There’s no end of clever retellings of classics, from Shakespeare to Austen. The novel By the Book by Julia Sonneborn is an example of the latter. If you like Persuasion, you may enjoy this modern version, set in academe at a lovely, small college in California.
Anne Corey, our heroine, is struggling to get a book published so she can have her three-year contract changed to a tenure track position. But that’s not troubles enough; the new college president is her former fiancé, with whom she’s had no contact for ten years. Piling on the drama is her consulting work on a vampire movie about Jane Eyre with a gorgeous man married to a friend of her sister but having an affair with Anne’s colleague and good friend, Larry. He’s a Henry James queen who never reads anything published after 1920. Just for spice, conflicts with her sister and an aging father to care for are sprinkled into the plot.
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What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
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