Making Bookends Meet

When I graduated from college, my mom gave me bookends in the shapes of globes, with the inspiring instruction to fill the space between those two worlds with books that I would write. I've also filled that space with books that have had a big impact on me, as a writer and just generally as a person, including Alice Munro, a magician with her stories' subtle tricks of human nature; Margaret Atwood, with her mastery of structure and lovely ambiguous finishes like mysterious grand houses; Dorothy Parker's poetry, barbed enough to keep you stuck for days; Keri Hulme's immersive sense of place that transports you like a jet plane; and Thomas Pynchon's dizzying wild tangents, a high-wire act matched by Colum McCann's LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN.

If you are looking for good fiction reads in 2019, I recommend all of these titles. And don't worry Mom - with the latest release of BEAUTY MARKS, I now have three of my own books to add...