Welcome to the Book Marks Questionnaire, where we ask authors questions about the books that have shaped them.
This week, we spoke to True Love author Sarah Gerard.
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Book Marks: First book you remember loving?
Sarah Gerard: The Little Engine That Could. I was fascinated by the illustrations. They were so rich and detailed.
BM: A book that blew your mind?
SG: Proxies by Brian Blanchfield. The structure, the prose, his mental agility, all of it.
BM: Last book you read?
SG: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. A diabolical romp.
BM: A book that made you cry?
SG: My true love Patty Cottrell’s book, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace. I’ve read it twice, and it’s made me cry both times, once on an airplane.
BM: What book from the past year would you like to give a shout-out to?
SG: Quotients by Tracy O’Neill, a serious thinker and a first-rate prose artist.
BM: A book that actually made you laugh out loud?
SG: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. It’s the kind of book you feel compelled to read aloud to whomever’s around you.
BM: What’s one book you wish you had read during your teenage years?
SG: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, for so many reasons.
BM: Classic book on your To Be Read pile?
SG: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
BM: What’s a book with a really great sex scene?
SG: Luster by Raven Leilani, forthcoming in August. Truly an astounding scene, told breathlessly in a single sentence.
BM: Book(s) you’re reading right now?
SG: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Dream of Europe: Selected Seminars and Interviews by Audre Lorde.
BM: Book you wish would be adapted for a film/tv show?
SG: The Secret History by Donna Tartt—it’s a crime that it hasn’t been already.
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Sarah Gerard is the author of the novels True Love and Binary Star, and the essay collection Sunshine State.
Sarah Gerard’s True Love is out now from Harper
Further Reading/Watching/Listening:
Sarah Gerard on Falling in Love With Your Characters
Sarah Gerard on the Gig Economy and the Quest for Love
Megan Abbott, Julie Buntin, and Sarah Gerard on Writing Difficult Material
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