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 "Greenwood" by Michael Christie and "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr, "Fayne" by Ann-Marie MacDonald, and "The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese. And of course, I'm reading "Spare" by Prince Harry.

I'm a Penguin House Reader for upcoming books, and for a list of my latest reading, find me on Goodreads.