Ann Brashares is the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which became an international bestseller and was followed by three more books in the YA series: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants and Forever in Blue. She's also written two adult novels: The Last Summer (of You and Me) and My Name Is Memory. Her new novel, Sisterhood Everlasting (Random House, June 14, 2011), is a return to the Sisterhood characters 10 years later. Brashares lives in New York City with her husband and children.
On your nightstand now:
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, Chekov stories, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
Favorite book when you were a child:
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Your top five authors:
Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, Judy Blume and Vikram Seth (I might give different answers if you ask me tomorrow).
Book you've faked reading:
I've never read Updike--well, only the first couple of chapters of Rabbit, Run. I sort of hum my way through conversations in which people assume I have.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Recently I've been talking up The Gathering by Anne Enright. She writes so beautifully. I'm always trying to get adults to read the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Oh, and the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett. Don't even get me started.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I remember The Secret History by Donna Tartt had a lovely cover with the vellum and the cool trim size and everything. The book delivered, too.
Book that changed your life:
Summer Heat. It was the first book I worked on in an editorial capacity right out of college. The first draft wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. I realized that a book is a process. Also I remember having the idea for the first time: I think I could write a book as good as this.
Favorite line from a book:
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." --from The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.