The books that CHANGED MY LIFE

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME LAUGH

Not a book, but Gish Jen’s short story, Who’s Irish?. It’s told by a 68-year-old Chinese immigrant who struggles to maintain a relationship with her half-irish granddaughter.

I love stories that make me think differently about concepts that I’ve accepted for so long, like creativity, passion and work.

THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY

I’ve felt that sting between my eyes a few times while reading Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward. It’s about a family living in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, just before Hurricane Katrina. A difficult but wonderful read.

THE BOOK THAT CHANGED THE WAY I THINK

Uneasy Street: The Anxieties Of Affluence by Rachel Sherman. This book was an excellent source of inspiration as I wrote Such A Fun Age. It’s an inside look on the anxieties that wealth creates for the liberal elite, and I was very inspired by how those anxieties seep into language, and attempts at levelling the playing field with those around them.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi just after I quit my job as a receptionist in New York, before moving to Arkansas to focus on writing. It’s so clever, and that fantastical fairy-tale element was so appreciated at the time.

THE BOOK I MOST OFTEN GIVE TO OTHERS

Monkeys by Susan Minot is a very short novel about a big family and it combines that mixture I love to find in literature; a blend of sad, funny and true. It’s one of those novels you want to read once a year.