1 go-to book is “The Age of Innocence,” by Edith Wharton. This seems sufficiently vague given that I haven’t listed any titles. For inspiration, I go back to my favorite books, the ones I wish I had written. I just want to lose myself in something either intriguing or ludicrously romantic. When the world is too much, I love to read thrillers and romance novels. What do you like to read for solace or comfort? For inspiration? I will reread that story every chance I get. The highlight is the story “Betty and Veronica,” about the Archie Comics characters as lovers in a high school. It’s this amazing collection of short stories that is sharp and dark and mostly about teenage girls.
Anyway, one of my favorite books few people have heard of is “I Am a Magical Teenage Princess,” by Luke Geddes. I came up in the small-press world, so a lot of my favorite books have come from micropresses - books with runs of 25 or 75, rarely more. What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of? I want to say something impressive here, but I cannot remember the last time I read a classic novel, let alone one that would rate as “the best.” Oh, I suppose I’ve read “Anna Karenina” in the last decade. What’s the best classic novel you recently read for the first time? The book is also set in Los Angeles, one of my favorite cities. She is one of my favorite writers, and I loved the ambitious, almost too ambitious, narrative structure of the novel and these little worlds she kept building and tearing down to move the story forward.
the World,” by Jade Chang “Thrill Me,” by Benjamin Percy and “The Sympathizer,” by Viet Thanh Nguyen. They aren’t necessarily on my night stand, but the books I am reading or threatening to read right now are: “I’m Judging You,” by Luvvie Ajayi “Made for Love,” by Alissa Nutting, which is out next year “The Fireman,” by Joe Hill “Swing Time,” by Zadie Smith “All the Birds in the Sky,” by Charlie Jane Anders “Black Water Rising,” by Attica Locke “The Wangs vs. The author, most recently, of “Difficult Women” on what moves her in literature: “Basically, I love reading things that make me feel the same way I feel when listening to Beyoncé - slayed.”