BEST AUTHOR BEST : JEAN HANFF KORELITZ

A novel within a novel fueled her hit thriller, '' The Plot,'' as it does the followup, '' The Sequel.''  Keeping the stories straight '' gave my Google spreadsheets quite a workout,'' she says.

.-  What books are on your night stand?

I have a virtual night stand on Libby, for audiobooks. Right now, inspired by your recent list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,  there are two I [shamefully] have never read.

'' The Known World,'' by Edward P. Jones, and '' Veronica,'' by Mary Gaitskill.

Meanwhile, my non-virtual bookstack is mainly comprised of upcoming books in my Book the Writer series : The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club,'' by Helen Simonson; '' Bear,'' by Julia Philipps.

'' The Friday Afternoon Club,'' by Griffin Dunne; and ''Long Island Compromise,'' by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I am also dipping into a book called '' Dime Novel Mormons,'' about Mormon characters in popular fiction of the late 19th / early 20th century.

.-  What book would people be surprised to find on your shelves?

'' Myths and Legends of the Swahili,'' by Jan Knappert. I'm sorry to say that I swiped it off a hotel bookshelf in Kenya when I was 11. 

The depiction of hell's torments was skin -crawling and indelible. Imprisonment in individual casks of scorpions? Demons who beat you with your own hair?

.-  What's the last great book that you read?

Marie Brenner's '' The Desperate Hours : One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines'' takes you right to the heart of the terror so many of us were running from in 2020.

Brenner's great bravery in embedding herself with New York Presbyterian is matched only by that of the doctors themselves.

.-  The last book that made you laugh?

No book has ever been as funny as Gail Parent's  '' Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York.''  That's just a fact.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.