Sarah Jessica Parker and Fatima Farheen Mirza @ Tompkins Square Library, Notes from the Reading Life

hello everyone welcome to Tompkins Square library can you hear me okay okay my name is Corrine Neary I'm the library manager here it's great to see you all here tonight for a program about books and about reading that's wonderful and actually a lot of new faces I haven't seen before which is also wonderful so please if you're ever in the branch say hello I love to meet new people it makes my life a lot more fun when I know the people at the library so I always like to ask who here has a library card oh wow all right we're almost at a hundred percent which is awesome I was gonna say get a library card but in this room I don't need to say that so I'm guessing since you're all library users you've heard a little bit about the budget cuts that the library is facing this year and it's not too late to still sign a letter we have them upstairs we were hoping actually we might come to an agreement today but I don't think it's happened yet as of right now and I do want to mention something very important you might have seen the letter in the press Sarah Jessica Parker wrote about libraries and about how much she loves the library and how important they are to New Yorkers it got a lot of attention it was picked up by a lot of media and it actually made a big impact and I just want you to think about that tonight that she's done a lot for us and this fight for funding and we really are very appreciative of that so we're very very happy to have you all here tonight in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the New York Department of Cultural Affairs this is the second year of the series you can find the recordings online of last year's conversations with Tim Gunn Thelma golden and DZ's nice they're on the NYPL and NBF websites the National Book Foundation websites and tonight is the second event in this year's series of three conversations with New Yorkers Brian lair Sarah Jessica Parker and Sonia Manzi Manzano talking about their books that they love the most and hopefully I think everyone got a copy on the way in of the old drift right we're having a book club discussion about that here Wednesday July 31st so please come back and continue the conversation start reading our ear edit Rita if you've read it already I haven't started and I'm very excited to get going on that book I'll be there that night and now I just want to welcome Beth Harrison the deputy director of the National Book Foundation so please give her a big round of applause and enjoy the night hi everybody thank you so much Corrine and thanks for the warm welcome here and what a great looking crowd this is exciting we're recording but I'm still gonna tell you this is kind of like my favorite series that we do we so often present writers talking about their writing which is the best but to hear about people who just love books like we all do and to hear people talk about reading and what got them excited about it just gets me excited every single time that I do this so I'm excited as you can see I want to thank everyone at the Tompkins Square branch for hosting us tonight we're delighted to have Sarah Sarah Jessica Parker here in conversation with Fatima farheen Mirza we're gonna talk about the way that the books have shaped lives before we begin I want to tell you just a tiny little bit about the National Book Foundation and what we do our mission is to celebrate the best in American literature expand its audience and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture we do that through the National Book Awards which have been around since 1950 and they've celebrated great honorees such as William Carlos Williams Ralph Ellison Rachel Carson Adrienne rich Lydia Davis Donna Hussey coats and so many more our work also includes a wide variety of educational programs and public programs in addition to the awards we have a program called book rich environments which by the end of this summer we'll have distributed over the past three years 1 million free books to children and families living in public housing across the country and we're super proud of that and that's happening forty different communities across America including every borough in New York City there's about 70,000 book 75,000 books that are like getting into the hands of kids right now and I just got goosebumps I love our programs we also have programs that bring National Book Award honored authors to community colleges public libraries performance venues all kinds of great spots around the country rural areas urban areas suburban areas we do it all we do it everywhere we're in about 35 states as of the end of this summer in just a few years ago we were in maybe seven states so we've really grown we're trying to be national but New York is home so the New York Public Library is our fabulous partner and I can't thank them enough again we're thanking the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs for their generous support they're the ones who enabled you to all have a free book tonight so enjoy that and thank your Department of Cultural Affairs okay yeah Sarah Jessica and Fatima we'll have a conversation tonight for about 40 minutes and then we're going to have some time for question and answer from the audience so get your great questions ready when you have a question raise your hand there will be a staff person who will come swiftly over to you with a microphone as I mentioned we are recording so we do want to get not just their comments in conversation but your comments and conversation and questions on records so wait for the microphone and you'll get to feel you know the nervousness that we're all feeling here when you have a microphone in front of you after the program I hope you'll stick around we're gonna have continued conversation and some refreshments okay now here we go the main event introductions our moderator again is Fatima farheen Mirza she was born and raised in California she's a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and a recipient of the missioner Kapernick Copernicus fellowship her debut novel a place for us was the first title published by Sarah Jessica Parker's imprint SJP for Hogarth the book was an instant New York Times bestseller it was named the best book of 2018 by the Washington Post NPR people BuzzFeed and the she's also a teaching artist with the National Book Foundation we have a program called book up and it's essentially a book club for middle school students and she is a delight and beloved by all the kids that she works with every year and finally our special guest tonight Sarah Jessica Parker she's the editorial director of SJP for Hogarth she is the star and executive