Cynthia Daprix Sweeney's Reading List

"the masterly "Pachinko," by Min Jin Lee"

"Maggie O'Farrell's gorgeous meditation on desire, grief and art. I fell into the world of that book every day like a stone dropping into a well."

"Carmen Maria Machado's "In the Dream House," which has stayed with me the way few books do. I've returned to it again and again."

"Suddenly, magically, on the morning of Jan. 20, all this space in my brain freed up and I was able to settle right back in. I decided to read a few chapters every morning before I did anything else."

"I always have a few on hand to give to people who 'don't like the word feminist.'"

"I'm grateful I read "Mrs. Dalloway" around the time I turned 40. I don't think it would have burrowed into my heart the way it did if I'd read it when I was younger."

"A truly comic novel about love and the despair of depression. It's a rare and beautiful thing when an author can break your heart with humor."

""Mrs. Bridge," by Evan S. Connell is probably my favorite book on marriage."

"While writing my latest book, I kept going back to Penelope Lively's "The Photograph," a brilliantly structured book about marriage, friendship, betrayal, secrets — all my favorite things."

"Nora Ephron's "Heartburn" (funny, heartbreaking, I bow down)."

""Charlotte's Web" cemented my lifelong love of E. B. White."

"I adored all of L. M. Montgomery. "Little Women." "The Secret Garden." "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.""