What writers are especially good on adolescent life?Ĭurtis Sittenfeld’s “Prep.” Stephen King since the beginning of time. I admire so many writers working in so many genres. I have a bookstore so that’s a loaded question for me. Which writers - novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets - working today do you admire most? I don’t believe in restricting books but sometimes, what you read at 13 is entirely different when you approach it at 40. What book should nobody read until the age of 40? How quaint that I had a civics teacher in sixth grade in public school in Elizabeth, N.J. I still think of that and how I looked forward to her readings. My sixth-grade civics teacher read “Animal Farm” aloud to our class. And choose a few titles from the growing list of banned books. Salinger, to understand what makes a good short story. “The Diary of a Young Girl,” by Anne Frank “Nine Stories,” by J.D. What book should everybody read before the age of 21? “Beasts of No Nation,” a sliver of a book by Uzodinma Iweala. What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of? Also, I like to read in bed before I go to sleep. I try to quit work each day so that I can have reading time in the late afternoon. So maybe the best place for reading is sitting on my balcony overlooking the ocean (I know, right?). A train is good but how often am I on a train these days? I’ve never been able to read in a car. Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). My husband read it first and told me it was brilliant and that I’d enjoy it. “The Light Pirate,” by Lily Brooks Dalton, a book I can’t stop thinking about so I have to go back and read parts of it again. Demeanor,” by Elinor Lipman, because I never miss one of her funny, delightful novels. Books I’ve finished but still in the pile: “Ms.

Yesterday afternoon I read a graphic memoir, “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe, the most banned book in the country right now.

My daughter recently recommended “Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion,” by Bushra Rehman. I’m about to start Rebecca Makkai’s “I Have Some Questions for You.” I just finished “Still Pictures,” by Janet Malcolm. There are always books piled up, sometimes spilling onto the floor.

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