This was wonderful! So often the authors in "By the Book" seem like they're in competition with one another to see who can be the most precious and florid. This, however, reads like a fun conversation with your really, really smart best friend. What a breath of fresh air! Also, I completely relate to the ongoing connection to the novels read ad infinitim as a kid; I can recite whole paragraphs of my favorite "YA" books by heart, but I can't tell you what I had for breakfast this morning.
Looking forward to reading Ms. Tolentino's book!
10
As a "grown up" who never stopped reading Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction and doesn't care for "grown up" books, I find books for adults to be prurient, all sex and violence.
Yuck.
There is SO MUCH awesome YA fiction out these days and not as much of me (and fewer $$) available to read and buy books. I certainly have less time to write.
5
As someone who is very proud of, at the age of 16, to have slashed my way through Jane Eyre using a dictionary as a machete, I am just astounded and bewildered every time I read this column. I feel like I must have been dropped on my head as an infant and no one told me. I am hoping in my next life to be as intellectual! But until then, I will vicariously live through these fine author's musings about the books they read. I do enjoy it, thanks for a great interview!
17
@C. Bernard. This is for you, C. Bernard, re your pride over finishing Jane Eyre as an explorer of Brontë's thicket of writing -- I read it for the first time only a couple of years ago and found myself rereading whole pages because of the magnificent strings of precise words, the sustained logic of dialogue over multiple paragraphs, the head-twisting brilliance of her English for hundreds of pages. Then, to knock me flat, I kept reminding myself she wrote all this while still in her 20's. As a professor of 20-somethings, it was no longer a mystery why the book endures. Yes, we learn so much from smart authors...and Jia Tolentino is one of them.
9
Gonna get everything she recommends, as well as her own book, of course. This gal is on fire.
15
Thank you for this great interview! I have my phone out with my library app putting lots of her suggestions on hold.
I love that she called the interviewer out on this: Do you prefer books that reach you emotionally, or intellectually? “I’m not sure that I’ve ever had a purely emotional or purely intellectual reaction to anything, let alone to anything I was reading.” So true, so true.
12
Hi Jia! You're so refreshing. I came across your name from the NYTimes books list for August including "Trick Mirror". I thought to myself, gotta be Filipino. Googled, and sure enough! I'm Filipino-American myself (with a sister named Geia!... pronounced the same way you do yours, I'm sure). I feel a kinship with you for this reason and the fact that you celebrate children's books from an older perspective. I myself am in my mid-30s but still appreciate the books I read as a fledgling as some of my heart's treasures for the exact same attributes you mention: economy, lucidity, grace. How true! I've re-read the Westing Game a couple of times. A Wrinkle in Time is one of my all-time faves. And now you've made me want to go home and curl up with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn again! They all possess a certain something missing from the books I read now. I thought it was just me, but now I am encouraged by your sanction to embrace my inner child and my love of these books. Thanks!
PS. I was floored when you referenced Farmer Boy. What a joy that was, blast from the sweet past. :)
14
Lovely interview. I am glad to hear Jia champion children's books. I was so sad when our kids no longer wanted to be read to. But, I stayed tapped into their literature and discovered the joys of older children's YA novels. There is beautiful writing in that genre.
16
@gopher1 Yes, yes, yes! In junior high my daughter would ask me to read what she was assigned so she could talk about them without it being "work." I have never stopped, because there is so, so, so much good children's/middle grade/YA literature happening. Tolentino's recommendation of "When You Reach Me," made me jump, as it is a favorite of mine.
9
This is really insightful and comprehensive—it's inspiring me to build out my reading list with unexpected and unexplored authors and genres. One of the best By the Books I've read recently. Thank you for this! I wonder if the NYTimes does / could do this for music as well? By the Song, perhaps. It's so impressive how this author has a visceral and lifelong connection to the many works she's read and that have shaped her over the years, and I know many musicians would love to give a similar narrative and litany of suggested listenings based on their personal experiences and artistic journeys. I think many readers would enjoy this, and it would inspire people not as well-versed in music to discover new artists and songs, as this has inspired me to discover new authors and books.
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@Mimi R. I love that idea! NY Times, are you listening?
16
Thanks for printing this! I have been reading Young Adult fiction for awhile (I'm not young although I don't really understand adults) and I find the stories invigorating, well told, well written. So many literary authors these days (and throughout history actually) are more interested in turning a deft phrase or impressing with their intellect than with telling a good story well. Not that I don't also read adult literary fiction but even when I really like a novel I often feel like it could have been improved by cutting 100 or so pages -- with some well-known authors, more like 250 pages or so. Now I have some books for my reading list that I'm sure I will enjoy!
7
Agree with Jia completely about the merits of young reader novels over adult fiction. I am not a fan of the Gone Girl genre that seems to have taken over adult fiction. I have been reading the annual Newbery Award winner for some time and have also started reading or rereading the older books on the list. “When You Reach Me” is a favorite.
My childhood reading habits were the same- I remember memorizing content from cereal boxes and laundry detergent containers, obsessively rereading individual books, and maintaining a “mental encyclopedia” of literary details. We are kindred spirits here.
16
I too have always loved books written for children and young adults. I have a huge collection of “hard cover” books but, in my old age with poorer eyesight, have had to resort to ebooks because I need larger fonts. Two of my favorite authors are American Diane Duane who writes an “urban fantasy” series on young wizards, and British author, the late Diana Wynne Jones, one of whose books was made into the anime film “Howl’s Moving Castle”, which is absolutely delightful.
9
@Rosemary Fletcher-Jones I love Diana Wynne Jones! My favorite is Fire and Hemlock, although the ending is still a bit hard to understand intellectually. I confirm that the Westing Game and When You Reach Me are both very good, and now I think of it, have an important plot point in common.
1
@Rosemary Fletcher-Jones
Let me THIRD my adoration for Diana Wynne Jones and raise you a Susan Cooper! You cannot love Jone without a nod to Cooper. You absolutely cannot love Rowling without homage to Jones and Cooper.
Fire and Hemlock is literally one of my all time favorite books. I read my copy to pieces as a child and bought a new one as an adult.
I was also completely enamored of The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley (Snyder), an obscure and complicated book that didn't go much of anywhere, but deserved more attention than it got.
2
@Dejah The Changeling is one of the most vivid books to me though I read it 40-plus years ago. I probably read close to 100 books a year back then, and I read The Changeling at least twice. I can still see Ivy and Marty and the mouse nest in my mind’s eye. I must get a copy. Thank you, it did deserve much more attention.