Updated Classics

If you haven't done so already, please add Eligible to your summer reading list. I love all things Jane Austen, and this version of a modern day Pride and Prejudice will make you fall in love with a whole new Bennet family. (I adored Emma Thompson's screenplay of Sense and Sensibility. See the movie!) 

There seems to be a trend among writers who are reinventing the classics (something akin to movie makers looking to books for material) that's grabbing a whole new audience of readers. Maybe it's because the characters are more believable when placed in a contemporary setting, or perhaps we just can't get enough of a good thing. 

Look for Ann Tyler's Vinegar Girl (The Taming of the Shrew with an absent-minded professor and responsible teacher in charge of her family's daily affairs.), Gillian's Flynn's Hamlet, Jo Nesbo's Macbeth, and Margaret Atwood's The Tempest. All from a series of Shakespeare remakes from the Penguin Random House Group. 

Photo: Princeton Public Library