Carrie Jones

Carrie Jones is the New York Times bestseller author of the Need series, Time Stoppers series, Flying series, Girl, Hero, Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, and Love (and other uses for duct tape).

Her new book is Enhanced: Flying Series (Volume 2).

Recently I asked Jones about what she was reading. Her reply:

My mother always used to make fun of me for the random nature of the books I would read. I would grab a TV Guide and read through every single half-hour television program synopsis with a ridiculous amount of care and then move on to one of her steamy Danielle Steele novels before reading the John Irving that was on my stepdad’s nightstand. Apparently, not much has changed as I look at the books I’m reading today. Wait. No. There’s no TV Guide. Do they still make those?

The first book is a series of essays, How To Write Funny edited by John B Kachuba. It has essays by Sherman Alexie, Dave Barry, and Bill Bryson, among others. The first sentence of J.Kevin Wolfe’s essay, “The Six Basics of Writing,” is the one that’s resonating right now because it’s so blunt with a light twist of the unexpected in its last word.  What is that sentence? It is, “Deep inside each of us lurks a Bozo.” It’s basically a motivational speech about how you don’t have to be funny in real life to be funny on the page.

I’m also reading A Man Called Ove, which is a novel by Fredrik Backman that is infinitely charming and also incorporates humor into its narrative, although not so bluntly as telling everyone they have an inner Bozo. It’s the story of a curmudgeon of a man whose loneliness is shattered by his community and its needs. It’s definitely a love story about a man and a neighborhood.

Finally, I’m reading Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, which is billed as a ‘block buster novel that shocked a nation.’ Despite the fact that I’m from New Hampshire, I never read it and I think that’s because my mother would grow insanely jealous whenever my stepfather mentioned knowing Grace. Or maybe it’s because I could steal my mother’s Danielle Steele novels. Through the magic of DNA, I’ve found out that I’m closely related to Grace’s children. It seems pretty natural that a novel about secrets has led to the unveiling of some secrets in my own family.

Visit Carrie Jones' website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carrie Jones & Tala.

--Marshal Zeringue