February 15, 2018

From The New York Times (Kristin Hannah on "Who is your favorite novelist of all time?"):

Well, my favorite novel is “The Lord of the Rings,” but favorite novelist? It’s a tossup between Stephen King and J. K. Rowling. I am a sucker for epic, world-building novels with high stakes that are written beautifully and are impossible to put down. Extra points if I laugh or cry. Few authors can do this once or twice in a career. Mr. King and Ms. Rowling are masters at it. I stand in awe.

From The New York Times (Kristin Hannah on "Who are your favorite writers — novelists, essayists, journalists, poets — working today?"):

Besides Stephen and J. K.? I adore Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Donna Tartt, Anne Rice, Timothy Egan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Haruki Murakami, Joan Didion, Roxane Gay, Jane Smiley, Anne Tyler — and I can’t wait to see what’s next from Amor Towles and Yaa Gyasi.

From The New York Times (Kristin Hannah on "What genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?"):

When I’m writing, I read a lot of thrillers: Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, Gillian Flynn, Tami Hoag, Lisa Gardner, Gregg Hurwitz, Dennis Lehane. And I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I love big, rich, character-driven historical and contemporary fiction. “The Shadow of the Wind” is probably my favorite novel of the past decade. It’s the one I recommend most often to book clubs. Really the only genre I don’t currently read is science fiction, probably because I read it almost exclusively in my preteen years.

From Harper's:

A seventy-seven-year-old Italian man cries without emotion when he rubs together, or imagines rubbing together, his right thumb and index finger.

From Harper's:

In all the contiguous U.S. states, the food associated with watching TV or movies is pizza, except Mississippi, where it is ice cream, and Wyoming, where it is cookies.