Monday, November 6, 2017

Ivy Pochoda

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the novels Visitation Street and The Art of Disappearing.

Her new novel is Wonder Valley.

Recently I asked Pochoda about what she was reading. Her reply:
One of the best things about having a novel come out is that, for various professional reasons, you wind up reading books you might not have picked up—whether it's for a blurb or for an author interview. I'm lucky enough to be doing an event with Michael Connelly, so I'm brushing up on my Bosch. I'd read a few before, but this immersion is a blast. I just finished Angels Flight which I love, not least of all because it's set in my stomping grounds of downtown LA. I'm smack-dab in the middle of The Wrong Side of Goodbye which is another masterful look at Los Angeles. Between these I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of Robin MacArthur's novel Heart Spring Mountain which blew me away and made me want to move to Vermont. (That would make my dad super happy, as he lives in New Hampshire.)

I'm not usually capable of reading more that one book at a time, but ever since I started teaching a class in writing the essay, I've been keeping essay collections on my nightstand that I read for a break from fiction. I've been dipping in an out of Fiona Helmsley's Girls Gone Old which is so damn fantastic. It's amazing to read a collection of an exact contemporary with similarly bizarre interests.
Visit Ivy Pochoda's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Disappearing.

--Marshal Zeringue