Today I’m happy to welcome Joanne Rendell with her second novel, Crossing Washington Square. Some women follow their hearts; others follow their minds. In this “charming, witty, and cerebral” second novel from the acclaimed author of The Professors’ Wives’ Club, we return to Manhattan University, where two strong-willed women are compelled to unite their senses and sensibilities.
Professor Diana Monroe is a highly respected scholar of Sylvia Plath. Serious and aloof, she steadfastly keeps her mind on track. Professor Rachel Grey is young and impulsive, with a penchant for teaching popular women’s fiction like Bridget Jones’ Diary and The Devil Wears Prada, and for wearing her heart on her sleeve.
The two conflicting personalities meet head to heart when Carson McEvoy, a handsome and brilliant professor visiting from Harvard, sets his eyes on both women and creates even more tension between them. Now Diana and Rachel are slated to accompany an undergraduate trip to London, where an almost life-threatening experience with a student celebrity will force them to change their minds and heal their hearts…together.
Advance Praise for CROSSING WASHINGTON SQUARE
“As readers spend time with these bright and engaging women, Rendell offers an interesting debate about the merits of studying popular fiction in an academic setting.” The Romantic Times
“Rendell’s second novel is thoughtful and open, with plenty of interesting academic debate for truly bookish readers.” Booklist
ROBERTA: Welcome Joanne! Dr. Rebecca Butterman, the protagonist in my advice column mysteries, is a clinical psychologist (like me.) If your protagonist made an appointment to talk to Dr. Butterman, what would that first session be like? What deep dark secret or problem would she be there to discuss and how much of it would she tell?
JOANNE: There are two main characters in Crossing Washington Square, but I think Professor Diana Monroe would probably be the most fascinating to have on your clinical couch. Diana is super smart and has degrees from Oxford and Harvard. She’s also written a number of highly respected books on the poet Sylvia Plath. She is rigorous in her work and has great poise, control, and grace as a teacher. She’s the kind of uber-professor that every academic secretly wants to be. But she has a vulnerability too. Her life started out pretty tough and she’s had to build a kind of iron curtain around her emotions in order to be so successful and disciplined. She’s also British and admits in the book that she hates all that American “talk-about-your-feelings” stuff, so she’d be a hard one to crack! But if she did finally open up, she might tell you how five years ago her wealthy blue-blood husband left her for a young grad student and since then she’s vowed to leave men out of her life. The only thing is, in recent months, she’s allowed herself to get involved with the English department’s computer technician, Mikey. They have nothing in common. She has a season ticket to the opera, while he loves Johnny Cash. Yet she can’t seem to stop their secret affair!
Best of luck with the new book! Read more about Joanne and CWS on her website.
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