Game Day
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Books the group has read through the years include:
By Jane Austen
Emma
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Lady Susan
Sanditon
The Watsons
Juvenilia
Poetry of Jane Austen and William Wordsworth, based on curriculum provided by Brother Paul Byrd, OP
Austen contemporaries and Victorians
Some of the “horrid novels” cited in Northanger Abbey, including The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Evelina by Frances Burney
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Inspired by Austen
The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen by Lindsay Ashford
Longbourne by Jo Baker
The Highbury Murders: A Mystery Set in the Village of Jane Austen’s Emma by Victoria Grossack
Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman
Frederika by Georgette Heyer
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
A Visit to Highbury by Joan Austen Leigh
All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Smith
The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen by Joan Strasbaugh
Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe
Biographies and Criticism
The Real Jane Austen, a Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
A Fine Brush on Ivory by Richard Jenkyns
Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels by Deirdre LeFaye
What Matters in Jane Austen: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved by John Mullan
Contemporary
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
Reading Lolita in Terahan by Azar Nafisi
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian