Patrick Radden Keefe's Reading List

""Vladimir," by Julia May Jonas (which I finished! So good)"

"My colleague Rachel Aviv has written a brilliant book, "Strangers to Ourselves," which is about how we categorize certain psychological afflictions."

"Evan Hughes recently published a book called "The Hard Sell," which is a pacey crime caper set against the backdrop of the opioid crisis. When I tell you that reading "The Hard Sell" is like watching a Scorsese film, you will assume I am exaggerating. Pick it up and tell me I'm wrong."

"I have been reading, and very much enjoying, "Memento Mori," by Muriel Spark"

"I have been reading, and very much enjoying, "Memento Mori," by Muriel Spark, and "A Time of Gifts," by Patrick Leigh Fermor."

"One that left a strong impression was "The Magic Pudding," by Norman Lindsay, which was published in 1918 and concerns a koala named Bunyip Bluegum"

"I adore Jill Leovy's book "Ghettoside""

"I love the droll cynicism of Highsmith, Donna Tartt's "The Secret History," almost anything by Richard Price."

"I read Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent" as a first-year law student studying criminal law, and it remains my favorite legal thriller."

""Monster," by John Gregory Dunne, is a favorite, about the war of attrition by studio note that turned a gritty script he and Joan Didion wrote on the life and death of a TV anchorwoman into the schmaltzy romantic comedy "Up Close and Personal.""