After receiving two annotated editions of Pride and Prejudice for my birthday in June, I started July by reading both at once, which took some figuring out. I soon settled on reading Austen's text on my Kindle so the flow of the story wouldn't be interrupted--those side notes were too tempting otherwise. Every chapter or two I'd go to the physical books to catch-up on the often fascinating annotations.
I loved reading Pride and Prejudice again, of course, but I'd forgotten how unsuited Elizabeth and Darcy seem at first. Even though I knew how the story goes it added some delightful tension to the story.
The Patricia Meyer Spacks edition of P&P is a gorgeous hardback with color illustrations and more emphasis on discussing literary criticism critiques of Austen's work than David H. Shepherd's offering. Shepherd's book is a paperback with lovely black and white illustrations, and his book gave a little more attention to interesting bits of historical background than Spacks book did.
While I was reading Austen I was also reading a pretty good Kindle freebie, Imitation by Heather Hildenbrand, that had piqued my interest by having a clone as a main character. It wasn't Orphan Black wonderful, but the story did hold me to the end.
Below are links to the books I read and reviewed in July:
The Science of Herself
The Philosopher Kings
The Star Side of Bird Hill
China to Me
Crystal Kingdom
Ross Poldark