Heather Gudenkauf is the author of The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden. Her new novel, One Breath Away, was recently published by Harlequin MIRA. Gudenkauf grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and in Iowa. She was born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment and became a voracious reader. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education. Gudenkauf lives in Iowa with her husband, three children and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Maxine.
On your nightstand now:
I always have a stack of books next to my bed, and the current pile includes A Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, part of a great mystery series about a Wyoming sheriff that's new to me; The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, the story of the slowing of the earth's rotation as told through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl; and an advanced reading copy of Blasphemy, a collection of short stories by Sherman Alexie that I was lucky enough to get at BookExpo America. And those are just the ones on my nightstand--there are bunches more underneath my bed waiting to promoted to my bedside table!
Favorite book when you were a child:
My favorite book as a young child was The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson. I was completely enamored with the tenderhearted bull who only wanted to sit and smell the flowers. I could spend hours reading the story and poring over the illustrations. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I was given a record (remember those?) with a narrator reading the story aloud so I could follow along.
Your top five authors:
I have many favorites, but these are my perennial go to authors: Sandra Dallas, Elizabeth Berg, Anita Shreve, Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich. I know, that's six, but I couldn't cross any of these amazing authors off my list.
Book you've faked reading:
I'm ashamed to say that I have had Tolstoy's Anna Karenina looking accusingly at me from my bookshelf for years. When I first purchased the book, I toted it around with me in hopes that I would actually read it. I haven't given up hope yet. One day…
Book you're an evangelist for:
I love the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series by Louise Penny about the tiny fictional town of Three Pines just south of Montreal and its inhabitants. I tell anyone who will listen: After reading the first book in the series, Still Life, you will be happy to have met the characters, after the second book you will want to visit Three Pines, and after the third book you will want to pack up and move there. This is how enchanting Penny's writing is!
Book you've bought for the cover:
Many of the books I buy are due to the cover art, and this was definitely the case for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The simple yet striking red cover and the upside down black poodle made me stop in my tracks. Upon moving beyond the arresting cover and into the pages, The Curious Incident did not disappoint--I loved it.
Book that changed your life:
Can I have more than one? As a young girl, the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder made me into a reader, My Antonia by Willa Cather made me want to be a writer and Just Don't Fall by Josh Sundquist helped teach me that humor and good can come from even the most difficult of circumstances.
Favorite line from a book:
I have so many favorite lines from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, but the quote that resounds with me most is "As she read, at peace with the world and happy as only a little girl could be with a fine book and a little bowl of candy, and all alone in the house, the leaf shadows shifted and the afternoon passed." While my upbringing was much different from protagonist Francie's childhood, we had one thing in common--an undying, unwavering love for books.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
If I could read a book again for the first time, it would have to be Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. When you close a book and realize immediately that you desperately miss the characters and can't stand not knowing what has become of them, you know it is a very special book. Betty Smith had a way of writing and talking to the reader in such a manner that I found myself in dialogue with her. Yes, that is exactly how it is! I would exclaim (most of the time this was an inner dialogue, but not always). There is such a truth to her stories, a turn of phrase that leaves you nodding your head. I would like to experience that feeling for the first time all over again.