codependent no more, leaving the enchanted forest, the language of letting go, drama of the gifted child, IM FINE...AND OTHER LIES

Chester Himes! Thomas Pynchon (obviosuly) john o'hara..John Steinbeck...George Orwell....Shirley Jackson! Caroline Blackwood

I recommend the book Dreamland by Sam Quinones, but that's not going to get you out of anything. That's going to get you way in.

Growing up, it was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - I would read the whole C.S. Lewis series out loud to my kids. I was once reading to Zelda, and she said "don't do any voices. Just read it as yourself." So I did, I just read it straight, and she said "that's better."

I'm reading "Search for Lost Time" by Marcel Proust [2018]. I find Pynchon to be the most knowing writer of our time.

Most books back then were awful and most books now are awful. The classics stayed on. Reading modern books is like you went panning for gold and had to go through a bunch of rocks to find one single lump of coal. Or, the way I do it, you just go into the store and they give you big bars of gold from the old days and you read those.

Cervantes. I found Don Quixote transformative. I mean, I never read anything like that before. Well, I'm reading this norwegian guy and I can't remember his goddamn name. I'm trying to remember! I know what it's called, the book is called My Struggle. By Karl Ove Knausgaard. No wonder I couldn't remember it. The title is even very daring, but it's an unflinching look into mortality, which I like to do. I like to look into mortality, in an unflinching manner. Some days, I'll flinch. Some days I'll be honest with you Victoria, I'll stare into my own mortality in that abyss. I'll flinch. But I can't say the same for Horgalveyeysbadlobad. I'm sure he flinches too, but he writes it down and pret...[Read more]

My 5 favorite books of 2020: Antkind by Charlie Kaufman Earthlings by Sayaka Murata Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin Weather by Jenny Offill The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

Well, my favorite author is Mark Twain. He’s smart, and funny. Huckleberry Finn, especially the chapter all the purists hate, in which Tom Sawyer stages an elaborate rescue of Jim, is a writer having as much fun as possible. But my favorite book is a two-parter by Laurens Van Der Post, A Story Like The Wind and A Far Off Place. My favorite book used to be The Plague by Albert Camus.

Q: As a lover of Russian literature, who would you say your favorite Russian author is? Thoughts on Dostoevsky vs Tolstoy? A: Well, to say that Tolstoy Gogol and Dostovesky are the great novelists from Russia would be akin to say that William Faulkner, Mark Twain and Harold Robbins are the great American writers.

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara

Well if you really want to read Russian novelists, you should learn to speak Russian, that's the best way. But if you don't want to do that, there are wonderful translators, a husband & wife team by the name of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, they are the greats. So even if you've already read Russian literature, you should reread. I would begin with a book of Tolstoy short stories, there's a book called the Death of Ivan Ilovitch and other stories, which is a jumping off point. And not ironically at all but it's very funny writing.

The stack next to my bed is embarrassingly High. the one on my desk right now is "3 Ingredient Cocktails" by Robert Simonson. Great Read!

Well, I like anything that's written by Leo Tolstoy, or Gogol, my favorite is War & Peace.

Well, I read 2 books at once. I just started a biography of John Wayne and it's terrific. And I read every crime novel by Michael Connelly, who I think is the best. And a brilliant book I just finished was One Summer. It detailed life in America in 1927. It's an amazing read, One Summer.

Just reading Tiffany Haddish's LAST BLACK UNICORN- beautifully written and hilarious. I love memoir- so, Mary Karr. Graphic Memoir- Allison Bechdel (sp?) Fun Home and "Marbles" by Ellen Forney. Madness by Marya Hornbacher, anything by Kay Redfield Jamison. I also like For Dummies- Personal Finance for and Bipolar Disorder for.

I like to read funny books. I said Confederacy already but Don Quixote is funny and Lolita is funny. Just read Richard Price The Whites (not funny) but it was great.

The Nixon Tapes: 1973 Ed. by Douglas Brinkley & Luke Nichter Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

Falling Upward by Richard Rohr Everything Belongs by RR Love Wins by Rob Bell What We Talk About by Rob Bell Be Here Now by Ram Dass Grist for the Mill by Ram Dass The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Golas The Power of Myth (the book) by Joseph Campbell and Richard Moyers

The first adult novel I read, and this is a favorite memory of mine, resulted from my grandfather — who was a voracious reader — taking me to Novel Idea in Tulsa, Okla., to pick up a book for school. As we headed to the checkout line he said, ‘Why don’t you pick out something to read for pleasure?’ I went to the Young Adult section, and he stopped me: ‘No, no. Go to the Fiction section.’ I was 12, and this was a big deal. The Fiction section is where all the books with sex and bad language lived. I self-consciously browsed the aisles, careful to avoid unwittingly picking up Fear of Flying or something, until I came to a paperback with a spooky cover. The title: Salem’s Lot. Description: Vamp...[Read more]