Dan Harris

I used to read to lead a lot of fiction, mostly for the escape—to be transported to other places and times. More

Room

Winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize regional prize; made into a major motion picture. More

The Alchemist

An inspirational phenomenon; one of the bestselling books in history. More

Pilgrim

A finalist for the Giller Prize and a Canadian bestseller that surpassed the author’s own impressive sales records. More

Anthony Doerr

We are all mapmakers: We embed our memories everywhere, inscribing a private and intensely complicated latticework across the landscape. More

Bel Canto

Patchett’s critically acclaimed novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. More

Tales of the City

First book in Maupin’s acclaimed and groundbreaking series documenting San Francisco’s underground and gay culture. More

Michael Chabon

The first writer that I really fell in love with was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in particular his Sherlock Holmes stories, and the first story that I ever wrote was a Sherlock Holmes story. More

Blonde

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. More

Hilary Mantel

I read out of hope and avid curiosity, and in an attempt to live in other times, and inhabit bodies that are not my own. More

The Corrections

Winner of the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. More

The Thorn Birds

McCullough’s sweeping family saga of forbidden love in the Australian outback; became a bestselling phenomenon. More

Wolf Hall

Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. More