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| photo: Nathan Summerlin | |
Barbara J. Taylor was born and raised in Scranton, Pa. She sets her novels in the hometown she loves and fills them with miners, evangelists, vaudevillians, nuns, gangsters, prostitutes, widows, musicians, dreamers, and a seer or two. She is the author of Sing in the Morning, Cry at Night and All Waiting Is Long. The final installment of her Scranton Trilogy, Rain Breaks No Bones (Kaylie Jones Books, May 7, 2024), explores a family's legacy of loss and a sometimes mystical vision of a better tomorrow.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A secret birth, a complicated romance, a shocking death, and no one is talking. Not even the dead.
On your nightstand now:
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück
Ms. Magazine, Spring 1972 (research for a new project)
Ann Landers Talks to Teen-Agers About Sex by Ann Landers (more research, I swear!)
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein. By age eight or nine, I'd devoured most of the books in the children's section of our local library, so my mother suggested I read The Search for Bridey Murphy, an amateur hypnotist's account of his subject's past life regression experience. My mother had read the story and was eager to discuss it with someone. I became that someone. I still remember sitting with her at the kitchen table having what felt like a grown-up conversation about a real book from the main section of the library. What a thrill!
Your top five authors:
(This list is subject to change on a daily basis.)
Zora Neale Hurston
William Kennedy
Rachel Maddow
Toni Morrison
John Steinbeck
Book you've faked reading:
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton in 11th grade. (I'm sorry, Mrs. Langan.)
Books you're an evangelist for:
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, audiobook narrated by Ruby Dee
City of Thieves by David Benioff, audiobook narrated by Ron Perlman
I couldn't help myself. I had to give two answers here but for one good reason. As a former high school English teacher, I know that some people like to hold a book or Kindle in their hands, and others prefer to listen. Both of these novels sing on their own and as audios thanks to outstanding narrators. These are two titles I eagerly recommend to every kind of reader.
Book you've bought for the cover:
A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford. When I was in high school, I remember buying A Woman of Substance simply so I could put my thumb over the "Bradford" and see my own name on a book cover.
Book you hid from your parents:
I used to sneak-read my older sister's romance novels.
Book that changed your life:
Ironweed by William Kennedy. I reread this one fairly often. The book opens in a cemetery where we hear from the living and the dead. The first time I read it, I thought, You can do this as a writer? I wouldn't start writing my own books for many years, but that moment stayed with me.
Favorite line from a book:
(A recent favorite. I almost can't choose!)
"Ruby Bell was a constant reminder of what could befall a woman whose shoe heels were too high." --Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Five books you'll never part with:
Ironweed by William Kennedy
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Possession by A.S. Byatt. There's a gift to the reader at the end of this book. I won't say more for fear of spoiling the story, but I remember my delight the first time I read it.