Actually, its not a bad book at all. I read it a while back and found it interesting (tho there wasn't much new; I think we all get so much info just reading Dickens and Austen that we can almost see that time in our mind. But I think you are looking for more specific detail. Are you looking for fiction or non? In terms of fiction, two that cover a little before that time period is Slammerkin and Fingersmith.

If you are able to get English books from your library, for information about life in Dickens' times you could try Consuming Passions: Leisure & Pleasure in Victorian Britain and The Victorian House both by Judith Flanders.
The books by Pamela Horn might be interesting The Life of a Victorian Lady, Flunkeys and Scullions: Life Below Stairs in Georgian England, Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant and several other titles.
Of course when Dickens died the Victorian era still had 30 years to run and 'life' did improve for many people from the 1870's onwards so it's not all gloom and squalor.
Jane Austen is earlier, late Georgian, Regency period, and her characters follow a very narrow social pattern and corner of 'Society' but The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England by Amanda Vickery might be OK although most of her information is centred around Lancashire which would have been a far-cry from Austen's Southern England. Perhaps a book about Bath the spa city where Austen set many scenes from her books or A History of Selbourne by the naturalist Gilbert White who lived a very few miles from JA in Hampshire at about the same time.

Look around on the site below it made lead you to more ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gilbert White

This is going to be faint help, I know, but a good biography of Jane Austen would tell you a lot about her times-and I read one, and I can not remember the title-however, it was a library book, so I will search and hopefully come back better informed.
As far as the book you mention in your intro post, I do have that, and it is interesting but not deeply detailed.

I have not read the book, but I had a great English professor, now deceased, for a couple of Dickens courses in college. He claimed the book was a failure, which I assumed to mean financially, but he was so entertaining during lectures that I can't think it wouldn't be good to read. His name is William F. Axton and he wrote with Edward Hewett Convivial Dickens: The Drinks of Dickens and His Times>.

There is an annotated "Pride & Prejudice," that includes some details. I also notice on Amazon the title "The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World." Your library may have this or may be able to get a copy through interlibrary loan. I haven't read this.

The book you mentioned is a good overview, as is it's companion, "Dickens' Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters by Daniel Pool.

For non-fiction, I suggest:
Life in an English Country Cottage by Adrian Tinniswood
Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley
Historical Britain by Eric S. Wood (more academic than the others)
Inside the Victorian Home, A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders

veer's suggestion of The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant is a really interesting book - goes into great detail about household servants' hierarchy, pay, and many issues. I found it in the USA, so I am sure there is more than my one copy around.

For fiction, the list is easier.
George Gissing - start with New Grub Street, the Unclassed, or Born in Exile.
Diary of a Nobody by the Grosssmith Bros.
Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster
And there are countless others.

Just a place to start. veer, all of your suggestions sound incredibly interesting. I must hunt them down.
PAM

I was disappointed in the book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew as being too elementary. I looked up Amanda Vickery's book The Gentleman's Daughter and one reviewer, Professor Anna Clark, points out that the chief target of Vickery's book is Leonore Davidoff's and Catherine Hall's Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850 from 1987. This is a book I can recommend highly, not only because Leonore Davidoff is a friend of mine. I would not want anyone to read Vickery without also reading Davidoff&Hall.
Another good book by Lee Davidoff is The Best Circles, Society, Etiquette and the Season from 1973.

For English village life around the turn of the last century, and the common man, there is always the classic "Lark Rise to Candleford" by Flora Thompson.

What a great list I have now all thanks to your wonderful suggestions. I promise to come back and let you know what I thought of them. It's nice to leave, not the hum-drum- of life because I have a decent life, it's just nice to live in a different time and place once in awhile, isn't it?
Thank you all,
Kim

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is indeed superficial, but it is also loads of fun. Reading it may not make you an authority on daily life in the early to mid 1800's, but it will amuse and entertain you. It's widely available in libraries and used bookstores, so go ahead and pick it up if you are intrigued. The other books mentioned will give you more depth, and by all means read them, but WJAAACDK is a light-hearted and enjoyable book.

Rosefolly