Annie Barrows

So much time did young Annie Barrows spend at her local library that she was hired to shelve books there at age 12. She grew up to write some herself, including (with her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer), the bestselling “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” and now “The Truth According to Us.” Like “Guernsey,” it’s set in the South — in this case, a small West Virginia town in 1938. Why does a Northern California gal like Barrows continue to write in the Southern vernacular? “All writers are transvestites and vampires,” Barrows says. “My mother and aunt came from West Virginia so I had a lot of voices in my mind. That’s one of the great things about writing — you get to be someone you aren’t.” Here are four of her favorite books.

Bleak House

by Charles Dickens

I was always told that this was The Great Novel, so of course I avoided it like the plague. I was forced to read it in college and resisted. Three days before I had a test on it, I started it and couldn’t put it down. What a mess! An illogical, driven and irresistible novel.

Possession

by A.S. Byatt

How on Earth did she DO that? I’m lost in admiration. This is about two scholars who uncover the secret lives of two famous Victorian authors they’re studying, and find out that their authors had had an affair. What fascinates me is the idea of the author becoming someone. How did Byatt somehow become a Victorian male poet?

Mrs. Bridge

by Evan S. Connell

My mother told me I’d have to read this so I’d understand why she wasn’t going to bake cakes for the PTA sale. It’s about a woman who’s created by her obligations to family and never has a thought of her own. It makes you want to rise up as a feminist and kill the entire world!

Life After Life

by Kate Atkinson

Such an amazing book! I think Atkinson’s a genius, but I also think she’s [giving her characters] what we all wish we had: a doover. What would happen if there’s a universe for every possibility? Where you could live your life over and over and over? It’s a pathos that you wish you could save your character, but you can’t.