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| photo: Sonia Sones | |
Kristin Elizabeth Clark lives and writes in northern California, where she has worked as a child advocate within the juvenile justice system and as a children's theater producer. She is a proud volunteer at Project Outlet in Mountain View, Calif. Her ReaLITy Reads novel is Freakboy.
On your nightstand now:
I'm kind of a book junkie in that I'm supremely uncomfortable unless there are several immediately available to me, so there are several books on my nightstand right now, and I'm reading them all. I have an ARC of Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block, an ARC of Smoke by Ellen Hopkins, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Playing with Fire by Bruce Hale, and I'm re-reading Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery.
Favorite book when you were a child:
It's really hard to choose, but the first that comes to mind is Watership Down by Richard Adams. I remember a pitched battle with a friend of mine over the pronunciation of Fiver, the protagonist's name. My friend rhymed it with river, while my pronunciation rhymed with jive-er. (Joe, if you're reading this, I'm still pretty sure I'm right. He got his name because he was the fifth rabbit born in the litter; it wouldn't make sense to call him Fivver!)
Your top five authors:
Again with the difficult choices! Hmmm--in no particular order: Laurie Halse Anderson, Roald Dahl, Ellen Hopkins, Elizabeth Peters and Jane Austen.
Book you've faked reading:
Swann's Way. I have a dear friend who is obsessed with Proust, and I tried for this friend's sake to read it, but never could quite manage it. Now when we go to literary cocktail parties, he gets to sound smart and I'm just the dork standing there smiling and nodding as if to say, "I agree completely with your eloquent points about Proust, so there's no need for me to chime in with my own."
Book you are an evangelist for:
Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls. Her beautiful language gave me goose bumps, and the story itself completely sucked me in.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Mysterious Benedict Society, written by Trenton Lee Stewart and illustrated by Carson Ellis. I saw the cover and somehow knew I had to read the book. It was a good decision.
Book that changed your life:
The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh. I love the exercises in practicing mindfulness in everyday life. There are times, even when good things are happening, that life gets too frenetic to enjoy. This book introduced me to the concept of mindfulness, which slows things down nicely for me.
When I remember to practice it, that is.
Favorite line from a book:
"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"--Anne of Green Gables
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It had just come out, and I hadn't heard anything about it when I picked it up. It was such a treat to step into that world for the first time. I've gone back several times since, but it would be fun to experience the thrill of discovery again.