How exciting for lovers of Jane Austen (of whom I am indisputably one) — the new 10 pound banknote features Jane Austen and even has a quote from her work. Now my readers know that I love quotes.  What one, of all the great lines in Jane Austen’s novels, did they choose?

“I declare that after all there is no enjoyment like reading.”

Perfect, right? What could be better? Well, if the person who said the line actually liked books.  It’s spoken by Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice.  She’s desperately trying to attract Darcy’s attention by picking up a book (chosen only because it was the second volume to the book he was reading). She actually doesn’t like books at all. I’m a little disappointed in the Bank!

Hornbook is choosy. I’ve never been reviewed by them.  But Nobody’s Secret made the cut and …. whew! They loved it.  This kind of review is so heartening to a writer because the reviewer really got what I was trying to do and liked it.

Here’s the whole review:

The Horn Book Magazine

June/July Issue

“Gracefully folds factual elements of Dickinson’s life and work into the fiction.”—The Horn Book Magazine

Emily Dickinson, at fifteen, is the sleuth in this mystery that involves the “nobody” of her famous poem, “I’m Nobody, Who are You?” In 1845 Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily is charmed by a young man who helps entice a bee to land on her nose. When she asks who he is, he says, “I’m nobody important…Who are you?” (“I’m nobody too,” she replies). When Mr. Nobody, as she dubs him, turns up dead in her family’s pond, Emily is determined to do justice to his memory by finding out who he was and how he died, since she deduces from the evidence that it was not by drowning. MacColl gracefully folds factual elements of Dickinson’s life and work into the fiction. In characterizing teenaged Emily, MacColl highlights her youthful sociability, humor, and wit, as well as her intelligence and curiosity. While following up on clues, this fictional Emily’s skills of practical-mindedness and precise observation are on display, much as they are in the real Dickinson’s poetry, a quote from which introduces each chapter. An appended author’s note tells more about Dickinson’s life and work.

The Insatiable Reader wrote a thoughtful review of Nobody’s Secret (I love love love it when a reviewer says they don’t much like historical fiction ,but my books didn’t feel historical).  Check it out here!

And they found this crazy good image of Emily D. that I had never seen before.