Mary Jane Clark: LibraryThing Author Interview

Author Mary Jane Clark offers her summer reading list.

• City of Thieves by David Benioff: This book is a mix of history, imagination, tragedy and humor. It takes place during a brutal Leningrad winter in World War ll. Amid the starvation and desperation, two unlikely comrades keep each other going. It's powerful, painful and hopeful all at the same time.
• American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld: Former First Lady Laura Bush was the inspiration for this fictional account of a wife of the President of the United States. The author does a superb of drawing all the characters, many of whom you will recognize.
• Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt: I read this when it first came out but it is well worth reading again. Frank McCourt's recent death completes a remarkable life. His account of his sad, poverty-stricken childhood in Limerick, Ireland is laced with humor and keen insight. It earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
• Sleepwalking in Daylight by Elizabeth Flock: I was blown away by the little things in this book, the details that Elizabeth Flock uses to reveal so much about the characters and their struggles. It’s full of perceptive insights about a modern family grappling with recognizable issues. I loved Flock's Me and Emma but I think Sleepwalking in Daylight is even better.
• Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: This is another one that you can read over and over again…finding something new and worthwhile every time. This book will make you laugh, cry and take stock of your own life.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark has written 12 novels, all set in the high stakes world of broadcast journalism. She worked at CBS News headquarters in New York City for three decades, her experience there leading her to create KEY, a fictional television network. The daughter of a FBI agent, Clark grew up in Westwood, New Jersey, and graduated from the University of Rhode Island.