Book Recommendations from Our Former Guest Editors

Margot Livesey recommends Hungry Ghost Theater by Sarah Stone (WTAW Press, 2018). “I loved this richly imagined, deeply inventive, politically engaged novel about three generations of a family and how they act out, both onstage and in the streets, their pain, fear, and dismay at the state of the world. I reached the last page, sadly, convinced that I’d seen these plays, or was just about to. A book of many marvels and delights.”


Robert Pinsky recommends The Friend: A Novel by Sigrid Nunez (Riverhead Books, 2018). “Moving and funny, quick and unpredictable, lucid and mysterious, The Friend absorbed me as the very best fiction does: toward the end, aware that the emotion was building, I was already beginning to feel regret that I would be finishing this novel—though it is worth re-reading for, among other things, memorable and funny insights into the teaching of creative writing, as well as respectful wisdom about dogs, and a particular dog.”


Dan Wakefield recommends Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret Life of L.A. by Lili Anolik (Simon & Schuster, 2019). “An admiring appreciative gaze at the woman who makes Didion’s defense of the place seem pale in comparison. All the Eve books are back in print and deserve to be.”