Buy Reading, Writing and Leaving Home at Amazon
The Lover by Marguerite Duras (Pantheon, $10). A book that I keep within reach to remind myself of what literature can do with life. Reading more like memoir than fiction, this gorgeously written tale of erotic love, of family love, and of family hate describes a young girl’s wild passage into womanhood.
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Collected Stories by Frank O’Connor (Vintage, $21). It doesn’t matter how many times I read and reread O’Connor, I laugh, and am moved yet again by tales of an Ireland richer and more real than the one I have, on occasion, visited myself.
Literary Occasions by V.S. Naipaul (Vintage, $14). Gloriously intelligent and lucid, these essays examine the place and purpose of the writer in the world. Nothing cheers me up like Naipaul’s particular brand of unmitigated honesty.
The Beggar Maid by Alice Munro (Vintage, $13). Rose and her stepmother, Flo, the chief protagonists of these brilliantly linked stories placed in small-town Canada, are two of the finest characters in 20th-century fiction.
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi (Touchstone, $12). A searing, brilliantly written account of one man’s survival in a German death camp. I know of no other book that takes the reader so surely into the horror of the Holocaust without making the journey unbearable.
Lost in Translation
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The ‘menopause gold rush’Under the Radar Women vulnerable to misinformation and marketing of ‘unregulated’ products
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Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
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No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
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Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
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Nathan Harris’ 6 favorite books that turn adventures into revelationsFeature The author recommends works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McGuire, and more
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Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetimeFeature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
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Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
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Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficultiesFeature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
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Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
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Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
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Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
