Books With Bean ~ Pride and Prejudice

Books, books, books, there are so many out there these days and books as a whole are amazing. Why you may ask? Well because in this world of new and modern and science there is still a lot of power in the written word good bad or otherwise.

Now I know the point of my mom’s blog is to encourage others and give a little helpful advice so I thought I would do some book reviews. Yes I know we do a lot of reviews but not like the others, these are just books that I like that I wanted to share about because they were fun. 

My mom gets this question a lot and I know others do too: 

Does anyone know what are good books for my kid to read? They are (insert age) and in (insert grade), but their reading level is (insert level much higher then their grade) and I can’t seem to find anything that is good and clean that they haven't already read.

Well as someone who has been reading for a long time and loves books and words I thought I would help all you moms (and others) by sharing books that I have read that I liked. My hope that this will help you find at least one book that you (or your kid) will like. 

So welcome to Books with Bean (it is a family nickname don’t ask)

So how am I picking the books to share? Well there are a lot I have read that I like so I am going to start at the top shelf of my personal book collection and go from there once we are done with that I will move on to books I have borrowed from friends and the Library. My collection is arranged in alphabetical order by author last name however not all my books fit on this shelf so if I find one around my room that I like I might post it next even if we are past that section of the alphabet or not quite to it yet. (or I might get a new book from somewhere while I am doing theses reviews and so put it in out of order).

A note on my collection is that I have been collecting books since I was little so while I won’t be doing any picture book reviews there will be books in here from elementary age on up. 

Also these books will be everything from old classics to more modern books that have come out within the past few years. I have read many books not all of which I liked. These will only be positive reviews of the good ones. If your kid looks at a new book and your not sure about it feel free to comment on a post and ask me if I have read it. If I haven’t written about it I either did not like it (for language, scenes, or maybe some there reason like it simply wasn’t my style) or I simply haven’t gotten to it yet. If I did not like it because of one of the aforementioned subjects I will let you know my reasons for not posting a review of it in reply to your question.

Some things I will include in my reviews. Author Name, Date published, what I liked about the book, etc.

I will be noting what I thought about the amounts of Language, romance, and violence. Because while I have always considered my mother in the middle of the scale between really strict to really not caring what I read about, I know others are a little more cautious about what they let their kids read. 

Also with fantasy books I will be noting how Magic is used and dealt with in the book as I know this is also something a lot of parents are cautious about.

I will also be including what age I think is good for the reader to be before they read it. Of course this is a general thing as I know some kids are more mature and it is up to the parent to decide when their kids is ready to read certain things, however I will always include why I think the age I put is appropriate for the book.

Anyway I think that is long enough for an introduction so I will stop with this introduction now and get on to the first book.

Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen   Published: 1813   Genre: Romance

It is a truth universally acknowledged that this is a good book and it is one a lot of people know (that paired with the fact that is the first one on my shelf) so I thought I would start with it. 

Summery & What I liked about it: (This is probably going to sound like many other reviews you have heard about it but I am writing it anyway) There is something so ageless about this book, the way it deals with human emotion and thoughts is so unique and amazing that I don’t think it will ever be unpopular. Most of you probably know the plot line so I won’t bother to summarize it here for you. 

I loved the style of the writing, there is something about old books written when they take place that makes them special and somehow more entertaining then almost any historical fiction written that is set during that time. I have read several regency historical fiction books but as good as they were, none of them (despite similar plot lines) will ever beat Jane. 

Lizzy and her look on human life is interesting and it shows us timeless concepts that people are still trying to learn today. The wording is amazing and so is the world that it is set in. Ok so I guess this isn't really telling you much about the book itself but this is my first time so this going to be a bit less cohesive then my later ones.

Language: Um… I cant think of any right now.

Romance: Well being a romance book what can you expect except people falling in love. Yet despite that being on of the main themes I found it very clean, after all Miss Austen was keeping within what was appropriate to speak of at the time so this romance book (as opposed to a lot of the cheep romance books written today) is fairly clean. There is however the part with Mr. Wickham and Lydia. It is an interesting lesson and way that she writes about it is not too reveling in details and they do end up married. However it is not something that I would consider appropriate for younger children.

Violence: None that I can think of as I write this.

Recommended Age: I would say because of the wording and because of the more complex themes, as well as the part with Lydia and Wickham I would say 14+ for age. 

It is not that I think the wording itself to hard to understand for an avid younger reader, but I know as a girl who would watch the 2005 movie avidly with her mother whenever she got it from the library from a young age that there is a difference between complex, and more more formal old fashion wording and mature themes. My mother has had a copy of the book for as long as I can remember, but while I loved the movie I will admit that most it went over my head as a child. I will also admit that while I waited to be old enough for mom to let me read it, I tried, but as advanced of a reader as I was I just couldn't understand it. So for all these reasons I give it the 14+ for age.