RSS Items

“Only then can I surrender to the spell of reading,” says the director of “Glory” and the author of “Hits, Flops and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood.”

“Have you ever smoked a joint and read Toni Morrison’s ‘Sula’ in a very hot bath, reveling in a single, rich paragraph for what feels like an hour?” says the novelist, whose new book is “Time’s Mouth.” “If not, may I suggest you try it?”

“I get real geek joy out of learning something new,” says the imprint’s vice president and publisher. She’s proud to have broadened the definition of a classic during her tenure.

Eighteen books in (the latest is “Every Tom, Dick & Harry”), she still recalls an editor’s note urging more action: “Could someone here please pass the potatoes?”

An adaptation of her 19th-century-set novel “Washington Black” is streaming on Hulu. But she’s not totally comfortable with the historical fiction label.

Among her other favorites: “Backlash” and a Charles Laughton biography. The Oscar-winning actress just wrote — and illustrated — her first children’s book.

Her own is called “Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me,” which follows anthologies that grew out of founding the Well-Read Black Girl book club.

“I’m very comfortable with the level of ambition I have for my books,” says the ubiquitous BBC talk show host, who calls “Frankie” his “first happy romance.”

It’s among the more playful matters on his mind in “Shattered,” a memoir of the injury that took away his ability to turn pages — but not his hunger to tell a story.

The creator of Bridget Jones, who grew up on Jane Austen and Jackie Collins, has no patience for “snobbery about escapist fiction.”