Professor Michael Kramp of Lehigh University's English department is the organizer of a new Jane Austen Book Club. Much as in the book of the same name (written by Karen Joy Fowler), the book club will take a different Austen novel to discuss during each book club monthly meeting, which will be chaired by a discussion leader with an academic perspective on each given text. One of the aims of the club is to unite the Bethlehem community - the club is free and open to anyone and everyone. “I certainly hope to expose students, and the community as a whole, to the ways of which serious academics are studying Jane Austen,” Professor Kramp said. “I hope they’ll appreciate the community members who are no longer college students, but still maintain an interest, an importance interest, in literature. And, perhaps most importantly, I hope the book club and symposium highlight and emphasize the important public role that literature plays in society.”  
 
A Marvellous Review From An Austen Baker Every so often we get a review of one of our products that's a little bit different. The below review is just such a one of these and, a it brought a big smile to the faces of all of us at the Jane Austen News when we read it, we wanted to share it with you too.
"I like Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy, and cookies, so it seemed reasonable for me to purchase the 3D Jane Austen Cookie Cutter and the Mr. Darcy Cookie Cutter.  Nay, not only reasonable but a necessity--this is where the liking cookies part comes in.  I located my favorite butter cookie recipe and went to work. The Mr. Darcy cutter is straight forward: made of metal, a small silhouette, not too many nooks and crannies to stubbornly hold onto the dough.  Easy does it! The Jane Austen cutter is, however, more involved.  It is made of plastic and has a lot of detail.  I learned the trick quickly:  if I rolled the dough out thinly, I had no sticking problem but also no feature details either; if the dough was rolled out too thickly, the author looked quite puffy and bits of the cookie gummed up the cutter.  Getting the right thickness was the key.  There was no sticking and the author could be seen in all her beauty.  It also helped to flour the cutter between making impressions. My friends and I are having a tea in May.  I plan to make Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy cookies as one of my contributions.  In the meantime, I am enjoying having Miss Austen and Mr. Darcy for tea at home. Regards, C. Berry" 

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