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New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ed Helms Read ‘Moby-Dick' on His Phone. On the New York Subway.
In an email interview, the actor ('The Office') explained why working in comedy drew him to exploring big mistakes, in a podcast that led to the book. SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? 'The History of Sound,' by Ben Shattuck, and 'The Library Book,' by Susan Orlean. How do you organize your books? I don't. Books migrate between dignified shelves, unruly coffee tables and chaotic piles that sprout around my office like mushrooms. Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). This might sound strange, but one of my favorite reading experiences was standing on the New York City subway, clinging to a pole with one hand and reading 'Moby-Dick' on my phone with the other. Sometimes I was so engrossed I'd get off the train and just plop down on a bench to finish a chapter. But honestly, nothing beats reading aloud to my kids in our little reading nook at home. What's the last great book you read? I've read a lot of good books, but the last truly great book I read was 'The Overstory,' by Richard Powers. What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet? 'Anna Karenina,' by Tolstoy. In my defense, someone gave me a Russian-language edition and I literally can't read it. Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn't? 'A Walk in the Woods,' by Bill Bryson. I signed up for soulful reflections on a grueling 2,000-mile trek along the Appalachian Trail. What I got were some chipper musings about a leisurely stroll to a diner. Bryson is hilarious, but I still felt betrayed. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? The Lorax. Were you a 'Captain Underpants' fan before playing the title role in the movie version? I was only dimly aware of the series before I signed on, but I immediately fell in love with its anarchic spirit. There's a wonderful undercurrent of pure childhood mischief in those books. What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? 'Longitude,' by Dava Sobel. It's a gripping, soulful history of the race to determine one's longitude at sea, which, I promise, is way more exciting than it sounds. In 'Snafu,' you ask readers to think of you as their 'unofficial history teacher.' Is there one who made a difference to you? My brother is a middle school history teacher, and one of the smartest, funniest people I know. He's my go-to for fact-checking and/or spirited debates. What is it about your personality that makes you fascinated by foul-ups? I think because comedy is rooted in pain and suffering, I've spent my whole life instinctively tuning in to moments when things go wrong. At this point, it's not so much a fascination as it is a reflex. Who's the most foolish figure unearthed in the research for the book, and why? One strong contender is the U.S. military engineer who, during the Cold War, proposed nuking the moon just to show the Soviets how tough we were. Not land on it. Not colonize it. Just … detonate it. The most heroic? Jimmy Carter. In 1952, long before he became president, he helped lead a dangerous cleanup of a partial nuclear meltdown at Canada's Chalk River reactor. He and his men risked their lives to contain the disaster, a quiet act of heroism that almost no one talks about today. Is there a recent event that seems likely to make it into a sequel to this book? DOGE. Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book? In fifth grade, I got caught carting around 'The Joy of Sex' at school. It made me wildly popular with my friends and significantly less popular with my teachers and parents. What's the last book you recommended to a member of your family? A.D.H.D. has touched my life in a lot of ways, so I've recommended 'Scattered Minds,' by Gabor Maté, to friends and family who've been curious about it. It's a moving, compassionate window into what living with A.D.H.D. actually feels like. What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? In David Byrne's 'How Music Works,' I learned how profoundly music is shaped by the spaces it's performed in. Cathedrals, dive bars, stadiums: They don't just host music, they transform how we experience it. As a musician, this was a thrilling revelation, something I'd always felt on some level but had never consciously reflected on before. 'Humanity has demonstrated an uncanny ability to bounce back' from snafus, you write. Still feeling that way? Yes. But to your point, we also have a nasty habit of bouncing backward just as quickly. Sadly, human progress is not a straight line. It's more like a cosmic game of Chutes and Ladders. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Oscar Wilde, Marcus Aurelius and Anne Lamott. That should make for a good mix of profound insight and hard laughs.
