On your nightstand now:
The ARC of a purely wonderful thing called The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I went back and forth between reading the Trixie Belden series and the Conan the Barbarian books.
Your top five authors:
Contemporary? Sara Gruen, Frank Turner Hollon, Tayari Jones, Tom Franklin and Karen Abbott.
Book you've faked reading:
I've always felt life is too short to read books that don't interest me, and at 18, I did not get the wonder that is Hawthorne. I got an A on my Hawthorne test though, thanks to Cliff, his notes and some judicious skimming. Meanwhile, I was sneak-reading Aldous Huxley and Anthony Burgess under my desk.
Book you are an evangelist for:
The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel. I love ALL of Kimmel's work, but that book makes me want to grab a sandwich board and go scream on a street corner.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. The cover caught my eye, and the brilliant first line caught the rest of me.
Book that changed your life:
My 10th or 11th reading of Emma. I read and reread all of Austen's novels over and over in high school. I remember returning to Emma after a four- or five-year Austen hiatus in college, and realizing it wasn't at all the dear little soft-gloved lurve story I so fondly remembered. It was biting, brilliant and hilarious social commentary. The experience changed me as both a reader and a writer.
Favorite line from a book:
"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." From Jeanette Winterson's The Passion.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel.