Arbor Sloane

Arbor Sloane grew up in the Midwest and earned her master’s degree of English at Iowa State University. She now teaches community college courses and resides with her family in the Des Moines area.

Sloane's new novel is Not Who You Think.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Sloane's reply:

I'm in the midst of reading two books right now.

I picked up the first one, Dear Future Me by Deborah O'Connor, while shopping for books to read on vacation this summer. The premise intrigued me... twenty years ago, an English teacher gave his students the assignment to write a letter to themselves twenty years in the future, and then he actually sends those letters out when the kids have grown up. The twist is that a student died mysteriously around the time the kids wrote the letters, and everyone only knows a piece of what happened to him. When one of the kids in the future receives her letter, she is so upset by her memories that she ends up taking her own life. Her best friend from the class, Miranda, becomes determined to solve the mystery of both deaths by interviewing former classmates. I'm really enjoying it so far.

The second one has been assigned through the community college I teach for. Every year they buy each student a copy of one book, and this year it happens to be The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Again, the premise is so fascinating... one day, everyone in the world wakes up to a box outside their door. The box contains a piece of string that indicates how long their life will be. Some have many years left, others only have a few days. I think this book will really grab my students' attention and we will have some great conversations about the finite nature of life and how we should live it.

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The Page 69 Test: Not Who You Think.

Q&A with Arbor Sloane.

--Marshal Zeringue