This lovely readathon is hosted by Jackie @DeathbyTsundoku
You can find the Announcement Page on her lovely blog!
I fully admit it – I am positively consumed, addicted and attracted to the story of PRIDE & PREJUDICE!! In all its incantations and variants of entrance – if there is a PRIDE retelling, variant or after canon sequel, there is a good chance I am going to find it, sample it and either a) love it to the moon OR b) find it wasn’t my cuppa. In this instance, I remember vividly finding out about this particular release in the twitterverse, I even remember tweeting the author to talk about how wicked enthused I was about this re-telling – as I am forever and then some on the hunt for Austen stories which have a certain element of the original canon within them but then, take us through an wholly original variation only the writer themself could have envisioned!
I knew I wasn’t going to be able to purchase a copy of this novel when it published but I have had some good luck this year submitting purchase requests at my local library – to where they have purchased so many lovelies for me, I’ve lost track of them! I appreciate being able to submit the requests and it is an unexpected joy of mine finding out which ones are accepted as I never take it as a given they will accept a request for purchase. I feel humbled by the fact they enjoy my selections and are allowing me the grace to read stories faster than if I had to wait the six months outside of publication to seek them through ILL’ing (inter-library loaning).
I also was struck by the fact as soon as I saw the premise of this PRIDE and started to gather a sense about how it was writ – I knew it was the STORY I wanted dearly to READ but never knew I was seeking it! It was one of those random moments where I connected with a story prior to reading it – I have had a healthy attachment to stories set in New York City & the boroughs – I love literature what takes us to the City and gives us a heightened sense of what it is like to live there from all perspectives, lifestyles and areas of the City itself. I’ve felt as if I’ve lived a part of my life there due to how many stories I’ve read that are set there.
Brooklyn has been a place I’ve tried to envision and yet, failed a bit round the edges. As soon as I opened PRIDE – not only did I feel as if a part of my own childhood was re-envisioned through a conveyance of reality I knew once myself – but I felt as if the best grace of this story was feeling a personal attachment to Brooklyn itself! The beauty for me is how Zoboi wrote PRIDE.
As I grew up in a melting pot of a metropolis, I was also surrounded by cultures outside of my own heritage on an everyday basis. I love her instincts for telling this story – from the slang which is partially an upgrade from the slang of my youth (finally sorted out what ‘don’t throw shade on my door’ reflects as it is similar to a phrase from my youth) whilst it also tucks in linguistic nuance. I grew up hearing slices of different languages all the time – I still do in many ways, as cultural and ethnically, I live in a region that is rather diverse and I wouldn’t trade it for anything as I love how we all merge our lives together.
I was happy to realise I still knew what these phrases & words were – they were like little memory anchours of my past, coming back to the surface and allowing me to alight in the story as if I have never distanced myself from whence I was bourne. There are other variables I noticed – from their personalities to how they interacted to their dialogues and everything about how this was becoming introduced to us about their life, their world and their family. It was almost as if the people I knew as a child and young girl were now populating this novel. And, for me, that as the best literary gift to receive the week of Thanksgiving!
The library happily added this title to their card catalogue in October, 2018 – shortly after I requested it and during #ThanksgivingReadathon I was happily able to soak inside its prose and find myself so dearly attached, I am overjoyed for the discovery!
My #25PagePreview of the SECOND #Mythothon story which gave me such a warm bookish hug & gave me a thirst for more of it’s bookish heart!
during the 2018 #ThanksgivingReadathon !!
Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi
was happily #borrowed via my local #library!
It ought to go without saying, but I am sharing my bookish ruminations for my own edification but also in a continued method of sharing my bookish life to help my readers find their own #mustreads and follow my own readerly journey into the stories I’m reading myself. I was not compensated for sharing my opinions and thoughts herein.
Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix
by Ibi Zoboi
Source: Borrowed from local library, Purchase REQ | local library
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780062564047
Published by Balzer and Bray
on 18th September, 2018
Format: Hardcover Edition
Pages: 336
Site | @ibizoboi | Pub’d by Balzer & Bray
*purchase request of mine which was accepted by my local library
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #ThanksgivingReadathon 2018