Maybe sad, or lost, or confused, but mostly joy and wonder are the emotions involved.

What was the last book to make you laugh? Texts concerning weather, apples, New York City, archaeology, medicine, trees, stars, Roman history, photography. Which books might we be surprised to find on your shelves.

Plus, no one could ever feel guilty about reading writers like Ursula K. I chuckle over how this “genre” has become mainstream and how time travel, alternative universes and magic are now so everyday. I grew up reading the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I have no guilt regarding my love of fantasy and science fiction, only pleasure. What are your literary guilty pleasures? Do you have a favorite genre? “Moon Tiger,” the first of her novels I read, is a favorite, along with some of her recent books, “How It All Began” and “The Photograph,” luminous, intelligent fictional worlds, often centering on a character who is searching back through her own history to find out why her life played out as it did. She has such grace, and her characters have true depth. I love everything she writes: novels, children’s books, nonfiction. Penelope Lively, the wonderful English writer born in Egypt. Sell us on your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer. Nothing compares with her lyrical, heart-wrenching, gorgeous prose. My favorite novelist working today is our greatest living writer, Toni Morrison. Read “Wuthering Heights” when you’re 18 and you think Heathcliff is a romantic hero when you’re 30, he’s a monster at 50 you see he’s just human. Who is your favorite novelist of all time? And your favorite novelist writing today?Īll time - Emily Brontë, author of the greatest psychological novel ever written, with the most complex character ever conceived. I can’t wait to read what she writes next. “The Death of Bees,” by Lisa O’Donnell, a dark, fierce first novel that is a page-turner and a fairy tale turned inside out. “Inside the Dream Palace,” by Sherill Tippins, the history of the Chelsea Hotel, since I’m a Chelsea girl. “Time and Again,” by Jack Finney, which I missed in the ’70s and just discovered - I am a huge fan of all time travel. What books are currently on your night stand? “I hadn’t known that a book could speak so directly to a reader.” The author of “The Museum of Extraordinary Things” found a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” on her mother’s bookshelf.

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