Here's a frank, open-hearted confession: I'm excited about this! The Great Courses on Jane Austen has just launched, with 24 30-minute lessons on life and works, via DVD video, streaming, & on Audible. I'd welcome your help in getting the word out to viewers and listeners who might appreciate it.

Need some feel-good news today? Please congratulate Dr. Ruth Wilson. She just received her PhD in English from the University of Sydney—at age 89. Ruth's fine dissertation on Jane Austen, "Milestones in a Reading Life," brilliantly brings together reading memoir, reception studies, and the history of education and pedagogy. Her dissertation committee assembled Austen scholars from three continents! Ruth's mentor/examiner team included Drs. Rebecca Johinke, Olivia Murphy, and Katie Halsey, with whom I had the pleasure of serving as an external examiner. Among other things, Ruth's fascinating work describes seeing the 1940 MGM Pride and Prejudice, when it was first released. She was brought to the theatre by her film-loving parents. It turned out to be an exposure to Austen that lasted a lifetime and ultimately led her to this doctoral degree. Ruth is amazing, and she wants to take her original research on Austen, school curricula, and the history of memoir and memory into the wider world, in book and article form. That's absolutely as it should be. Her work deserves a wider audience.

Looking for some JaneAusten and books fun? I'll be moderating a Zoom webinar discussion on Saturday, 8/15, at 1p.m. ET, with authors Natalie Jenner, Janice Hadlow, Rachel Cohen, and Lucy Worsley, a virtual event presented by St. Martin's Press, Henry Holt & Co, and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux! Run mad but do not faint! There will be laughs. Register here.

It's difficult to write about roller derby right now, but I tried. Here's my latest essay, "Roller Derby in a Pandemic." . . . With thanks to the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, for the chance to say it, and to my amazing league, Arizona Derby Dames, for the opportunity to live it . . . . And, as ever, to the late Jerry Seltzer, for inspiring me, and so many of us, to skate and rebuild. Hope you are staying safe and healthy in your corner of the world.