Book Brahmin: Deborah Coonts

Deborah Coonts was raised in Texas on barbecue, Mexican food and beer. She now resides in Las Vegas, where family and friends tell her she can't get into too much trouble. Silly people. Coonts has built her own business, practiced law, flown airplanes, written a humor column for a national magazine and survived a teenager. Wanna Get Lucky? (Forge, May 11, 2010), is her debut novel, and the first in a series she describes as "Sex and the City meets Elmore Leonard in Vegas."

On your nightstand now:

What French Women Know About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind by Debra Ollivier because, well, perhaps it's never to late to get it right. The Eight by Katherine Neville--I put it under my pillow every night hoping that perfection can be absorbed through osmosis. Indecent: How I Make it and Fake it as a Girl for Hire by Sarah Katherine Lewis--hey, I live in Vegas and, like everyone else, I sorta wonder... don't you?
 
Favorite book when you were a child:

My father kept a locked room filled with paperbacks from his youth and a stint in the navy. For a kid with an overactive imagination, this was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. A clever lock-picker at age six, I grew up on Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane, Rex Stout. Mario Puzo taught me there are some really bad people in the world who do awful things to horses... and that it is possible to have sex standing up. I've never been the same.

Your top five authors:

Nora Roberts (no one sets a scene better), Janet Evanovich (the master of 'less is more'), Katherine Neville (for sheer mastery of the 'quest' novel before Dan Brown invented it), Diane Setterfield (for the amazing first novel The Thirteenth Tale--an absolute joy) and Clive Cussler, even though he ruined my sex life. Dirk Pitt, call me... please!

Book you've faked reading:

All of the books on the sex trade in Las Vegas, lovingly given to me by well-meaning friends. Please! Way too real. I'm into the fun of Vegas... okay, don't start debating semantics with me.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I've turned so many people onto this book, some have accused me of taking a kickback. Not true.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. As a woman who spent her formative years in the South, I feel the need to show that I'm culinarily inclined. One problem, though: I don't cook.
 
Book that changed your life:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Who is John Galt? I actually met a man named John Galt at a taekwondo dojo in Texas, but that's another story...
 
Favorite line from a book:

"Opinions are like assholes--everyone has one."--from The Intruders by Stephen Coonts. Gotta love it. Still makes me grin.
 
Book you most want to read again for the first time:

The Eight by Katherine Neville because I want to live the adventure anew.