Kristina Riggle is the author of the novels Real Life & Liars (2009) and The Life You've Imagined, released this month from Avon/HarperCollins.Earlier this week I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:
This is going to sound strange perhaps from an author of commercial fiction, but I just read two financial non-fiction books in a row, starting with Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin, a novelistic and gripping recount of the recent financial crisis followed by The Smartest Guys in the Room, by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, about the Enron debacle. My husband expressed shock that I was interested in this kind of wonky financial stuff. But I believed based on radio interviews with the authors -- and the reading bore this out -- that both these crises came down at least partly to emotion, psychology and basicVisit Kristina Riggle's website.human frailty. I found the psychological implications riveting (and not a little frightening that our livelihoods depend in no small part on the emotional stability of those in power!)
In the fiction world, I recently finished National Book Award nominated American Salvage by fellow Michigander Bonnie Jo Campbell. Those stories are both devastating and graceful, and I'm honored to be sharing a panel at the upcoming Kerrytown Book Fest with her in Ann Arbor (September 12, also with Michael Zadoorian and Wendy K. Webb). I'm also reading and enjoying The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch about howwe can be "stuck" in ruts and what it might take to jar us out (even if we don't think we're stuck) and I can't wait to start The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle. When I heard her read from the first chapter at my local store I became convinced I'm going to love that book.
The Page 69 Test: Real Life & Liars.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Kristina Riggle & Lucky.
--Marshal Zeringue
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