"I dove into the middle of it instead of starting at the beginning. I came across a lot of beautiful poetry of the whiteness of the whale and the colors of nightmares and the great spirit’s spout…I turned back to the start: ‘Call me Ishmael,’ and I was in love!"

"This is another book from my childhood that I love and cherish. The simple use of letters as words delighted me as a child and continues to as an adult as I am now quite adept at texting and utilize a lot of Steig in my texts, tweets and ‘grams."

"This workbook may not solve the Burning Issues of Your Life, but you sure as hell can save yourself a lot of trouble by looking into it…She has made some important matters wonderfully clear, and every page is informed by a sweet concern for the well-being of her reader."

"As a recent New York transplant in her mid-twenties, Swift says Girls is like her Sex and the City. “I could label all my girlfriends as Shoshannas, Jessas, Marnies or Hannahs,” she says. And which would she be? “I’ve thought about this a lot,” she says. A pause. “I’m Shoshanna.”"

"If every U.S. citizen could have the benefit of knowing Zinn’s collection of historical texts from a wide range of relatively known and unknown people throughout our country’s history, there would be a lot better quality in our current political class and in the style and substance of our governance."

"Of all the great memoirs to come out of the Black Power Movement (Angela Davis, Bobby Seales, Amiri Baraka, Nina Simone) Assata is my favorite. I draw a lot of inspiration from the Black Power Movement, and the way that she describes her activism is overflowing with passion and heart."

"A lot of what I love about Fish Tank as a film applies to this as well, though Blue Is the Warmest Color stands uniquely on its own. Again, it’s that magic of making you feel like you’re not even watching a movie but instead really seeing someone’s life happen."

"Godfather II, specifically number two. It was just what a gangster film should be. It was smart, it had great performances, and you travel through a lot of different worlds with these characters. You know, most people try to avoid family drama. [laughs] I just love the filmmaking in Godfather II."

"The best novel, surely, of a writer we love because he makes us question our favorite beliefs. His Aziz, Fielding, Adela, and the Anglo-Indian lot are the superb metaphors in the moral drama as well as people I seem to remember as if I had known and interacted with them."

"While researching an upcoming book, I read a lot of nonfiction about the wine life. This was the juiciest. (Pun intended.) Victoria James shares the inspiring story of how she overcame the obstacles of her childhood and misogyny to become a 21-year-old sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant."