Sonia says "au revoir"!
I first started working for the French Library in the early fall of 2021. Covid variants were still very much making regular appearances in the world and in our lives, and our building at 53 Marlborough Street was undergoing major renovations. I was not a trained librarian, so my missions were the following: to provide a curbside book pickup service out of the Boston and Cambridge Public Libraries, to run an “heure du conte” on Facebook and Instagram and to organize the monthly book club for our members. Immediately, I felt incredibly welcomed into the French Library’s community, and very grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with book lovers and Boston francophone families.
How far have we all come since then! Covid eventually took a backseat in most of our daily preoccupations, the renovation of our brownstone building came to an end in the Spring of 2022, and we brought back more than thirty thousand books from storage to sort and repopulate the shelves of the library! I cannot stress enough how important our wonderful volunteers were for me to be able to reshelve this incredible collection. 
The time has come for me to go on to new and different things (like baking croissants for example!) I will miss the French Library team dearly, and of course the members, the teachers, the space, the book clubs and everything relating to kids room of the library... À bientôt, je vous laisse entre les mains de Benoit! Join in Sonia's last book club : https://frenchlibrary.org/events/book-club-vol-de-nuit/
Benoit says "bonjour"!
I am thrilled to be taking over the librarian position! By the way, if you don't already know how to pronounce my name, feel free to ask me next time you see me. This is such an unexpected career path for someone who hated reading a few years ago. My passion began when I was about 19 and about to go to Australia, alone, for two months. Before I left, I thought I would be bored on this trip, so I bought one book to keep me company. It was Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. I was hooked. Two years later, I started studying journalism in Paris. After getting my master’s degree I worked as a web reporter, a TV reporter and a press review officer. In 2018, I left everything to start a book project about a typewriter I found at a flea market. That led me to Hartford, CT, where the machine was built in 1935. I spent five weeks there to learn more about this city that was once the wealthiest in the United States. One thing led to another and I ended up meeting my wife on that trip. After the height of the Covid pandemic, I moved to the United States. Now, I am very happy to be able to be part of the French Library and share my passion for books and French/Francophone culture.
Join in Benoit’s first book club : https://frenchlibrary.org/events/book-club-la-verite-sur-marie/
And in Benoit’s first heure du conte : https://frenchlibrary.org/events/lheure-du-conte-march/
Sonia Jacobson
Librarian
A dual citizen of France and the USA, Sonia grew up between the Midwest and Brittany. After obtaining her BA in Philosophy and Modern Languages at Oxford University in 2015, she spent several years in Paris, working in classical music and studying voice & opera at the Conservatoire. She moved to Boston in the fall of 2020, where she now performs as a singer. Sonia is thrilled to also be a part of the French Library’s team, where she can put her deep love of French literature to use while working as Librarian.
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