 When you're a grownup, you read what you want to--not what you have to. But where do you start? With our Grownup School expert reading lists, you can understand counterinsurgency strategy with Fiasco author Thomas Ricks, let master paper engineers Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda choose their favorite pop-up books, get baby shower gift advice from board-book superstar Karen Katz, find the best books on topics in the news like Iran and New Orleans, and much more. In Grownup School, there are no tests, no deadlines, and nobody takes attendance. Just expert reading selections from the people who know best: the authors themselves. James Frey on Los Angeles
In James Frey's first novel, Bright Shiny Morning, the city of Los Angeles is as much a character as any of the dreamers whose parallel lives his story follows. And while LA is the home of the movies, Frey is only the latest in a distinguished line of writers who have tried to unearth its secrets with words, and he has selected a dozen favorites from that tradition, including famous pioneers Raymond Chandler and John Fante and modern masters James Ellroy and Bruce Wagner, as well as Ken Nunn, author of "the first, and maybe only, truly great surfing novel." ›See James Frey's 12 Books to Read on Los Angeles Alex Ross on 20th Century Music
From his helm as the classical music critic at The New Yorker, Alex Ross has quickly become the freshest and most admired writer on a subject whose death is regularly (and incorrectly) reported, and his first book, The Rest Is Noise, tells a thrillingly lively story of classical music meeting the modern age, sweeping from Strauss and Mahler to John Adams and the Velvet Underground. It's a wonderful pairing of words and music, and for us he has chosen some of each: his 10 favorite books on 20th century music and his top 10 20th century classical recordings. ›See Alex Ross's Top 10s in 20th Century Classical Music Jerome Groopman on Medicine Midway through his career as a leading AIDS and cancer researcher, Dr. Jerome Groopman added " New Yorker staff writer" to his impressive resume, writing elegant and humane essays and books about the practice of medicine. His latest book, How Doctors Think, reads like a culmination of that work, an incisive, open, and modest look at how doctors make mistakes, and how they often get things right. His list for us of the 10 books to read on medicine share his rare ability to translate the often cloistered world of medicine into understandable human terms. ›See Jerome Groopman's 10 books to read on medicine Paulo Coelho on South American Books for North Americans
Over the past 20 years, Brazil's Paulo Coelho has become perhaps the world's most popular author--although J.K. Rowling might beg to differ--with his fable The Alchemist alone selling over 30 million copies and his other books, including his latest novel, The Witch of Portobello, becoming immediate worldwide bestsellers. Since many of his North American readers may have read few other books by South Americans, we asked him to recommend his favorite books from his continent, including familiar names like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Che Guevara as well as less familiar names (to American readers) like Mario Benedetti and Fernando Morais. ›See Paulo Coelho's 12 South American Books for North Americans Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda on Pop-Up Books In an eye-opening series of collaborations and solo projects, master paper craftsmen Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda have almost single-handedly (double-handedly?) changed the pop-up book from kiddie novelty to grownup obsession. With the same sense of wonder that animates their own creations, they choose their 10 favorite 3D books by their fellow paper engineers. ›See Reinhart and Sabuda's 10 Pop-Up Books to Open Thomas E. Ricks on Non-Iraq Iraq Books Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks has used his extensive military sources and his wide knowledge of military history to write the most thorough and devastating account of the war in Iraq yet, Fiasco. Perhaps the gravest military mistake he cites in the war has been a strategic misunderstanding of the Iraqi insurgency and how to fight it, so he has provided for us his list of the 10 books not about Iraq he found most useful for understanding the war there, which amount to a short education in counterinsurgencies, successful and not, from the Philippines through Vietnam. ›See Thomas Ricks's 10 Non-Iraq Iraq Books Daniel Mendelsohn on Novels of Families and Jewish History Daniel Mendelsohn's powerful new book, The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million, is part memoir, part history, part detective story, and part Talmudic meditation. His list of, as calls it, 10 Great Novels of Family History, the Holocaust, New York Jewish Life (And Other Things That Helped Me Write My Book) is equally difficult to classify, but any list that includes Buddenbrooks and W.G. Sebald makes us want to read further. ›See Daniel Mendelsohn's 10 Novels on Families and Jewish History Deepak Chopra on Buddha
Deepak Chopra has long been one of the most popular translators of Eastern ideas of health and spiritual wellbeing for Western readers, and his latest book, Buddha, is a fictional retelling of the life of perhaps the most influential Eastern figure for the West: the Indian prince Siddhartha, who became the enlightened one, the Buddha. For those looking to read further on Buddha's life and teachings, he has chosen 10 books to read on Buddha, many of which emphasize the common messages Buddhism shares with the world's other great spiritual movements. ›See Deepak Chopra's 10 Books to Read on Buddha Josh Ritter on Audiobooks Josh Ritter's fourth record, Animal Years, finished high on Best of 2006 lists everywhere from the Washington Post to Entertainment Weekly, where Stephen King named Animal Years his favorite record of the year. Fittingly for someone who can count many writers as fans, he's a book lover too, audiobooks in particular, which he devours on tour and on his marathon training runs. He took time out from his busy touring schedule to recommend eight of his favorite books for listening. ›See Josh Ritter's Top Eight Audiobooks |
Annie Leibovitz on Photography Books
In Annie Leibovitz at Work, the most celebrated photographer of our time describes how her pictures were made, from Richard Nixon's resignation to Barack Obama's campaign, with the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Queen Elizabeth, and more in between. Read Annie Leibovitz's list of her 15 favorite photography books, from The Americans to Full Moon.
Scott McCloud on American Comics With books like his recent Making Comics, Scott McCloud has made understanding how comics work as fun and enlightening as reading them. His list of the 10 American comics to read includes some of the most exciting books of any kind in recent years, from Maus to Fun Home. Rory Stewart on Travel Rory Stewart's first two books, The Places in Between and The Prince of the Marshes, are stunning models of the best that travel narratives can be: curious, level-headed, stylish, and heedlessly courageous, and he's chosen his favorites among the travelers' tales that have come before him. Philippa Gregory on Tudor England In her wildly popular historical novels, Philippa Gregory has worked her way backwards to the 16th century, most recently in The Boleyn Inheritance. Her Tudor library selects the best books to read on one of England's most tumultuous epochs. Susan Cheever on the American Renaissance In American Bloomsbury, Susan Cheever breathes life back into the familiar figures of Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau, and others who made up the most fertile and influential movement in American literary history. She has chosen for us the 10 best books to read on their brilliant circle. |
There was no such thing as a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature until the Librarian of Congress created the position and gave Jon Sciezka the job. Probably because he had already been doing it for years, as the elementary-school-teacher-turned-author of such classics as 
Marisha Pessl's first novel, 
Our editors chose Aryn Kyle's debut novel, 