Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Time for a giant party!! First of all, many thanks to Maria Grazia of My Jane Austen Book Club and Katherine Cox of November's Autumn for coming up with the idea of having a worldwide celebration in honor of Jane's 236th birthday! Every one of these sites below (mine included!) will be giving away a different gift to commenters on each blog's birthday post -- the winner for every individual blog to be randomly chosen on December 23rd. So feel free to stop by as many of these wonderful sites as you can over the next week. Commenters here will be entered in a drawing to win an According to Jane canvas tote bag and a pair of A Summer in Europe luggage tags! The other thing we're all doing is sharing either a birthday gift or a birthday card/letter for Jane. Since anachronisms pose no problem with such a flight of fancy, cost isn't an issue, and realism is not at all required here, my gift to Jane is...2 first-class around-the-world plane tickets! 

I know she will want companionship on this massive foreign adventure, so one ticket has her name on it and the second has her sister Cassandra's name. (If they should meet anyone interesting on their journey, well, who am I to stop them? But those handsome individuals will have to procure their own means of transportation!) The thing is, I don't think Jane was really in need of travel to broaden her mind. She already had the gift of great intellect and imagination, and she saw a world of human nature in her little neighborhoods with "four and twenty families..." No. She was not in need of travel, but I do think she would have enjoyed it, especially if the means of circumnavigating the globe were clean and speedy, comfortable and without fear of illness. Long ship voyages would not have been for her, but even those she never would have been able to purchase for herself. 

So, to me, if I could really give her that kind of painless and quick travel experience, I would. Although, I'll admit, I'd love to be able to meet her in London for tea upon her return and hear firsthand her impressions of the world. What about you? If you could give Jane just one gift or send her a birthday wish...what might it be? Take a peek at what some of the other Austen lovers are sharing with Jane today and offering as prizes on their blogs, and here's wishing you all a wonderful weekend -- even if it isn't your 236th birthday ;).

*** Katherine Cox ~ November's Autumn $10 Barnes & Noble gift card Maria Grazia ~ My Jane Austen Book Club a selection of Austenesque novels Marilyn Brant ~ Brant Flakes According to Jane canvas tote bag & A Summer in Europe luggage tags Karen Doorbebos ~ Fiction vs. Reality Smackdown Definitely Not Mr. Darcy (2 copies), 2 Jane Austen candles, & drink coasters and tea Regina Jeffers ~ Regina's Blog Christmas at Pemberley Alyssa Goodnight ~ Alyssa's Blog Jane Austen Action Figure Sharon Lathan ~ Sharon's blog Miss Darcy Falls in Love Abigail Reynolds ~ Pemberley Variations Mr. Darcy's Undoing C. Allyn Pierson ~ Semi True Stories Mr. Darcy's Little Sister Cindy Jones ~ First Draft My Jane Austen Summer & package of Lily Berry's Pink Rose Tea by Bingley Teas Vera Nazarian ~ Urban Girl Takes Vermont Vera's Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration in hardcover Jane Odiwe ~ Jane Austen Sequels Mr. Darcy's Secret & a mug with a Jane Odiwe illustration Susan Kaye, Laura Hile, Pamela Aidan, & Barbara Cornthwaite ~ Jane Started It! Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honor by Pamela Aidan set of Frederick Wentworth, Captain by Susan Kaye Mercy's Embrace: So Rough a Course (2 copies) by Laura Hile set of George Knightley, Gentleman by Barbara Cornthwaite Juliet Archer ~ Choc Lit Authors' Corner Persuade Me & The Importance of Being Emma Jane Greensmith ~ Reading, Writing, Working, Playing Intimations of Austen and Sense & Sensibility Marvel graphic novel Emily Snyder ~ O! Beauty Unattempted Letters of Love & Deception Farida Mestek ~ Regency Sketches I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend by Cora Harrison vvb32 Reads Jane Austen's Little Instruction Book (Charming Petites) Jane Austen in Vermont JASNA 2012 calendar from Wisconsin JASNA Region Becky Rhodehouse ~ One Literature Nut selection of Austenesque reads Jennifer Becton ~ Historical Fiction & Thrillers Personages of Pride and Prejudice Collection eBook Courtney Webb ~ Stiletto Storytime Noble Satyr by Lucinda Brant Adriana Zardini ~ Jane Austen Brazil Sense & Sensibility 1995 DVD - English with Portuguese subtitles Patrice Sarath ~ Patrice Sarath blog The Unexpected Miss Bennet Kaitlin Saunders ~ Kaitlin Saunders blog A Modern Day Persuasion Laurel Ann Nattress ~ Austenprose Jane Austen Made Me Do It Prue Batten ~ Mesmered's Blog Georgiana Darcy by Anne Elliot Jenny Allworthy ~ The Jane Austen Film Club Northanger Abbey 2007 DVD Sitio Jane Austen ~ El Salon de Te de Jane Spanish and English DVD package of Jane Austen adaptations Erin Blakemore ~ The Heroine's Bookshelf Pride & Prejudice notecards Austen Authors Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester ***