Diane Meier is the author of The New American Wedding and president of the marketing firm Meier. Her career spans writing, design and public speaking. Her first novel has just been published by Henry Holt: The Season of Second Chances (March 2010). Meier lives in New York City and Litchfield, Conn. Visit her website at dianemeier.com.
On your nightstand now:
I always read a number of books at once. And I rarely carry books between New York City and Connecticut--they wait for me in each spot, like friends I will visit at home. Currently I'm reading Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show--the latest novel from my husband, Frank Delaney--a brilliant, fast, funny, satirical look at the politics of love and money in 1932 Ireland; Hilma Wolitzer's Summer Reading, a small, engaging book about a summer reading group and three women whose lives are opened and expanded because of books (a chamber piece, maybe--but a chamber piece by Mozart); Nicky Haslam's Redeeming Features, a dishy memoir filled with great notes on the culture of the 1960s and behind-the-scenes accounts of people I've been interested in forever; Zach Mason's Lost Books of the Odyssey, a witty, playful, smart reworking of the classic Homeric myth, as Odysseus reinvents his own story; Amanda Vail's brilliant and graceful biography of Jerome Robbins, Somewhere, full of psychological insight and unexpected forgiveness.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Aged seven and under: I realized in looking at this list that the illustrations were as important to me as the text or the story. Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. Eloise, of course; I often had parfaits and hot chocolate at the Plaza, and I thought that we might catch a glimpse of her one day, but it never happened. Through the gift of a German neighbor, I received the scary but wickedly compelling Strewwelpeter, which flummoxed my mild-mannered parents. And, above all, I loved my grandfather's Beardsley-illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde's Salome; I colored in only one picture.
Seven and Older: Any number of volumes of the short stories of John O'Hara. At 11, I turned in a book report on O'Hara's Ten North Frederick, which the teacher refused to accept, claiming that the book was far too adult in content for a child. I was then forced to create another book report on Black Beauty. I was, and remain, more than annoyed at that teacher.
Your top five authors:
John O'Hara for short stories, Henry James's earlier work, Edith Wharton, Truman Capote and Frank Delaney for--everything. But only five??? That's impossible! Please make room for Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots.
Book you've faked reading:
I've never hidden my abandoning Proust (or Joyce), but I do remember a high school book report with the grade of an A- appended to a note that said, "Imagine the grade if you'd read the book!"
Book you're an evangelist for:
Sontag and Kael: Opposites Attract Me by Craig Selilgman. Okay, I'm willing to admit that this isn't the book I'd put in everyone's Christmas stocking. But it's right up there as one of my favorite books--ever. It's a book primarily about opinion and two women whose lives were deliberately and specifically charged with challenging and championing positions, within the ephemeral and subjective nature of ideas. Craig Seligman writes wonderfully, with a high degree of personal insight and self-revelation, though never to the detriment of his subjects. One comes away appreciating both Sontag and Kael, as I always have--as I always will--but appreciating the sweetness and generosity of Seligman even more.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Helmut Newton's White Women.
Book that changed your life:
Dorothy Rogers's My Favorite Things. I poured over its rather rigid sense of appropriateness. And then, 40 years later, it informed the design of my book The New American Wedding--Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture.
Favorite line from a book:
"Why don't you rinse your blond child's hair in dead champagne to keep it gold, as they do in France?"--From Diana Vreeland by Eleanor Dwight.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, of course, because there is no way to go back now and read it again, as a teenager.
