Layering depth with imported images?

so I want to put a book on a table, the same open face book found in the castle tileset. I've managed to cut and save it and make it a "character" so it could be used for eventing. The two problems I'm running into are the "through" and "always on top" issues. If I don't put "always on top" the book appears beneath the desks. If I put "always on top" when the player walks around to the other side of the desk, their head goes under the book.

Is there a way to set the priority of an event or otherwise fix this? 

If this is XP, I'm sure you can just set the event graphic to the tileset piece itself rather than needing to cut it out of the tileset graphic and make it into a character sprite. You probably can do the same thing for VX too.

If this is XP, I'm sure you can just set the event graphic to the tileset piece itself rather than needing to cut it out of the tileset graphic and make it into a character sprite. You probably can do the same thing for VX too.

normally this is true, but because I'm cloning the event into different maps, the tileset keeps changing. So I went with an actor graphic instead.