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| photo: Eryn Chandler | |
Chandler Baker is the author of Whisper Network, a Reese's Book Club Pick, and The Husbands, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, as well as several young adult novels. A former corporate lawyer, she lives in Austin, Tex., with her husband, two small children, and even smaller dog. Cutting Teeth (Flatiron Books) explores the standards to which society holds mothers, and the things no one tells you about becoming a parent.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Cutting Teeth is a funny mystery about what happens when 10 preschoolers with an odd craving for blood are the only witnesses to a murder.
On your nightstand now:
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. In a historic coup, I convinced my book club to read this meaty fantasy novel, which is sort of a grownup Harry Potter with dragons. I knew the Goodreads rating on this one was sky high, and that's ultimately what clenched the decision for our group to read it. Of course now I'm feeling immense pressure for them to like it.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I was big into the popular sled dog genre when I was a kid. I'm kidding. I didn't know any other kids who loved reading and talking about sled dogs constantly, incessantly, invariably. I learned all the different commands through books. Jack London's Call of the Wild was seminal.
Your top five authors:
Liane Moriarty, Tana French, Donna Tartt, Sally Hepworth, and Curtis Sittenfeld. I'm just seeing now that my top five are all female authors and I'm okay with that!
Book you've faked reading:
Anything by Cormac McCarthy. I've seen No Country for Old Men. I've perused my husband's bookshelves, but I don't know, I've come this far, I'm not sure Cormac and I are happening.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I love books about what it feels like to make art and to strive to do it with excellence. I get really concerned for people when they don't love it like I do.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. I love what I call "color blob" covers. Adore them! And I fear I'll never write the type of books that warrant a color blob cover. But one day, if I do, I'll have reached peak author. Just wait.
Book you hid from your parents:
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. That scene in the bathtub. IYKYK.
Book that changed your life:
Laura Vanderkam's I Know How She Does It literally helped me figure out how to be a writer, a mom, a full-time lawyer for several years, until it was time to drop the lawyer act. I recommend this to all my mom friends who are struggling with childcare, math, and other problems.
Favorite line from a book:
"What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person." --John Green, Paper Towns. John Green published Looking for Alaska right around the time I was falling in love with reading again, and there are at least a hundred quotes from him that made me want to be a writer.
Five books you'll never part with:
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty, Room by Emma Donoghue, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Bossypants by Tina Fey.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I listened to this book during a very long drive, and yet I feel like I lived a lifetime in the hours it took to finish the story. I still get a little ache in my chest when I think about it and Las Vegas.