Adding Book Reviews to Academia.edu
Anyone reading this blog, Two Teens in the Time of Austen, will know of my ABIDING OBSESSION with BOOKS. I’ve posted several book reviews, over the years, here – and there’s a plan for more. I do wish that JASNA would update their online book reviews; my latest reviews, quite favorably, Freya Johnston’s JANE AUSTEN: EARLY AND LATE. Of course, being written for the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), it appears first in the society’s newsletter JASNA News, one of the publications members receive.
But I’ve looked at the online book reviews – nothing later than the Summer 2020 issue. Therefore, also left out is my double-review of Amelia Rauser, The Age of Undress: Art, Fashion and the Classical Idea of the 1790s and Kimberly S. Alexander, Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era, which appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of JASNA News.
Amelia Rauser appeared at the JASNA AGM (Annual General Meeting) that took place in Chicago in the fall of 2021. Author Emma J. Clery, whose books include Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister [which focuses on Austen’s brother HENRY AUSTEN], will be a plenary speaker at the 2022 AGM,
It dawns on me that, although I tag “reviews,” readers might more easily *find* all of them if they are listed in one place. So, look for TWO additions: a category on “Academia.edu” for (non-JASNA) Two Teens in the Time of Austen reviews (I’ll also include any on Amazon, too). As well, I’ll add a new page to Two Teens that lists just book reviews — although you will always be able to find links via “ABOUT THE AUTHOR” — scroll down!
Speaking of SCROLLING Down:
Academia.edu DOES allow for free, no-account-necessary, ONLINE reading of articles. BUT: it sure doesn’t LOOK that way when you first come to the landing page!
Most people would immediately CLICK on the “Download PDF” — and that WILL ask you to log in.
There’s now a significate section of other people’s “related” papers [links and titles] and — if you KEEP scrolling! — then, *finally* the online paper. I only wish the TOP of the page had “View PDF” (like the “related” papers section….). It doesn’t. Certainly, MY first thought last night was, people have to LOG IN? I wouldn’t wish to do so EITHER – until I’d seen, perhaps read or at least sampled, the paper in question.
In short, I’d dearly *love* to make book reviews as accessible as possible. Nine times out of ten, I have good things to say about a book. And reviewing books takes a great deal of time – and dedication – to stick with a book in order to “taste its flavor” and to form cogent thoughts on the writing, the format (I love notes and bibliographies; sometimes sadly missing or inadequate), the editing, the author’s general argument. And authors, I’m sure, would dearly love potential readers to find their work.
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 
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