Last week I was featured in "Shelf Awareness" in their "Book Brahmins" section. I was honored to be asked. Here are my replies:
From "Shelf Awareness" 1/18/08
Book Brahmins: Stanley
Here he answers questions we put to people in the industry:
On your nightstand now (it's a big nightstand!):
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
A Faith Worth Believing by Tom Stella
A Book of Hours by Thomas Merton, edited by Kathleen Deignan
I'm Looking Through You by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee
Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
The Big Book of Sudoku #1 by Mark Huckvale
NYT Crossword Puzzles by Will Shortz
Favorite book when you were a child:
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson was the first novel I read, and I have been in love with pirates ever since.
Your top five authors:
In order of discovering them: Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Connor, James Baldwin, Mary Oliver, Anne Lamott
Book you've faked reading:
For years I faked reading The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton and finally read it last year. What a mistake it was to put that off for so long.
Book you are an evangelist for:
Birds in Fall by Brad Kessler touched me deeply and continues to resonate with me. I can still recall the feeling of sitting on the couch, curled up with these characters and sharing their experiences.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong has a gorgeous cover and the book was equally as sumptuous. I borrowed it, read it, loved it and bought the hardcover. This is one of my top 10 books to recommend.
Book that changed your life:
Another Country by James Baldwin opened my eyes to a way of being in relationship with others. I read this when I was 32 and just coming out. There's a moment when one character is in need and another comes to his aid. When the former says he may never be able to pay him back, he's told that there will be a time when he will be able to help someone else the way he is being helped.
Favorite line from a book:
"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over announcing your place in the family of things." From "Wild Geese'" by Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol 1.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. I had recommended this book so many times before finally reading it. Once I read it, I was blown away by the power of his story. I knew it. I've read many of Merton's later books. But savoring this for the first time was more than I expected and even moved me to tears.
Unexpected joy:
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar was a book I was sure to dislike but found myself laughing out loud. Now I offer it as medicine to folks who need a good laugh.
Survey anxiety:
Narrowing things down to just one book or five authors is a challenge for me. I find that certain authors and books speak to me at different times in my life. I am ever grateful to Jack Kornfield for A Path With Heart for providing a needed balance in my spiritual practice. I will always remember the first time I read "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver and no longer felt alone in the world. That's why I'm a bookseller. Not to sell books but to offer words of hope and healing. That's what Brad Kessler, Mary Oliver, Thomas Merton, James Baldwin, Walt Whitman do for me.
And where would I be without my OED (the new shorter edition)? David Budbill, Henri Nouwen, Robert Rodi, Stephen McCauley, Armistead Maupin? Oh the pressure you put on me to narrow things down. No wonder my apartment is bursting at the seams with books!
