By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

BY ANY OTHER NAME by Jodi Picoult tells the story – in different time periods – of two women writers, real life Emilia Bassano, a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and her fictional descendant Melanie Green, a modern playwright. Both struggle for recognition and combat the many prejudices against female writers. In fact, Melanie’s fellow playwright, a young black man named Andre, submits her play (about Emilia Bassano) to a contest and then must pretend to be Mel Green so as to get the play produced. Also bending to society’s dictates, Emilia’s life is one of proximity to the court of Elizabeth I as she (at age 13) becomes mistress to the Lord Chamberlin. Once pregnant, she experiences an unhappy marriage with a cousin and eventually, per Picoult’s telling, writes plays long attributed to William Shakespeare. Although given Emilia’s situation there are a number of sex scenes, Picoult’s many fans will appreciate the details of daily life in Elizabethan England as well as her exploration of the sacrifices women must make so that their voices can be heard. BY ANY OTHER NAME received a starred review from Booklist and was named to the LibraryReads Hall of Fame selections for August.

I recently read FOOLS AND MORTALS by Bernard Cornwell which is also set in Shakespeare’s time and tells the tale of his younger brother, Richard. Our book club agreed that the opening in this novel was too slow and that while the mystery surrounding stolen plays was diverting, we would recommend other works by Cornwell instead.