Sa Cosby's Reading List

""The Passenger" is classic McCarthy: inventive, insightful and sometimes surreal."

""Everybody Knows," by Jordan Harper. It's an instant classic, a harrowing trip through the Day-Glo Technicolor Hades that is Los Angeles, and a thoughtful examination of the price of fame and power."

"I can't say why I waited so long to read them, but I'm glad I've read them now at this time in my life. I think I understand them better than I would have at, say, 19."

"I can't say why I waited so long to read them, but I'm glad I've read them now at this time in my life."

"I can't say why I waited so long to read them, but I'm glad I've read them now at this time in my life. I think I understand them better than I would have at, say, 19."

"Early morning, on my back deck, rereading the signed, weathered paperback of "Darkness, Take My Hand," by Dennis Lehane."

"Not enough people have heard of two books set in the mid-1900s: "The Real Cool Killers," by Chester Himes, and "Provinces of Night," by William Gay. They're very different — the former takes place in Harlem and the latter in rural Tennessee — but both are snapshots of a particular moment in American history by underrated masters."

""Provinces of Night," by William Gay... a snapshot of a particular moment in American history by underrated masters."

""The Big Sleep," by Raymond Chandler, "The Chill," by Ross Macdonald, "The Maltese Falcon," by Dashiell Hammett, "Devil in a Blue Dress," by Walter Mosley, and "The Hound of the Baskervilles," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I read these at an early age and they have had a profound effect on me."

""The Big Sleep," by Raymond Chandler, "The Chill," by Ross Macdonald, "The Maltese Falcon," by Dashiell Hammett, "Devil in a Blue Dress," by Walter Mosley... I read these at an early age and they have had a profound effect on me."

""The Maltese Falcon," by Dashiell Hammett... I read these at an early age and they have had a profound effect on me."

""Devil in a Blue Dress," by Walter Mosley... I read these at an early age and they have had a profound effect on me."

""The Hound of the Baskervilles," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I read these at an early age and they have had a profound effect on me."

""'Salem's Lot," by Stephen King, is still undefeated. For me, it's pound for pound the most frightening book I've ever read. King has the innate ability to tap into the most visceral human fears, within the most mundane situations."

""An American Marriage," by Tayari Jones. I don't think people think I read love stories or romance novels"

"I've always wanted to write a surrealist novel like "A Confederacy of Dunces," by John Kennedy Toole, something that looks at the absolute absurdity of life."

"I'm waiting with bated breath for the new Jesmyn Ward book, "Let Us Descend." She is one of our most brilliant minds and one of the greatest writers of our generation."

"The book that made me want to be a writer was—again, too young, shouldn’t have been reading it— Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. I read it and it made me realize, up until then I had been a fan of all kinds of mystery, horror, and sci-fi, and they were all white writers. You know: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers, and all of that. And Ellery Queen (I love Ellery Queen). But reading Devil in a B..."