BEST AUTHOR BEST : LISA SCOTTOLINE

SHE grew up in a home where TV Guide was reading material, yet has gone on to write 37 novels. Almost everything in '' The Unraveling of Julia '' is new for me,'' she says of the latest. '' I'm going Gothic, baby!''

.-  What books are on your night stand?

First up is my go-to-fave Adriana Trigiani's '' The View From Lake Como.'' Also : Kristin Harmel's  '' The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau,'' S.A. Cosby's '' King of Ashes,'' Daniel Silva's '' An Inside Job,'' Tananarive Due's '' The Reformatory, '' B.A. Shapiro's '' The Lost Masterpiece '' and James L. 'Etoile's '' River of Lies.''

.-  Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

Growing up, I got in trouble for reading any book. My family wasn't into reading, and the only book in our house was a TV Guide.

I fell in love with books at the library, but anytime I was reading, my mother would say, '' Stop reading, it'll ruin your eyes. Go outside and play.''

I loved my mother dearly, but she didn't realize I was already outside and playing, just in a book.

.-  What did you do in the new novel that you'd never done before?

Almost everything in '' The Unraveling of Julia '' is new for me. 

It's about a woman who inherits an estate in Tuscany from a stranger who may be her grandmother, then learns that her benefactor had delusions of grandeur, believing herself a descendant of Duchess Caterina Sforza from the Renaissance.

My heroine begins to experience the same delusions, so there's psychological instability and straight-up dread in the novel, which I've never done before. I'm going Gothic, baby !.

.-  How do you organize your books?

The only thing organized in my house are my books. I have over 5,000 divided into signed books, fiction and nonfiction.

I even have brass plaques of the subject areas,  like Dogs and Horses. I'm basically a book fetishist.

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

Both. Extra credit for a book that reaches your soul, too.

.-  Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?

Nancy Drew. The character of a young woman driving a roadster anywhere she wants, doing anything she wants, grabbed me and didn't let go. She speaks to me still. I just bought a roadster.

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

I adored '' History, '' by Elsa Morante, which is about a woman living through wartime Rome.

Morante is underappreciated here, but you could draw a throughline from her to the terrific Elena Ferrante, who wrote '' My Brilliant Friend.''   

The Publishing continues to Part [2]. The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.