Why am I passionate about this?

Born into a powerfully matrilineal family (my mother chose my name when she was twelve) in small town Appalachia, I believe that we inherit our parents’ unresolved emotional dilemmas as well as their physical characteristics, and that the sensual elements of places our families may have inhabited for generations are “bred in the bone.” I’ve always said that history tells us the facts, but literature tells us the story. I’m a language-conscious writer who began as a poet, so that each line has a beat and a rhythm. Words awaken our memories and the powerful unconscious knowledge we all possess. The reader meets the writer inside the story: it’s a connection of mind and heart. 


I wrote

Book cover of Night Watch

What is my book about?

In 1874, in the wake of the Civil War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers.…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

Jayne Anne Phillips Why did I love this book?

A National Book Award winner, this amazing book by a Black historian traces the life of a single object—a cotton sack dating to the 1850s, given by an enslaved woman named Rose to her daughter Ashley—handed down through three generations of women whose lives unfold within the continuous every day “war” of slavery and opppression. 

Mothers and daughters, whose bonds survive Civil War and a peace that does not free them, defy separation and continue against all odds. All That She Carried, among all the books I read as research for my Civil War-era novel, stands out for its imaginative sweep and its fidelity to history.

By Tiya Miles,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked All That She Carried as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

'A remarkable book' - Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times
'A brilliant exercise in historical excavation and recovery' - Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello
'A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness' - Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States

In 1850s South Carolina, Rose, an enslaved woman, faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few items. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was…


Book cover of Waltzing with the Dragons

Jayne Anne Phillips Why did I love this book?

I loved Waltzing With The Dragons for its autobiographical sense of history and description of mother/daughter bonds that are truly universal. 

The story begins in 1922 with Ly, the daughter of one of the last Mandarins in north Vietnam, who flees an arranged marriage at thirteen to stay with her father’s friends, a French couple, and lives through the WWII Japanese occupation, finally fleeing to the South where she falls in love with a French Army doctor and gives birth to a daughter, Mai-Tam, in 1952. 

Mai-Tam, who is Eurasian and never feels she belongs, grows up in the shadow of the American-Vietnam war. The novel ends in 1967, preserving a mother-daughter kinship that sustains migration and separation. 

By Juliette Mai Triozon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Waltzing with the Dragons as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Waltzing with the Dragons is the true story of a Vietnamese woman and her Eurasian daughter.Born in 1922 in the north of Vietnam, under French colonial rule, Ly was the daughter of one of the last Mandarins, a childhood friend of Ho Chi Minh. After she rebelled against her family, by refusing an arranged marriage at thirteen, she was sent to live with her father’s best friends, a French couple. It was the beginning of a life-long love affair with French culture and lifestyle. At seventeen, she married a French army officer who, shortly there after, was killed in action.…


Book cover of The Postcard

Jayne Anne Phillips Why did I love this book?

An amazing imaginative blend of nonfiction and reportage, The Postcard sets a mystery in motion.

In 2003, with the rest of the Christmas holiday mail, a postcard arrives at the Paris home of Annie Berest. The card is blank but for the names of her maternal great-grandparents and their two children – all killed at Auschwitz. 

Fifteen years later, Annie and her chain-smoking mother embark on a journey: discovering the fates of the Rabinovitch family who flee the Russian revolution for Latvia, Palestine, and Paris. Annie and her mother discover secrets that shatter the present; mother and daughter question the past and accept a new reality in their own distinct ways. 

I loved both the mystery revealed and the unshakable resolve of these women, who spent years finding the truth.

By Anne Berest, Tina Kover (translator),

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Postcard as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Choix Goncourt Prize, Anne Berest’s The Postcard is a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, an enthralling investigation into family secrets, and poignant tale of a Jewish family devastated by the Holocaust and partly restored through the power of storytelling.

January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.

Fifteen years after…


Book cover of Little Women

Jayne Anne Phillips Why did I love this book?

Many of us remember when we first read Little Women, the classic wartime story of four sisters raised by their wise Marmee while their absent father ministers to Civil War soldiers. 

Everyone knows of Little Women, but how recently have you read it? Adults read differently than children or teens, and this annotated version gives us the specifics of the time and the factual background of Louisa May Alcott’s struggle to write and to find a publisher. Her mother’s fortitude had much to do with “Jo’s” strength and persistence.

Context comes alive, thanks to the additions to the text, with an excellent Introduction by Anne Boyd Rious and a Foreword by Patti Smith.  

By Louisa May Alcott,

Why should I read it?

19 authors picked Little Women as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

Louisa May Alcott shares the innocence of girlhood in this classic coming of age story about four sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy are responsible for keeping a home while their father is off to war. At the same time, they must come to terms with their individual personalities-and make the transition from girlhood to womanhood. It can all be quite a challenge. But the March sisters, however different, are nurtured by their wise and beloved Marmee, bound by their love for each other and the feminine…


Book cover of The Shadow King

Jayne Anne Phillips Why did I love this book?

A nominee for the 2020 Booker Prize, The Shadow King opens at the end of WWII as Italy prepares to invade almost undefended Ethopia, whose communications depend on long-distance runners. 

Orphaned Hirut feels her mother’s absence, yet rises from a lowly maid to a position of power as she inspires other women to openly and secretly resist an overwhelming colonial power. This matrilineal story set in a patriarchial society at war has many interwoven tales. I found it captivating, and the focus on relationships between women at war was a fractured mirror of my own concerns as I completed my novel set during America’s Civil War

By Maaza Mengiste,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Shadow King as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Set during Mussolini's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, The Shadow King takes us back to the first real conflict of World War II, casting light on the women soldiers who were left out of the historical record. At its heart is orphaned maid Hirut, who finds herself tumbling into a new world of thefts and violations, of betrayals and overwhelming rage. What follows is a heartrending and unputdownable exploration of what it means to be a woman at war.


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of Night Watch

What is my book about?

In 1874, in the wake of the Civil War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their lives. There, far from their mountain home, they try to reclaim their lives. Third in a trilogy of war novels that includes Machine Dreams and Lark and Termite, Jayne Anne Phillips’ Night Watch is a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.

Book cover of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Book cover of Waltzing with the Dragons
Book cover of The Postcard

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,450

readers submitted
so far, will you?

You might also like...

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Ad
Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Mimi's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.


By Mimi Zieman,

Why should I read it?

26 authors picked Tap Dancing on Everest as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in exile, slaves, and New England?

Exile 23 books
Slaves 106 books
New England 113 books