What Joanne Reads

Writing is one of those things that makes me feel...like me. I've spent a lifetime reading and writing and still can't get enough of either. I select novels like I choose shoes; they have to be the right fit. 
​If I'm writing a novel, I aim to write like Donna Tartt, Zadie Smith, or Gil Adamson, and pray I fall somewhere closer to that than I would have otherwise. It doesn't mean I don't read "brain candy." I love a whodunnit by Jo Nesbo for on-the-dock summer reading, whipping through pages until the sun goes down; blockbusting page-turners like "Gone Girl" or "The Last of Us" while on vacation; a Leonard Cohen poem before bed; Wordsworth with a cuppa tea. Lately, my favourite reads are "Buckeye" by Patrick Ryan and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," by Gabrielle Zevin. And of course, "The God of the Woods," by Liz Moore. I'm currently reading "Bel Canto," the annotated version by Ann Patchett, and "Babel," by R. F. Kuang.

I once read for Penguin House Reader, and for a list of my latest reading, find me on Goodreads.