Vanessa Zoltan is Jewish and a chaplain, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, and an atheist who wants to pray. Her atheism is the result of both sets of grandparents having lived through the Holocaust; they survived, but their faith didn’t. While at Harvard for her MDiv, Zoltan began reading Jane Eyre, one of her favorite novels, as a text to pray with, as some of us might pray with Psalms. She begins with an author’s note, an introduction, and a spiritual autobiography before beginning eleven chapters on Jane Eyre. Those three prefatory sections are well worth reading. She concludes with a chapter each for Little Women, Harry Potter, and The Great Gatsby. Caveat: If you love Jane Eyre, you will be challenged in your interpretations. This book is filled with close reading, way beyond pleasure reading or classroom analysis. I felt as though I went “out on the end of a very whippy branch” as one of my professors described a colleague's work during seminary. It is not a difficult, academic read, but it could well change how you read.
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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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