Why am I passionate about this?

I am fascinated by first-person points of view. In writing plays and screenplays, I couldn’t write the inner thoughts of my characters. Now, in novels and short stories, I do that almost exclusively, even if the stories contain multiple narrators. I love the Unreliable Narrator—whether it is someone too young to understand what they are witnessing, someone who is in denial, or mentally ill, or a non-human experiencing the world in an odd way—the discrepancy between their view and mine delights me. I love discovering all those inner thoughts, fears, anxieties, and desires. These first-person stories let me into another’s experience and allow me to empathize with a whole new perspective.  


I wrote

Book cover of Thar She Blows

What is my book about?

Caught in a redundant housewife existence, Ann never leaves her beige suburban home, her schlubby do-nothing son Brian is directionless…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Susan Emshwiller Why did I love this book?

This stunning book puts me in the head of a young boy with a neurodivergent way of seeing the world. I picked up this book before a cross-country flight and couldn’t stand that we landed, and I would have to stop reading for the drive home.

It immersed me in Christopher’s dilemma of trying to make sense of people. The most trivial things become massive. I was hurtled along with him for a harrowing, incredible journey. Profoundly moving!

By Mark Haddon,

Why should I read it?

24 authors picked The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year

'Outstanding...a stunningly good read' Observer

'Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement... Wise and bleakly funny' Ian McEwan

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the…


Book cover of Ellen Foster

Susan Emshwiller Why did I love this book?

I was profoundly moved by this painful-redemptive story of a young girl navigating her dysfunctional family. To discover the world through her thoughts plunged me into a frighting life of loss and danger and confusion. Yet it is the voice of this character that attracts me with her fierceness and determination.

I was stunned by the writing and had to pause and re-read parts to get the incredible revelations subtly slid into sentences. Ellen Foster is an unforgettable character. 

By Kaye Gibbons,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Ellen Foster as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Filled with lively humor, compassion, and intimacy."
—Alice Hoffman, The New York Times Book Review

"When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." With that opening sentence we enter the childhood world of one of the most appealing young heroines in contemporary fiction. Her courage, her humor, and her wisdom are unforgettable as she tells her own story with stunning honesty and insight. An Oprah Book Club selection, this powerful novel has become an American classic.

Winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the Ernest Hemingway…


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Book cover of The Truth About Unringing Phones

The Truth About Unringing Phones by Lara Lillibridge,

When Lara was four years old, her father moved from Rochester, New York, to Anchorage, Alaska, a distance of over 4,000 miles. She spent her childhood chasing after him, flying a quarter of the way around the world to tug at the hem of his jacket.

Now that he is…

Book cover of Life Without Water

Susan Emshwiller Why did I love this book?

This book immersed me in a ramshackle house, a group of hippies, the smell of bread, the feel of weeds, and the sounds of fighting— through the eyes and heart of Cedar, a young girl.

All the confusion of growing up play out in her unique home life. The writing, through her point-of-view, is truly magical. I kept jotting down incredible phrases as I read and identified with all the longing, anger, loving, and coming-of-age-pains this child experiences.

By Nancy Peacock,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Life Without Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the kind of book that you read, love and then give to a friend saying, "You have to read this...

In a powerful and acute debut, highly acclaimed author Nancy Peacock gives us a young narrator who is both knowing and innocent, trusting and fearful: a girl named Cedar, who reflects on her childhood in the wake of the Vietnam war. As she and her young mother Sara both come of age, Cedar explores the intense bond--and discovers the boundaries--of their mother-daughter relationship. Living as hippies in an abandoned farmhouse in North Carolina, Sara and Cedar survive a…


Book cover of The Night of the Comet

Susan Emshwiller Why did I love this book?

I was riveted by this slow burn of a book. Learning about this family’s dynamics through the eyes of a young teenage boy brought me into a world of desire and unfulfilled dreams.

I found the story building upon itself—a look, a word, a disappointment—until the crescendo brought me to tears. It captures both the craving for life of this adolescent and the disillusionment of the life of his parents. 

By George Bishop,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Night of the Comet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A KIRKUS REVIEWS "BEST BOOKS OF 2013"
 
NEW YORK POST "REQUIRED READING"
 
PEOPLE MAGAZINE STARRED REVIEW
 
From the acclaimed author of Letter to My Daughter comes an engrossing coming-of-age tale that deftly conveys the hopes and heartaches of adolescence, and the unfulfilled dreams that divide a family, played out against the backdrop of a small southern town in 1973.
 
For his fourteenth birthday, Alan Broussard, Jr., receives a telescope from his father, a science teacher at the local high school who's anxiously awaiting what he promises will be the astronomical event of the century: the coming of Comet Kohoutek. For…


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Book cover of The Hunt for the Peggy C: A World War II Maritime Thriller

The Hunt for the Peggy C by John Winn Miller,

The Hunt for the Peggy C is best described as Casablanca meets Das Boot. It is about an American smuggler who struggles to rescue a Jewish family on his rusty cargo ship, outraging his mutinous crew of misfits and provoking a hair-raising chase by a brutal Nazi U-boat captain…

Book cover of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Susan Emshwiller Why did I love this book?

I was stunned by this book. So much is unexpected as we follow Rosemary in trying to make sense of her very unusual upbringing. I was laughing and crying and furious following the heartbreaking story of the sisters.

This book explores things I wouldn’t have suspected I could find interesting— but Wow! I was wrong. The journey of this narrator is unforgettable.

By Karen Joy Fowler,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
 
Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I was raised with a chimpanzee,” she explains. “I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion...she was my twin, my funhouse…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Thar She Blows

What is my book about?

Caught in a redundant housewife existence, Ann never leaves her beige suburban home, her schlubby do-nothing son Brian is directionless after graduating high school, and it looks like nothing will ever change. But when Brian is swallowed by a whale, and Ann receives a garbled phone call from him, she is determined to find that monstrous beast and rescue her son. Experts, her ex, the press - everyone thinks she's crazy, but she's committed to her worthy quest.

Both Brian and Ann battle their skeptical inner voices in an inspiring journey of self-discovery, reinvention, survival, and sacrifice. As mother and son face epic adventures, they encounter unlikely allies from across the globe and might just find each other. Yet the ultimate danger is closing in...

Book cover of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Book cover of Ellen Foster
Book cover of Life Without Water

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