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Geena Davis Can't Count How Many Times She's Reread Zola
In an email interview, she talked about the inspiration behind 'The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page,' and how 'The Accidental Tourist' changed her life. SCOTT HELLER What's the last great book you read? 'Horse,' by Geraldine Brooks, weaves the art world, the horse racing world and what it means to be human into a thrilling tapestry. What book have you recommended the most over the years? 'Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,' by Susan Faludi. As someone who's focused on creating equitable representation onscreen for women and girls, this book had a strong impact on me. Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? Memoirs and biographies. I find stories about other people's real-life experiences and challenges so engrossing. They teach me a lot and broaden my perspective and understanding of the world. One recent favorite was 'Educated,' by Tara Westover. The story — and Tara's resilience — broke my heart. What kind of reader were you as a child? I read everything I could get my hands on, often under the covers with a flashlight. I used novels as a way to learn, to escape and to travel without leaving my little town in Massachusetts. I particularly loved 'The Cricket in Times Square,' by George Selden. The idea of a cricket giving concerts in New York City enchanted me. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain? My favorite book of all time is 'L'Assommoir,' by Émile Zola, and I adore Gervaise Macquart. She's such a strong character, and every time I read the book, I want her life to be different — I want her to have all the opportunities she's denied as a member of the Parisian underclass. And as far as antiheroes, while I wouldn't say her husband is my favorite antihero, I would say that he's the perfect foil for Gervaise's dreams. Zola is such a stunning writer. I can't tell you how many times I've read and reread his work. Do you have a favorite memoir by an actor? I don't, but I do have a favorite biography — 'Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor,' by Simon Callow. Charles Laughton is my absolute favorite actor. He was one of the true greats, and being able to gain insight into his life through this book meant a lot to me. What was the specific motivation to try your hand at a children's book? I've always loved drawing and writing, so it's been in my mind for a long time. Then, suddenly, the idea of a character knowing that they live in a book came to me. As a child, I always felt too tall, like I was taking up more than my share of space, and I tried to shrink myself to fit into the amount of space I imagined I should occupy. In writing 'The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page,' I wanted to reach out to kids who feel like I did back then — like they don't fit in — and reassure them that there is room for them in the world. I want them to realize that they should take up as much space as they need. Often new authors work with illustrators. Was it a must that you did the art for this book, too? I've always drawn and painted, and I saw my characters so clearly in my mind's eye that it seemed natural that I would draw them. And luckily for me, my publisher loved what I created. What's the best book you've ever received as a gift? When Hugh Laurie and I played Stuart Little's parents in the movie 'Stuart Little,' Hugh decided to give me a copy of his hilarious book, 'The Gun Seller.' But since he knew I was once a foreign-exchange student in Sweden, Hugh gave me a Swedish copy! (The book was called 'Skottpengar' there.) The gift truly delighted me. I love Hugh's writing in any language. Of all the characters you've played across different media, which role felt to you the richest — the most novelistic? I've actually been in five movies based on books, but Muriel Pritchett from 'The Accidental Tourist' was definitely the most novelistic. Muriel, who first appeared in the beautiful book by Anne Tyler, is complicated and unique and felt so three-dimensional on the page. I remember reading this book aloud to Jeff Goldblum while we were shooting 'The Fly' together and he was getting his extensive makeup done. As I read, I started hating whoever was going to get to play the part of Muriel in the movie version — which it was clear there would be. But then it was me! And it completely changed my life.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Rick Atkinson Doesn't Want to Stand on a Soapbox
In an email interview, the Pulitzer Prize winner welcomed more writers onto his turf and revealed a 'soft spot' for one character in 'War and Peace.' SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? Leo Damrosch, 'Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World'; Ada Ferrer, 'Cuba'; Ron Chernow, 'The Warburgs'; David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts, 'Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare From 1945 to Ukraine'; Brian Capon, 'Botany for Gardeners: An Introduction to the Science of Plants'; and, for grandchildren sleepovers, Maurice Sendak, 'Where the Wild Things Are.' How do you organize your books? My 'books to get' list for 'The Fate of the Day' exceeded 2,500 titles, of which I own almost half, including 19 volumes of 'The Papers of George Washington.' Those books snake through my home office and up through the third floor, alphabetically by author. Titles that I won't need for the final volume in my American Revolution trilogy are consigned to the basement, the garage or a storage locker in Rockville, Md. In the living room I've got a built-in case for books by my former Washington Post colleagues. Bob Woodward alone occupies a long shelf. What kind of reader were you as a child? Ardent and middlebrow. In grade school I devoured the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then as a young teen discovered the enchantment of books like 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes' and 'Ivanhoe,' as well as the magical rhythm of our language in poems like Alfred Noyes's 'The Highwayman' and Longfellow's 'The Wreck of the Hesperus.' Reading William L. Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' when I was about 15 put ideas in my head. What's the last great book you read? Hilary Mantel's 'The Mirror and the Light,' the final volume of her dazzling trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. I read it very slowly before bedtime while writing 'The Fate of the Day,' hoping for inspiration. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? I've got a soft spot for Pierre Bezúkhov from 'War and Peace.' What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? 