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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.
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You Must Read This

Writers recommend their all-time favorite books

Monday

Appreciating The Awkward Absurdity Of Adolescence

Opinion

Appreciating The Awkward Absurdity Of Adolescence

What makes a memorable character? It is the one who changes the most throughout the book? The one who makes a personal discovery? Or is it simply the most eccentric who we love? Actor Simon Pegg says that for his favorite literary protagonist, all three apply.

Appreciating The Awkward Absurdity Of Adolescence

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Monday

Review

Immerse Yourself In An Innocent, Ill-Fated Love

In his novel Dream Boy, Jim Grimsley explores the beauty and violence of growing up gay in the rural South. Author Justin Torres offers this devastatingly beautiful novel to anyone who has ever been the target of a bully.

Immerse Yourself In An Innocent, Ill-Fated Love

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Tuesday

Tumultuous Tales Of Loathing And Wit

Review

Tumultuous Tales Of Loathing And Wit

Love is a many splendored thing ... or is it? Author Eleanor Henderson, once admittedly infatuated with the writings of her teacher, Robert Cohen, insists that you must read The Varieties of Romantic Experience -- his collection of tumultuous tales of love and the struggles that lie therein.

Tumultuous Tales Of Loathing And Wit

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Thursday

Love, Betrayal, Humiliation: A Coming-Of-Age Affair

Review

Love, Betrayal, Humiliation: A Coming-Of-Age Affair

Have you ever had an experience so profound, you felt like a different person once it was over? Author Ann Brashares recommends a story of heartbreak that remakes the personality of a young teen: The Go-Between, by L.P. Hartley.

Love, Betrayal, Humiliation: A Coming-Of-Age Affair

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Monday

A Creepy Collection Of Supernatural Delights

Opinion

A Creepy Collection Of Supernatural Delights

Scary landscapes and spirit creatures appear in many ghost stories. But author Alan Heathcock knows that for the best of them, only the writings of Algernon Blackwood will do. These spooky tales will have you shivering with fright and delight.

A Creepy Collection Of Supernatural Delights

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An Artist's Life: Tough, Toilsome And Tiring Times

English novelist (Arthur) Joyce Lunel Cary. George C. Beresford/Getty Images hide caption

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George C. Beresford/Getty Images

Review

An Artist's Life: Tough, Toilsome And Tiring Times

Sometimes you just can't face the world. What to do? Curl up with Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth, says author Kate Christensen. This fun, frequently unsavory romp is the perfect escape.

An Artist's Life: Tough, Toilsome And Tiring Times

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Monday

For Students Of 'Freddie,' Drama Onstage And Off

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Review

For Students Of 'Freddie,' Drama Onstage And Off

Welcome to Temple Stage School, a place for child actors. At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald stars proprietress Freddie, her misfit students and her troubled teachers as they try to save the school. Author Ben Dolnick encourages you to take a front row seat with this bittersweet comedy.

For Students Of 'Freddie,' Drama Onstage And Off

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Wednesday

Review

'Big Machine' Churns Out A Twisting Collage Of Crime

If you're in search of a genre-bending, perspective-shattering read, look no farther than Victor LaValle's crime thriller Big Machine. Author Dolen Perkins-Valdez says the kaleidoscopic novel deftly weaves crime with dynamics of race, class and religion in an explosion of utter originality.

'Big Machine' Churns Out A Twisting Collage Of Crime

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Wednesday

Through A Correspondent's Eyes: Revisiting Vietnam
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Review

Through A Correspondent's Eyes: Revisiting Vietnam

For journalists covering war, the story is what is happening on the ground. There often isn't time to reflect on the bigger picture. Author John Baxter reflects on one book that does look back on a war: reporter Michael Herr's Dispatches, a memoir of Herr's time in Vietnam.

Through A Correspondent's Eyes: Revisiting Vietnam

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Tuesday

You Must Read These Gleefully Deranged Stories

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Review

You Must Read These Gleefully Deranged Stories

Reading Kelly Link's writing isn't really like reading at all — it's more like experiencing the strangest dream of your life. Writer Karen Russell says the uncanny short stories are genre-bending, mind-blowing masterpieces of the imagination that draw on fable and myth to achieve an unbearably painful realism.

You Must Read These Gleefully Deranged Stories

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Monday

Saddle Up For A Wild Western Ride, L'Amour Style

Louis L'Amour authored 17 rugged Western novels about the gun-slinging Sackett clan. He died at age 80 in 1988. John Hamilton hide caption

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John Hamilton

Review

Saddle Up For A Wild Western Ride, L'Amour Style

The gun-slinging glory of Louis L'Amour Westerns might be romanticized past the point of reality, but not even American history scholar Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman can resist the pull of their ruggedly glamorous adventures that sweep across the Great Plains.

Saddle Up For A Wild Western Ride, L'Amour Style

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Wednesday

In Memory Of A Mentor: 'So Long,' William Maxwell

Novelist and editor William Maxwell died in 2000. He was 91 years old. Wyatt Counts/AP hide caption

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Wyatt Counts/AP

Review

In Memory Of A Mentor: 'So Long,' William Maxwell

As an aspiring writer, William Lychack was lucky enough to be mentored by his literary hero, longtime New Yorker editor, William Maxwell. Maxwell's novel, So Long, See You Tomorrow, is a meditation on loss and forgiveness; Lychack says every page is touched by care, like rooms of a beautiful house.

Monday

Review

Move Over, Tiger Mom: This Mother's 'On Fire'

If Amy Chua's tale of overachievement, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, left you looking for a different image of an Asian-American family, writer Ben Ryder Howe recommends Mother on Fire. Sandra Tsing Loh tells the story of her refreshingly "average" Asian-American family.

Move Over, Tiger Mom: This Mother's 'On Fire'

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Wednesday

Lit Novelist Confesses Nerd Love For Sci Fi Classic

Review

Lit Novelist Confesses Nerd Love For Sci Fi Classic

Karel Capek's The Absolute at Large demonstrates how weighty social satire can be slipped into genre fiction. Writer Cara Hoffman says the surrealist speculation in this 1920s sci-fi novel is so prescient, it feels like it could have been written today.

Lit Novelist Confesses Nerd Love For Sci Fi Classic

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Monday

Return To The Prairie To Revisit 'My Antonia'

Review

Return To The Prairie To Revisit 'My Antonia'

Willa Cather's pioneer tale is often considered a young adult novel — but don't be fooled by the deceptively simple prose. Writer Bradford Morrow says older readers who return to the subtly sophisticated narrative will find new perspectives on their own journeys.

Return To The Prairie To Revisit 'My Antonia'

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