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

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You Must Read This

Writers recommend their all-time favorite books

Wednesday November 24, 2010

'Ginsberg To Ginsberg': Two Generations 'Howl'

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, pictured above in 1973, first published "Howl" in 1956. Getty Images hide caption

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Review

'Ginsberg To Ginsberg': Two Generations 'Howl'

November 24, 2010 • Debra Ginsberg isn't related to Allen, but the famous poet once told her she could say he was her uncle. As a high-schooler, Debra found "Howl" exciting, beautiful and frightening. Now, years later, she has seen minds of her own generation "destroyed by madness."

Monday October 11, 2010

'Finkler' Questions The Meaning Of Jewishness

The Finkler Question is one of six novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. hide caption

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Review

'Finkler' Questions The Meaning Of Jewishness

October 11, 2010 • The hero of this year's Booker Prize winner, The Finkler Question, is a non-Jew fascinated by Jewishness. For writer David Sax, these efforts to simulate Judaism — to take on a persona outside of one's own — offer a broader commentary on human experience.

'Finkler' Questions The Meaning Of Jewishness

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Wednesday September 22, 2010

Review

Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King'

September 22, 2010 • Writer Lev Grossman was raised on a strict diet of literary classics — until he discovered T.H. White's masterful retelling of the King Arthur tale. In The Once and Future King, what was once as stiff and two-dimensional as a medieval tapestry becomes rich and real and devastatingly sad.

Arthur Comes Alive In 'The Once And Future King'

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Thursday August 12, 2010

Westerners Behaving Badly In 'Good Man In Africa'

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Review

Westerners Behaving Badly In 'Good Man In Africa'

August 12, 2010 • William Boyd's hapless protagonist is a misogynistic, misanthropic, overweight, oversexed first secretary of the British High Commission in the fictitious West African country Kinjanja. Writer Susan Coll says that wrapped up in the dark comedy, Boyd delivers an unflinching critique of British attitudes in early post-Colonial years.

Monday August 9, 2010

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Review

Carried Away By The 'Night Soldiers'

August 9, 2010 • Author Jake Halpern is all about mood. When he's looking to deluge his senses, he turns to Night Soldiers. Whether ambling down Parisian streets on the eve of war or taking a crisp train ride through the Pyrenees, Alan Furst's prose takes him instantly there.

Carried Away By The 'Night Soldiers'

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Friday August 6, 2010

Review

Henry James' Heroine: 'Portrait' Of A Complex Lady

August 6, 2010 • In James' Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer is wise enough to understand that if you're not happy without a man, you certainly won't be happy with one. Writer Rhoda Janzen loves the book because it shows what a woman does once she acknowledges her own complicity in the life she has chosen.

Henry James' Heroine: 'Portrait' Of A Complex Lady

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Tuesday July 13, 2010

Review

'McKay's Bees' Alive With Wit And Wonder

July 13, 2010 • Thomas McMahon's novel isn't long, but writer Sue Miller says it manages to accomplish frequent hilarity, tender sexiness and sheer erudition. With intelligence and humor, McKay's Bees wonders about all that is funny, sad and amazing in the world.

'McKay's Bees' Alive With Wit And Wonder

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Friday July 9, 2010

Review

The 'Mystery And Manners' Of Flannery O'Connor

July 9, 2010 • Flannery O'Connor's collection of essays explores topics ranging from the act of writing to the art of raising peacocks. But what Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake values most is how seriously O'Connor takes the task of being human.

Tuesday June 8, 2010

Review

Takes One To Know One: A Masterful Irish Novelist

June 8, 2010 • John McGahern struggled for 10 years to write the novel Amongst Women. Fellow Irish author Colm Toibin says it was worth the wait: The pacing of the novel is masterly, he says, and its rhythms are filled with hidden emotion.

Takes One To Know One: A Masterful Irish Novelist

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Monday May 31, 2010

Review

In 'Believers', Courage And Cowardice Of Conviction

May 31, 2010 • Who says unlikable characters make for unlikable books? The prickly people in Zoe Heller's The Believers are infused with wit and intelligence. Author Meghan Daum says she has recommended the poignant satire to more friends than she can count.

In 'Believers', Courage And Cowardice Of Conviction

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Wednesday April 21, 2010

Review

Tasting The Flavors Of Life As Only 'George' Could

April 21, 2010 • When author Simon Van Booy looks to puncture the solitude of writing life, he reaches for George, Being George, the oral biography of George Plimpton. Based on hundreds of interviews with his intimates and colleagues, the portrait of Plimpton reveals the richness and flavor of life that the actor and writer knew how to capture so well in his own work.

Tasting The Flavors Of Life As Only 'George' Could

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Wednesday April 7, 2010

'Passing' Across The Color Line In The Jazz Age

Nella Larsen was a prominent novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in 1891, her mother was Danish and her father was West Indian. James Allen/Harmon Foundation Records hide caption

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James Allen/Harmon Foundation Records

Review

'Passing' Across The Color Line In The Jazz Age

April 7, 2010 • Writer Heidi Durrow says she has read Nella Larsen's Passing more than a dozen times. The 1929 novel tells the story of two light-skinned, African-American women — childhood friends who are reconnected after leading drastically different lives. Durrow says Larsen demands that her readers transcend society's assigned labels.

'Passing' Across The Color Line In The Jazz Age

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Wednesday March 24, 2010

Review

An 'Apprenticeship' In First-Generation Chutzpah

March 24, 2010 • When David Sax was 11, his father handed him The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and said: "Read this if you want to know where I came from." Mordecai Richler's novel about an ambitious teen from Montreal's Jewish working class helped Sax learn to appreciate the immigrant drive.

An 'Apprenticeship' In First-Generation Chutzpah

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Tuesday February 23, 2010

Review

Finding Escape In The Familiar With 'Riddley Walker'

February 23, 2010 • When author John Wray is looking for an escape, he doesn't search for a world filled with giants and wands. Instead, he dives into Riddley Walker's post-apocalyptic England. Even this grim, mutant-filled world is riddled with surprising shocks of recognition.

Finding Escape In The Familiar With 'Riddley Walker'

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Friday January 22, 2010

Review

Avanti! Author Finds Italy Between 'Love And War'

January 22, 2010 • When author Simon Mawer wants a piece of Italy that millions of visitors to the country never dream exists, he opens up Eric Newby's novel. Filled with grit and passion so evocative you can smell the air, the story is almost as good as a plane ticket.