Emily Giffin’s family moved frequently when she was a child, so, to make each new city home – be it Greensboro, North Carolina, or Chicago – she and her mother went to the local library and got their library cards.
That was long before Giffin graduated from the University of Virginia’s School of Law, and before she became a New York Times bestselling author several times over. But it gave her a love of books.
“Books were always a focal point in our home, and I was always happiest when I was reading,” Giffin said.
Her new novel, “Love You More,” is out Tuesday. Since her first book, “Something Borrowed,” was published in 2005, she has written 13 novels, nine of which have appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers list. “Something Borrowed” was adapted into a film starring Kate Hudson and John Krasinski in 2011.
But Giffin didn’t expect to make a living off her writing. That’s why she went to law school in the first place.
“I was like a lot of people who had an analytical mind but weren’t necessarily STEM-focused,” Giffin said. “Law school was sort of the default.”
She fell in love with Charlottesville and with UVA; in fact, her last novel, “The Summer Pact,” is about a group of best friends who met on Grounds. She even chose the University over Harvard Law School, where she had also been accepted.
UVA provided a more welcoming environment than she expected, and she became close with her professors. She babysat for then-School of Law professor Paul Mahoney’s children, and the two are still in touch. She even ran into author John Grisham while studying at the Barracks Road Barnes & Noble, which she described as “thrilling.” He was one of the reasons she wanted to become a writer.
“People ask me if I regret going to law school, and the answer is ‘no,’ because it shaped me. I still use my degree every day,” she said, whether it’s to understand the latest Supreme Court ruling or to parse through a contract.
After graduation, Giffin moved to New York to work at a law firm and pay off her student loans. Publishers rejected the first novel she wrote, but she had cleared her student loan balance, so she decided to move to London to work full-time on “Something Borrowed.” It became an international bestseller.
