A Woman of Substance
With her unforgettable heroine Emma Harte, Bradford popularized the rags-to-riches family saga. More
Cathy Glass
I have always been a writer. More
Angela’s Ashes
The phenomenal worldwide bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner. More
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
Memoir offering a haunting, harrowing look inside the cruel prison of locked-in syndrome. More
Jane Eyre
Brontë’s masterpiece of Gothic romance; a milestone title in the history of British feminist literature. 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
Our Town
Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; hailed by Edward Albee as “The finest play ever written by an American.” More
The Poisonwood Bible
Pulitzer Prize finalist and runaway bestseller. More
People of the Book
Winner of the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year 2008. More
The Stone Diaries
Winner of the 1993 Governor General’s Award (Canada) and the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. More
Lauren Weisberger
A book that influenced me and why . . . Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume was incredibly influential to me as a child. More
The Thorn Birds
McCullough’s sweeping family saga of forbidden love in the Australian outback; became a bestselling phenomenon. More
Blonde
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. More
The Corrections
Winner of the National Book Award in 2001 and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2002. More
Wolf Hall
Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. More
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
This 1972 Booker Prize–nominated novel was also made into a 1978 Australian film. More
Barbara Taylor Bradford
When I say I have the need to write, I do mean need. 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
Just Kids
Legendary artist Patti Smith’s critically acclaimed memoir; winner of the National Book Award. More
Matt Haig
It sounds ridiculous, but reading saved my life. More
Middlemarch
Ranked number one in a 2015 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British novels. More
Bring Up the Bodies
Winner of the Man Booker Prize and the first to win as a sequel. More
One Hundred Years of Solitude
This landmark of magical realism sparked a wave of interest in Central and South American literature. More
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of fate, tragedy, and the meaning of the human condition. More
Their Eyes Were Watching God
One of the most widely read and acclaimed novels in the canon of African-American literature. More
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece, and winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. More
Mary Karr
I read to save my life, to take communion, to enter a community of fellow sufferers and rejoicers. More
