Joe Ide's Reading List

"In 1816, the celebrated poet, London's Lord Byron, challenged his houseguests to write a ghost story. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin wrote "Frankenstein" when she was 18 years old. Shelley's orphan was far from the oft-seen lumbering brute."

"Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" and Delia Owens's "Where the Crawdads Sing" were both very commercial and very literary."

"Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" and Delia Owens's "Where the Crawdads Sing" were both very commercial and very literary."

"I happened to be rereading "Devil in the Blue Dress." Mosley was writing about my neighborhood, my experiences, and the people that I knew. In a way, he gave me permission to write "IQ.""

"Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Louise Fletcher's performance made me wary of nurses and white uniforms for years after I saw the movie."