'Conquerors' Road: An Eyewitness Report of Germany 1945,' by Osmar White, an Australian journalist who bore witness with a conviction that, in his words, 'the living have the cause of the dead in trust.' As a former war correspondent, I find it extraordinary that White had trouble getting the thing published. While generously praising 'The British Are Coming,' Joseph J. Ellis maintained that you are 'less interested in making an argument than telling a story.' Do you agree? Absolutely. If you believe your calling is to be a storyteller, don't regret not being a polemicist. I've also been called an antiquarian, a pointillist and a scribbler. Guilty on all counts. What are the challenges in writing the middle volume of a trilogy? You can't presume that the reader has read Volume 1, so a bit of back story must be stitched in without being tedious. Recurrent characters like Washington and King George III reappear in the narrative, but I can't backtrack excessively as we watch them grow, evolve or devolve in the second volume. Perhaps most important for a narrative writer is the need to brachiate, like a gibbon in the treetops, using momentum to keep the story moving. What was the most useful advice your editor offered on this book? I've had the same editor, John Sterling, since 1987, for all eight of my books. I distilled his wisdom into a four-word injunction that I keep on a sign next to my writing desk: Get On With It. Tell me about a supporting character in the book who deserves even more recognition. Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene is familiar to readers of military history, but should be known to all Americans. A lapsed Quaker from Rhode Island, he was second only to Washington as the Continental Army's indispensable man. Along with crediting 'a hundred or more' archivists, librarians and historians, you offer some thanks 'for corralling misbehaving electrons.' Explain. I can break a computer just by looking at it. I'm grateful to those who fix them. What impact might government cuts have on your ability to research the next volume? Covid was bad enough in constricting archival research and library visits for a couple years. Let's hope, for the sake of scholarship, that there's no shortsighted squeezing of the National Archives, Library of Congress, national battlefield parks and other cultural troves. If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? John Hersey's 'Hiroshima.' It's short. Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? At the risk of encouraging talented competitors, war. The more lyrical voices that capture and convey it, the better the chance of readers comprehending, viscerally, how grotesque it is. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Edward Gibbon, who was a member of Parliament during the American Revolution even as he was writing 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
New York Times
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Meghan Daum Has a Plan for Replacing Books Destroyed in the L.A. Fires
Do personal essays still matter? It's a question Daum takes up in 'The Catastrophe Hour,' her new collection of … personal essays, written before catastrophe hit close to home. SCOTT HELLER What kind of reader were you as a child? In elementary school I was very competitive and was always neck and neck with some other overachieving girl for 'most books read.' At some point it expanded into magazines, first teen magazines then Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Esquire. At around 15, I discovered Film Comment in the town library and checked out every issue I could get my hands on, after which I would fill out request cards for VHS tapes of movies I read about. Which childhood books and authors stick with you most? Ellen Conford was a young adult author whose books I remember as humorous in a satirical and slyly adult way. One of the earliest I remember was 'Felicia the Critic,' about a girl who had an opinion about everything and assumed everyone wanted to hear it. Come to think of it, someone might have given me that book for a reason. Describe your ideal reading experience. I guess 'ideal' would be in a cozy cottage on some snowy mountaintop with nary a Zoom meeting on the calendar. Barring that, I do my best, or at least most concentrated, reading on airplanes. When traveling, I used to enjoy eating alone at hotel bars with a book, not least because it was a conversation starter. But somewhere along the line, the book became a phone and conversations never got started. I feel like if you were to read a book at a bar today, the book would almost look like a prop. How sad is that? That might be the saddest sentence I've written all year. What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet? I would tell you but I'm too embarrassed. What's the best book you've ever received as a gift? There've been so many. The most recent book was a copy of the Billy Graham Training Center Bible from a group of church volunteers who helped my neighbors and me sift through the ashes of what used to be our houses before the L.A. wildfires. I haven't read it yet, but they were some of the kindest and most physically resilient people I've ever met. And hats off to them for getting so many secular Angelenos to hold hands and pray! How are you thinking about replacing books you lost in the fire? Funny you should ask. So many writers lost their homes and possessions in the fires. This gave me an idea. What if we helped writers rebuild their libraries by connecting them with those who appreciate them the most — their readers? Surely readers would love nothing more than to send their favorite books to their favorite writers. The way I imagine it, writers would create registries of the books they miss the most and readers could either pick from the list or send a book of their own choosing, or both. It's win/win. Writers can begin to fill their shelves and readers get the pleasure of sharing books they love with writers they love. Along the way, everyone discovers new books. I'm still figuring out the logistics, but I think this could be great. You wrote a column on memoirs for the Book Review. That was work. Do you still read them, for pleasure? I have a lot of memoir authors on my podcast and I almost always enjoy reading their books, so I count that as pleasure. I'm always delighted to interview a celebrity whose memoir is genuinely well written; Moon Unit Zappa and Maria Bamford come to mind. Hadley Freeman's memoir about anorexia, 'Good Girls,' was astonishingly good. I consider my interview with the economist Glenn Loury about his memoir, 'Late Admissions,' to be one of the best I've done. What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? Tim Kreider's essay collections, 'We Learn Nothing' and 'I Wrote This Book Because I Love You,' are masterpieces of the form, start to finish. I wouldn't say no one has heard of them, since many of the pieces he's written for the Times opinion page have gone viral. But Tim should be on every serious reader's shelf. 'Everything is personal, so nothing is personal,' you write in your book. What does that mean for a personal essayist? That's from the final essay in the collection, which is also the newest essay. It wrestles with how first-person writing, or personal creative expression of any kind, has been sullied by the collective exhibitionism of social media and meme culture. Readers today (I guess they're not so much readers but 'consumers of content') frequently lack the intellectual programming to tell the difference between a carefully crafted and rigorously edited personal essay and a TikTok video of someone crying in her car. That's why I write, 'First, the personal became political. Then it became porn. Now it has become dust.' Not that people shouldn't read this book of personal essays.
