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| photo: Lara Magzan | |
Helen Ellis is the author of American Housewife and Eating the Cheshire Cat. She was raised in Alabama, and now lives with her husband in New York City. You can find her on Twitter @WhatIDoAllDay and Instagram @americanhousewife. Her humorous essays Southern Lady Code are now available in paperback from Anchor.
On your nightstand now:
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby, Poppy Harmon Investigates by Lee Hollis, Hotel by Arthur Hailey and The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. Part coming-of-age/part puberty instruction manual.
Your top five authors:
Hannah Tinti and Ann Napolitano have been my writing workshop for more than 20 years, so they are always at the top of my list. Decades ago, Hannah made me Christmas ornaments of Ann Patchett and Stephen King as Santas. And my husband reads me David Sedaris in bed.
Book you've faked reading:
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. For whatever reason I couldn't finish it, so my friend Patti told me how it ended. Cold Mountain is now a verb in our friendship vocabulary. Whenever one of us can't finish a book, we ask the other to "Cold Mountain it for me."
Book you're an evangelist for:
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson. I think it is a perfect collection of surreal and Southern short stories. Rent-a-Grandma and a Scrabble factory worker? Yes, please!
Book you've bought for the cover:
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis. I have two copies of this book because I love the covers. One is a cartoon version of Rosalind Russell and one is straight out of the late '60s, very Megan Draper, Mad Men season 7. I mean, who doesn't want to be this broad?
Book you hid from your parents:
Jaws by Peter Benchley. I snuck it from my grandparents' bookshelf and never admitted to my parents why I was scared to go in a lake or the deep end of a swimming pool.
Book that changed your life:
Carrie by Stephen King. Part coming-of-age/part anti-bullying campaign.
Favorite line from a book:
"I feel bad about my neck" from I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. From the start of this book, she is honest, funny and kind. "Be honest, funny, and kind" is my nonfiction writing motto. And my life motto, too. To boot: the book is a full coming-of-middle-age manual.
Five books you'll never part with:
Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti, Within Arm's Reach by Ann Napolitano, The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett, Skeleton Crew by Stephen King and Naked by David Sedaris.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Scruples by Judith Krantz. This was the first book we read for my Classic Trashy Book Club. I'd read it as a teenager, and it was all the better as a middle-age lady. We've read over 60 "classic trashies" since this one--including two others by Krantz--and I love sinking into big books about women who give themselves a second chance.