"Once, visiting friends in San Francisco, a bookcase came loose from the wall and fell on me. Three people came running in from another room when they heard the crash and saw me sprawled on the floor beneath a mountain of books. Did they say, “Are you all right?” No. In unison, they all said, “Howards End!” That memory, and a recent PBS re-doing (even better than the excellent Merchant Ivory film) of Forster’s novel, have renewed my passion for this book. Its searing depiction of class differences, the wit of its dialogue, and the description of that vine-covered house—no wonder they fought over it!—go together to make this one of my favorites."

"Amy Richards has created the book I searched for growing up, diverse role models all together. It’s called We Are MAKERS: Real Women and Girls Shaping Our World. Based on the PBS series and the online platform MAKERS, this book would have inspired me with ideas of who I might grow up to share the world with, yet it also would have included me as the girl I was. It includes biographies and quotes from a wide variety of women, from Misty Copeland, who broke the color line as a ballerina, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who broke the sex barrier on the Supreme Court. There are also athletes and tech experts, writers and builders of skyscrapers, plus some encouraging dads. This is a book to help any girl realize her dreams."

"This is maybe my second favorite doc of all time. It’s a PBS American Masters on David Geffen. He is the single most successful entrepreneur ever in the entertainment business. This guy is just brilliant, has had a really interesting life and done so much, every big cultural event. I’ve seen it a hundred times and really think that if you’re interested in entering or being an artist in the film industry it’s really important to understand the business, and a film like this makes you feel like you have a book that no one else has. He’s the smartest businessman to have entered the art world, in my opinion. He’s almost got the soul of an artist, but his Picasso-like skill is for the business of entertainment. It’s insanely fascinating."