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You Must Read This "You Must Read This" presents conversations with writers about the books they love to read and recommend.
Special Series

You Must Read This

Writers recommend their all-time favorite books

Monday

Monday

Review

A Revolution On The Page: Finding Identity In Poetry

When Roya Hakakian moved from Iran to the U.S., she didn't think any poet in her adopted country could top the ones whose work she grew up with. But then she discovered a piece that blew away her prejudices. It was "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

A Revolution On The Page: Finding Identity In Poetry

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Monday

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity
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Review

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity

Author Alex Gilvarry recommends Max Frisch's I'm Not Stiller, a novel that intertwines a classic tale of mistaken identity with high comedy and postwar seriousness.

Imprisoned In A Mysterious Mistaken Identity

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Monday

Monday

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past
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Review

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past

Can a book of elegies rise above maudlin morbidity? Author Stewart O'Nan says yes — and he recommends a great one by Christie Hodgen. It's a book that will break your heart, and warm your soul.

Ode To The Dead: In Remembrance Of Characters Past

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Monday

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic
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Review

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic

As it turns out, Raymond Chandler isn't the only writer who can channel the dark charisma of deceptively sunny California. Author Hector Tobar recommends John Fante's Ask the Dust, a novel that captures the grit and glamor of Los Angeles' past.

Dusting Off A Gritty, Glamorous California Classic

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Monday

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

Review

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

The best books don't just get inside a character's psyche, they get in the reader's head, as well. Author Ismet Prcic recommends Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, a funny, provocative, cerebral novel that explores the meaning of violence.

Trapped In A Nightmare: A Sweet, Funny, Brutal Read

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Thursday

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

Review

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

Can the mishaps of three seriously misguided Victorian gentlemen still provoke laughter? More than 120 years after its first edition, author Julia Stuart says Jerome K. Jerome's classic caper, Three Men in a Boat, is still a delightful read.

Victorian Humor At Its Silliest, Cheesiest Best

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Monday

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

Review

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

In the bucolic setting of The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, the joys and pitfalls of sibling rivalry are given new life. Author Amy Waldman says the book's sparse prose and stark setting provide the backdrop for a moving story of familial resentment.

Bound Together: Breaking Those Toxic Family Ties

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Monday

Wednesday

Review

Drunk On Words: A Literary Escape From Adolescence

The romantic power of words has the uncanny ability to lead us through the aches and pains of growing up. Author Leah Hager Cohen recommends Brian Hall's The Saskiad, a coming-of-age tale with a bookish twist.

Drunk On Words: A Literary Escape From Adolescence

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Monday

A Life-Changing Book With A Fierce, Feisty Heroine

Critics originally described it as a "housewife's choice" when it won the Booker Prize in 1987, but the feisty female protagonist in Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger is a "little wife" to no one. Author Moni Mohsin explains why the unexpected verve of this novel is worth its weight in pages.

A Life-Changing Book With A Fierce, Feisty Heroine

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Thursday

In A Girls-Only World, A Land Of Brainy Beauty

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Opinion

In A Girls-Only World, A Land Of Brainy Beauty

Set amid an imaginary world of harmony, beauty and intellectual thought, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's story Sultana's Dream only had one catch — no men. Author Tahmima Anam explains why it remains one of her favorite feminist pieces.

In A Girls-Only World, A Land Of Brainy Beauty

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Thursday

Our Basest Desires: The Cruel Chaos Of Revolution

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Review

Our Basest Desires: The Cruel Chaos Of Revolution

Robert Stone's characters fall all over the moral spectrum, but between a revolutionary nun, a treacherous spy and an alienated anthropologist, they certainly make for good reading. Author Roland Merullo recommends Stone's A Flag for Sunrise, a rich depiction of Central America in the turbulent '70s.

Our Basest Desires: The Cruel Chaos Of Revolution

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Tuesday

In Wordless Imagery, An Immigrant's Timeless Tale

In Wordless Imagery, An Immigrant's Timeless Tale

In his beautifully illustrated book, The Arrival, Shaun Tan depicts the struggle of immigration — without a language barrier. Author Ruta Sepetys explains how a wordless story can say so much.

In Wordless Imagery, An Immigrant's Timeless Tale

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