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Graydon Carter Thinks ‘Hollywood Wives' Waylaid His Magazine Career
In 'When the Going Was Good,' he traces the path from Ottawa to Oscar night. In an email interview he singled out Canadian strivers and a J.B. Priestley gem. SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? A lot of mysteries and late-20th-century histories. I just finished 'Naples '44,' by Norman Lewis. I'm in the middle of Joseph O'Connor's 'The Ghosts of Rome.' Describe your ideal reading experience. Any time I'm traveling — but not while I'm driving. Planes and trains always. And just before cocktail hour at the end of the day. What's the best book you've ever received as a gift? Easy. 'Queer People,' by Carroll and Garrett Graham. Bette Midler gave it to me, and it was a complete revelation. It's about as funny and as clever as anything I've ever read. What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? That's also easy. 'Angel Pavement,' by J.B. Priestley. It's a story about Depression-era London as told through the eyes of the employees of a small company. It moved me immensely when I first read it, about 40 years ago. What's the last great book you read? I did love William Boyd's new book, 'Gabriel's Moon.' And Gay Talese's collection of journalism, 'A Town Without Time.' Both first-rate and memorable. What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet? Every Charles Dickens book aside from 'Great Expectations' and 'Bleak House.' How often do you read a book and say, 'Good, but it could have been a magazine article'? All the time! By the same token I read a lot of magazine articles and come away thinking, 'This would make a great book!' How did a founder of Spy magazine write a book that's so, well, nice? Well, that's kind of you. As it happens, so were the people at Spy. Just because the magazine was somewhat astringent in writing about the featured acts of the day, the people who produced those stories were wickedly observant but otherwise collegial and civilized. It was a dream office, really. And just so much fun. Tell a reader who doesn't travel in New York media circles why she/he should read your memoir. Aside from the fact that I still have a final child to feed and educate, and the royalties won't hurt, let me think. I do think it captures what it was like during the giddy, glamorous days of magazines for much of the past half-century. I was very fortunate to have been an editor during most of that period, and I wanted to tell younger readers what it was like, and to remind older readers of the fun they now miss. You write that 'Act One' and 'Youngblood Hawke' helped lure you to New York. What recent books might entice a younger Canadian to give the city a try? Jay McInerney's 'Bright Lights, Big City' would be a start. Although I don't think cocaine is the preferred rocket fuel that it once was. Anything by Dawn Powell. 'Just Kids,' by Patti Smith. 'The Pope of Greenwich Village,' by Vincent Patrick. And 'Harriet the Spy,' by Louise Fitzhugh. What would you say is the Great Canadian Novel? 'Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town,' by Stephen Leacock — arguably the founder of modern humor. 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,' by Mordecai Richler. And 'The Deptford Trilogy,' by Robertson Davies. Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? Any part of New York that's not Brooklyn. Which books deserve a sequel? 'I Am Pilgrim,' 'The Bonfire of the Vanities.' Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Jeeves. Duddy Kravitz. Sammy Glick. Dean Moriarty. Your favorite antihero or villain? Inspector Javert. Roderick Spode. Lucy (from 'Peanuts'). Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book? I had a friend at Knopf when I first started out at Time in the late '70s. She got hold of the galleys of the Jackie Collins novel 'Hollywood Wives' and sent it to me. I was a bit miffed that she thought I was so lowbrow. But I gave it a chance and honestly, I simply couldn't put it down. One of my editors spotted it on my desk and just shook his head and moved on. I do believe my fortunes at the magazine began to decline from that moment on. But I read all of Jackie's books after that. Just not at the office. If you could require President Trump to read one book, what would it be? This is a trick question, obviously. And you want me to say 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' or 'Goodnight Moon' or something with a lot of images and very few words. But I'm going to rise above that. 'The Glory and the Dream,' by William Manchester. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? I can't hold it to three. P.G. Wodehouse, Edith Wharton, Nora Ephron, Christopher Hitchens, Dawn Powell and Tom Wolfe. (Nora would choose the food; Christopher would choose the Scotch.)
