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| photo: Rose Turpin | |
Angela Lam is the author of the short story collection The Human Act and Other Stories and, as Angela Lam Turpin, three novels: Legs, Blood Moon Rising and Out of Balance. She studied journalism at Northwestern University and creative writing at Sonoma State University. Her memoir, Red Eggs and Good Luck (just released by She Writes Press), won the 2003 Mary Tanenbaum Award for creative nonfiction and the 2014 Memoir Discovery Contest.
On your nightstand now:
The Bible (always present), Two by Melissa Ann Pinney with an introduction by Ann Patchett (a collection of photographs and essays), Runner's World Complete Guide to Running (my exercise manual) and It's Not Me, It's You by Mhairi McFarlane (a new purchase).
Favorite book when you were a child:
My favorite book was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
Your top five authors:
It's extremely hard to limit them to five, so I'll choose the ones I come back to again and again: L.M. Montgomery, Ernest Hemingway, Sophie Kinsella, Nick Hornby and Geoff Wood.
Book you've faked reading:
None. CliffsNotes didn't help me through high school or college.
Book you're an evangelist for:
It depends on what I've recently read. The last book I fell head over heels in love with was Dorothy Parker Drank Here by Ellen Meister.
Book you've bought for the cover:
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. The bright orange and gold cover lured me into a great story.
Book you hid from your parent:
Audrey Rose by Frank De Felitta. My mother forbade me to purchase it at TG&Y with my allowance, but I was able to check it out at the library and smuggle it between the covers of another book to read at night. Its adult themes were too much for my teenage self to comprehend, but I enjoyed the thrill of reading it nonetheless.
Book that changed your life:
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. The concept of determinism with its grim hold on reality eliminated my innocence and replaced my optimism with the probability that I, too, would lead an incredibly hard life as an adult. It unwittingly prepared me for being the parent of a severely disabled son.
Favorite line from a book:
"In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone." --Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella
Five books you'll never part with:
The Emily Trilogy (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest) by L.M. Montgomery and Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series (if I had to choose only two it would be Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan).
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. It made me rediscover the fun of reading.