Now Reading: Houston Edition
By Nick Esquer Photography by Audra Oden January 5, 2016 Published in the January 2016 issue of Houstonia Magazine
David Berg, Houston lawyer and author of Run, Brother, Run, a 2014 memoir about his brother’s murder
"Five years ago, I decided to read every book I’d been assigned in college and hadn’t read, so I have just begun reading Moby-Dick and recently finished Anna Karenina (in truth, wishing she’d thrown herself under a train three chapters before)."
ReShonda Tate Billingsley, author of 35 books including the novel Mama’s Boy (2015) and cofounder of browngirlspublishing.com
"Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith."
Robert Boswell, University of Houston creative writing professor and author of Tumbledown (2013)
"Charles Baxter’s new book There’s Something I Want You to Do, a strange and beautifully written work of fiction about a group of loosely connected characters who form a ring of interdependence, even though most are barely acquainted with one another."
Justin Cronin, author of four novels including The Passage (2010) and The Twelve (’12), the first two installments of a vampire trilogy
"I am currently reading a collection of travel essays by the magnificent prose stylist James Salter, There and Then. Next up: Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies."
Jennifer Mathieu, English teacher at Awty International and author of young-adult novels The Truth About Alice (2014) and Devoted (’15)
"My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem, Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon, Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Peyton Place by Grace Metalious."
Rene Steinke, author of 2015 novel Friendswood, where the Brooklyn-based author was raised
"I’m reading the amazing fourth [Elena] Ferrante book, The Story of the Lost Child and just finished Maud Casey’s The Man Who Walked Away and also the nonfiction books Midnight in Mexico and And Hell Followed With Her (on the Texas/Mexico border, research for my new novel)."
Katherine Center, author of five novels including Happiness for Beginners (2015)
"I have a kind of slowly rotating pile of about 30 books on my nightstand at all times! But I’ve just finished a very compelling nonfiction read by scientist Helen Fisher called Why We Love, and I’m just about to start Kate Morton’s novel The Lake House."
