With a Nod to Jane A. – Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson

Most Ardently Yours is a light and entertaining romance that absolutely cries out for a movie adaptation. I'm just wondering if the very dishy Glen Powell could do a British accent, since I can see him cast as Nick, one of the two leading male characters. 

Zoe Knight is a Londoner who is struggling with her ambition (to be a romance novelist), the loss of her mother, and a break-up with a demeaning boyfriend who has just published a book of his own (which of course she helped write). Zoe is a big fan of Jane Austen, among other writers of classic romances and social commentaries, and her favorite male character is none other than Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame.

She comes across a shop, Baskerville Books, which appears to specialize in what she and her best friend, Bianca, call "dicklit" – those books that feature spies, military exploits, and other features that tend to appeal to men. Per Nick, the owner, there's not a single romance book in his store, and he says he hates romance fiction, which leads to an argument, and Zoe making off with the single copy of Pride and Prejudice she manages to find, much to Nick's consternation.

Then, the fantasy man of her dreams, Darcy himself, comes to life. How Zoe copes with this surprising development, and some very interesting episodes to follow, fills out the plot. Of course Nick, and some other delightful characters join in the story.

At first I found the contemporary British slang a bit too "twee" as my English husband would say, but I got past that, and found this fast-moving book to be very enjoyable. It was the perfect escapist choice for an afternoon's reading after a very frustrating and rather upsetting morning. 

An American Scene from Another Age – Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark

I am a long-time admirer of the late Willa Cather's work and have read nearly all of her books. Some of her most enduring classics of the American experience are My Ántonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop. Her descriptions of the natural world and the settings of her books are beautifully composed, simple and spare yet evocative and transporting. Though her work appeared a century ago and before, it does not feel dated, perhaps because of that exquisite prose – she doesn't waste a word. 

The Song of the Lark (published 1915) follows an ambitious young woman from a small Colorado town who goes to Chicago and abroad to Germany to pursue a career as a pianist and piano teacher, but eventually emerges as a professional opera singer, an unusual (and inspiring) life choice for a woman of her time.

I encountered Cather briefly as an English major in the mid 70s, but discovered more of her work when there was a series of paperback reissues in the 80s. Since then, I have been collecting vintage hardcover editions of her work. It's always a thrill to come across one in a used bookstore.

Cather always struck me as brave and independent, a role model from a far more repressed era, and some academics seem to think that Thea, the singer, might have represented Cather herself, though in a different profession. The Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska, is dedicated to her life and work. https://www.willacather.org