Is there a better person to ask for reading recommendations than someone who has published her own beloved novels and runs one of Brooklyn’s most popular bookstores? We’re delighted to have Emma Straub as our guest this week for the SJP Lit Questionnaire!
You might know Emma from her novels Modern Lovers, All Adults Here, and This Time Tomorrow, and she has something new coming out on April 7th! In American Fantasy, newly divorced Annie unlocks a new sense of possibility for herself on a cruise with a nineties-era boy band. We can’t wait to read this one, as Rainbow Rowell says, “You will feel so understood by this novel.”
Join in for Emma’s takes on Wuthering Heights vs. Miss Piggy and Kermit, books that make her sob, and the truly inspirational people giving her hope.
Cats or dogs—why?
Listen, I love fluffy dogs that bound up to you and snurfle your palms with their sweet noses, but for me, there is only one true choice, and it is cats. Give me an inside animal with a mind of its own any day.
What’s a book that deeply affected you when you were younger?
Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life. Truly revolutionary, in terms of self-acceptance for a blowsy blonde girl such as I was.
Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life by Henry Beard (a 4th printing, courtesy of eBay). What’s your favorite grocery store?
Sahadi’s, on Atlantic Avenue. Fresh hummus, fresh labne, fresh pita. Nuts, dried fruit, every kind of olive oil you can imagine. Heaven.
What’s your favorite place to browse for books?
Books Are Magic, of course!
What word or phrase do you overuse?
Amazing! But there are worse things in the world than finding things amazing.
What’s your perfect three-day weekend?
Reading on a porch, cat on lap, afternoon snooze. It could happen anywhere.
Who is your favorite fictional couple?
I’m going to stick with my Muppet theme and say, Miss Piggy and Kermit. Forget Heathcliff and Cathy, they’re toxic as heck.
What fictional character would you like to have as a friend?
Emma, from Jane Austen’s Emma. She and I would get along famously. She’s trouble, but she’s fun trouble.
Describe the tattoo you’d get tomorrow if you had to.
One of my cats’ faces—as large and as realistic as possible.
What’s the best party you’ve ever had?
Last year, when I turned 45, I threw myself an amazing birthday party. I asked all my friends to bring me a copy of a book they loved, inscribed to me. It will take me decades to read them all—what a gift.
Who’s a writer you’re in awe of?
Ann Patchett forever and always. Even though I know and love her as a human person, I will never not be in awe of how she builds a novel. Absolute perfection.
What work of classic literature would you want to adapt for film?
Honestly, as much as I enjoy some adaptations, I am usually quite critical, and so I think I’d save my most favorite books to just be books. Is that a horrible, cretinous answer? Alas.
Who do you have to thank primarily for your love of reading?
My parents ate books for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There were books in every room of our house. I never saw books as extraneous, or supplemental—they were life itself.
What’s a book that broke your heart?
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Heart the Lover both made me sob sob sob.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give your 24-year-old self?
It’s okay not to have published a book by the time you turn 25. Better, even!
What’s a book, film, or piece of music that you regularly revisit?
I listen to Pride and Prejudice at least once a year.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy making people happy, including myself. I am an extrovert, and so sometimes I forget, but I treasure the silent hours of alone time that writing novels affords. Pleasure is no small thing in this world.
If you did something totally different, career-wise, what would it be?
Hmm, I could be the kooky lady who comes in funny outfits to read to pre-schoolers.
What book do you most often recommend to others?
My most often recommended books are probably Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York, any of Meg Wolitzer’s novels, Middlemarch, and Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake.
How do you break patterns in your life?
I will get back to you when I figure that out. Whoopsie!
When have you felt the most vulnerable in your career?
When my first novel came out, Nylon magazine came to BookCourt (the bookstore I worked at then) to do my makeup and take my picture, and the photographer kept yelling, “Surprise me! Surprise me!” and I cried, and it was terrible.
What’s inspiring you creatively right now?
Travel always inspires me. My children are full of joie de vivre—that is inspiring, too.
What’s the best part of your morning routine?
Walking my children to school.
How do you make yourself read and keep going, in light of screens and short attention spans?
Audiobooks help! Shout-out to Libro.fm, which is an audiobook company that works with independent bookstores.
What’s a classic you’ve never gotten around to?
Bleak House. Maybe this is my Dickens year.
What’s giving you hope?
My booksellers give me hope. Zohran gives me hope. Librarians fighting book bans give me hope. There’s a lot of hope to be found, really, if you know where to look.
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