J. Courtney Sullivan's Reading List

"For pleasure, there’s “Nothing Daunted,” by Dorothy Wickenden"

"Kate Atkinson’s “Started Early, Took My Dog”"

"Susan Orlean’s “Rin Tin Tin.”"

"“The Last of Her Kind,” by Sigrid Nunez."

"Some of the ones I push on people most frequently are: “The Woman at the Washington Zoo,” by Marjorie Williams"

"“Truth and Beauty,” by Ann Patchett"

"“Liars and Saints,” by Maile Meloy"

"perhaps my all-time favorite novel, “A Thousand Acres,” by Jane Smiley."

"When I first read “Bleak House” in college, I was blown away by Dickens’s ability to create an entire world on the page. That novel has everything"

"When I was 8, I fell madly in love with Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” An only child at the time, I romanticized life among the March sisters and wished I could be one of them."

"I also adored “The Secret Garden.”"

"I also adored “The Secret Garden.” “Anne of Green Gables.”"

"“Tuck Everlasting.”"

"“Stuart Little.”"

"I read “Love in the Time of Cholera” when I was 19, and I still think about the characters."

"I think of that first, arresting chapter of Ian McEwan’s “Enduring Love,” the best first chapter of any book ever, in my opinion."

"She mentioned that each time she starts writing a book, she rereads Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.”"

"My go-to book of this sort has always been Anne Lamott’s wonderful “Bird by Bird.”"