The book that I recommend over and over again:
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima – a beautiful tragic love story set in the Taishō period in Japan.
This novel, the first of Mishima’s four-part Sea of Fertility series, takes place in turn-of-the-century Japan, and explores the clash between the old Japanese aristocracy and a new, rising class of elites. The son and daughter of two prominent families won’t admit they love each other until it’s too late, and she’s engaged to the emperor. It’s super-romantic, especially when the doomed lovers kiss in the snow.
The book that currently sits on my nightstand:
David Sedaris’s Happy-Go-Lucky. Love reading this right now while I’m working and it’s a break and a companion I look forward to while away from home. So funny and touching and makes me feel connected.
The book I’d pass onto my kid:
All About Love by bell hooks. I love her thoughtfulness on this topic.
The book I’d give to a new graduate:
Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion. I love [the essay] ‘On Being Unchosen By the College of One’s Choice’ and the line in the introduction by Hilton Als: ‘…Part of the remarkable character of Didion’s work has to do with her refusal to pretend that she doesn’t exist.’
The book I’d like turned into a Netflix show:
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason. I’d like to see the movie directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Riz Ahmed.
The book I first bought:
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. As a teenager, I thought it was the coolest and led me to NYC.
The book I last bought:
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I couldn’t put it down. It was so moving and funny and hopeful how someone can emerge from that trauma and chaos and find themselves as an artist.
The book that has the best title:
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. I loved that book in my youth, I love a tragic romance, that is the ultimate for unrequited love.
His masterpiece, set in pre-World War I Europe. A young man’s heartbreaking and epic obsession with an average-seeming woman. Her character was supposedly based on a man Maugham loved but couldn’t be with.
The book that has the best ending:
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton! I love the ending—the last paragraph is so good! I remember where I was that moment finishing it and the impact it had.
The book that broke my heart:
The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen. I was walking around in a daze the day I finished it.
The book that grew on me:
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson. Vendela Vida told me about it, and it was hard for me to get into (I’m a challenged reader) and takes a while to get into, but when you do, it’s hard to put down.
The book I’ve re-read the most:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I love a tragic love story and torn woman.
Other favorites:
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
“Touching and romantic and funny; full of the sentimental details of being a teenager.”
The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan
My brother’s the one who got me into Brautigan’s Gothic western. This story of cowboy hitmen assigned to kill a monster is crazy, weird, and funny.
They Called Her Styrene by Ed Ruscha
This is a collection of Ruscha’s word paintings from L.A. They crack me up: ‘We’re this, we’re that, aren’t we?’ and ‘Little Malibu love nest’ and ‘Did anyone say dreamboat?
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