Kate Gavino

Kate Gavino is a writer and illustrator living in Brooklyn. Over the last few years, she has attended hundreds of readings around New York City in venues ranging from factories to cemeteries, chronicling each one on her Tumblr...and now in a book: Last Night's Reading: Illustrated Encounters with Extraordinary Authors.

Recently I asked the writer-illustrator about what she was reading. Her reply:

I just finished The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick, which I picked up because, like her, I take incredibly long walks around New York. The book has great insights about friendship, especially the ways we distance even our closest friends. Also, there’s some juicy gossip about the author’s love life, which I am shameless enough to admit always interests me.

Right now I’m reading Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta. I picked it up after seeing the author read in Harlem, and I’m happy I did. I love books with tense mother-daughter relationships, and this one has that in spades. I’m already casting the non-existing movie in my head.

I always keep a few e-books on my phone to read if I’m stuck on the train without a book. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is my all-time favorite book, and I’ve read it several times. Sometimes I take out my phone and re-read my favorite chapters if I need something to keep me awake. I also have the Ron Chernow Hamilton biography, which I’ve been reading ever since I saw the musical. Lastly, I have a bunch of classics I downloaded for free (A Room With a View, The House of Mirth, Vanity Fair), which I occasionally skim to feel less guilty after reading a reality star’s ghost-written memoir.

Visit Kate Gavino's website.

--Marshal Zeringue