BEST AUTHOR BEST : TAYLOR JENKINS REID [2]

.-  Describe your ideal reading experience.

On a patio, looking out over a body of water, with a great mystery or romance in front of me and at least one audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan ready to go.

If there's an iced tea sweating on the table and a good place to put my feet up, all the better. 

I had this exact experience last summer, reading '' The God of the Woods,'' by Liz Moore. Every moment was perfection.

.-  What kind of reader were you as a child?

A reluctant one! I never read much as a kid. One of the first stories to change my mind about that was  Edith Wharton's short story '' Roman Fever.''

We read it in Mrs. Hearn's 10th grade American Lit class and I remember getting to the ending a few seconds before the other students and gasping. I loved it.

.-  Do you prefer books that reach you emotionally, or intellectually?

I love a book that stays ahead of me the whole time. My brain is always working to figure out what might be coming next and I absolutely love being wrong.

'' Mexican Gothic,'' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and, '' The Mill House Murders '' by Yukito Ayatsuji,  were both like that for me. Brilliant plots.

Otherwise, give me a book that's going to break my heart and put it back together, please. Like something by Jasmine Guillory, Emily Henry, and Celeste Ng or Ann Patchett.

.-  What impact did working in Hollywood have on you as a novelist?

I'm entirely focused on character first. I was when I worked in Film - that's what drew me to casting in particular - and I am as a novelist.

I always say that I don't really care when it happens. I care who it happens to.

.-  Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?

Jay Gatsby. All the more because I'm not sure he fits certain definitions of the word.

.-  Your favorite antihero or villain?

Daisy Buchanan, of course. For the same reason.

The World Students Society thanks. The New York Times.