Liz Rosenberg

Liz Rosenberg is the author of, most recently, House of Dreams: The Life of L. M. Montgomery and a forthcoming novel, Indigo Hill. At any given moment when not asleep she is usually reading, writing, or taking a walk with her camera.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Rosenberg's reply:

At any given time I am usually reading 4-5 books at once.

At the moment they are:

Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake. This is a children's novel by an author I truly love, but I'm not altogether loving this one. I'd rather be re-reading her Thimble Summer or The Saturdays. All the same, you have to admire the sheer gorgeousness of her prose.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett. I am a thorough fan of Ann Patchett's books; she's written one beauty after another and especially Bel Canto. This is a non-fiction memoir of sorts, and I'm finding it lovely, funny, inspirational, useful. Great material on becoming-and-being a writer. I keep this one in my car so anytime I am stuck anywhere for any reason I can take it out and feel patient while I wait.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. When I'm a fan it's not unusual for me to re-read books again and again. Recently I finished re-reading both Goodman's novel Intuition and her Kaaterskill Falls. The Cookbook Collector was new to me. I know when I really like a book, because as soon as I'm done I go back to the first page and start over again. I find it's kind of a relief to read a book without the what-will-happen next anxiety. (Unless it's a book like Scarlet Letter, with a huge secret in it.) I am now on that immediate re-read. It's about IPOs and the dot com bubble, but mostly it's an exquisite love story.

And of course I am currently reading at least 6 or 7 books by or about Louisa May Alcott all at the same time, because I am hard at work on a biography. Alcott is almost inseparable from her eccentric, exasperating, wonderful family and friends (including, among others, Thoreau, Emerson and Hawthorne).

With all this you wouldn't think I'd still be on the lookout for more books to read-- but I am.

Keep up with Liz Rosenberg's observations and photos on Facebook.

--Marshal Zeringue