BEST AUTHOR BEST : TAYLOR JENKINS REID

.-  What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?

Plenty of people have heard of Sophie Irwin but many, many more people should. '' A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting" and '' A Lady's Guide to Scandal'' are some of my favorite Regency Romances lately.

And she has a new one, '' How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days,'' coming out in July.

.-  What books are on your night stand?

I'm listening to '' Audition '' by Katie Kitamura, reading '' Hungerstone,'' by Kat Dunn, and next on deck are an advanced reader's copy of Emma Straub's new one, out next year, and Suumya Dave's '' The Guilt Pill.''

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

'' The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,'' by James McBride.

.-  In what order should a newcomer to your work read the novels?

In any order they want ! I have a varied backlist, with different genres in there. I just appreciate when any one of my premises appeals to someone and they pick the book up.

.-  Can you recall the first time you were interested in space exploration?

I think I've always been curious about weightlessness. Gravity is so foundational to the human experience on Earth that it blew my mind as a child that there was a place humans had made it to that didn't have gravity.

But it wasn't until my research for this book that I became fascinated by the inner workings of NASA -teams of people come together to achieve the nearly impossible.

It's not without great risk, making it that much more impressive to me. I'm amazed by the courage and sacrifice of astronauts.

.-  You've talked a lot about the intensity of your ambition. Are you still intensely ambitious? And for what?

This might be the biggest way I've changed since publishing last '' Carrie Soto '' taught me a lot.

My goal, during the time away, was to chill out. And I think I've done that. There's no particular achievement I'm looking for here. I'm just trying to spin a good yarn and it feels good.

The Publishing continues to Part [2].

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.