producer of divorce which premiered in October 2016 on HBO she currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors of the New York City Ballet in November 2009 the Obama administration elected her to be a member of the President's Committee on the arts and the humanities she lives with her husband three children and lots of books right here in New York City please welcome Sarah Jessica and Fatima hello everybody thank you all for being here um thank you to the National Book Foundation into the knee Republic library for putting on this event and Sarah Jessica for doing it I know firsthand what a privilege it is to be read by someone like Sarah Jessica it was a you know when I met her and we started speaking about books and about my book it was it was so inspiring to hear the way that she thinks about literature and the way that she talks about it and so I know that we're all in for a treat tonight and today actually also and maybe I'm the only one who thinks of it like this but it marks the one-year anniversary yeah of when my book came out and we on this day last year we were doing an event together at Union Square and I was so so nervous and tonight I'm a little bit less nervous and also tonight by tonight the imprint has grown and it has three books dawn being the most recent one and before we talk about that I want to begin at the very beginning of your relationship to reading and I want to ask you know what what fostered this lifelong relationship that you have good evening I'm comforted by your presence and I celebrate the extraordinary success of your book and it's very nice to be together on it's your anniversary so I don't know perhaps like many of you in the room where some of you in the room I I had him I had a mother who was a reader I had a mother who is a perhaps a little bit of a lonely a lonely young woman didn't have a huge amount of friends but but books were a great companion to my to my mother and and I think the library in particular served a very important role in my mother's life and it was like it was through her relationship with librarians and cultivating you know sort of a sort of a family frankly at her local public library in Cincinnati Ohio she was introduced to the New Yorker when she was 13 the librarians would save it for her she would read the New York Times at the public library and she she lived to be inside the pages of a book and I think probably for the same reasons that I love being inside the bay you know between the covers inside the pages is just to be taken somewhere else and and as I have traveled a lot of my life and worked and been alone and needed something that felt steady it was always a book and so my mother had a rule I had a rule growing up in our home and which was you could never leave you were not only allowed to leave the house without a book in your hand but this was imposed upon even those of us who could who had yet learn how to read but she didn't she said it didn't matter it was a sort of it was 'awesome OSes it was sort of this relationship that she was she was creating for us and even when we would go to museums and we were very young and she would drag as to museums and she would say if you get bored it doesn't matter because you'll have a book and if you can't read it doesn't matter because you'll look at the pages of the book or you'll look around the room and you'll have your book or she'll make us go to the symphony and which was really it seemed boring but if you had a book you know so she yeah she created this relationship of necessity and then we became young adults and we chose all on our very own to never leave house that you know never leave the house without a book so it's my mother it's my mother a greedy reader and now I am too I love that and I love the way that you described her as somebody who would live inside the books it's one of when I first heard you speaking about books one of the thoughts that struck me was that you know Sarah Jessica reads as though she's lived inside them that was an actual thought and so it's amazing to think that you know your parents can really teach you how to how to how to read do you remember some of those early books that made you realize that this is magical you just want to stay up all night it's funny I don't I feel like I've been asked this question so often and I meaning it's because it's a good question I'm always curious about what were those early books especially for for people I'm so curious about other people who have such this who have a sort of crazy obsessive relationship with books with reading you know and I can't I should have I always I think often I should just lie I mean I honestly feel like I should just make up some book titles but I think honestly what happened is I think I think we read so much honestly and we spent so much time reading we didn't have a television by the way we were only allowed to listen to NPR a local NPR station so we spent so much time reading that I don't think I recall titles and I recall learning to read I recall the the exercise and how hard it seemed how how far away the destination was I was like well this can possibly ever happen like how will they ever be able to string all these letters together and but I remember later as a young adult what I started like very very adult um reading I think really the first book that really took me away was the mixed-up files of Miss Basel II frankweiler and it was before I moved to New York everybody most people know this book and um I I think it's a really good example of being transported and that girl was looking for the same thing and I think it's so perfectly written and I tried to try to make my daughter's read it but they were really really young and like together at night but they were about six or seven and they finally said to me we just we don't know what you're talking about like we'd like what what ain't why is she miserable like what you know what do you mean a balance sheet like there was talk of like a checkbook like you know but I remember that book specifically because if it's just it's escapism it's like a story of it's a fantasy and there's so many perfect details for young readers you know grabbing pennies from the fountain in front and putting your feet up on the toilet stalls and what that picture meant and who painted it in the statue and the like so that was the first book I remember reading that I picked that I was like oh this is where I want to be you know and it also sounds like you've tried to instill the love of learning in your children to then the way that your mother had with you have you been successful in that I think I yes I I mean I guess I'm happy to share that my children are readers it's it's such a thrill and I wasn't certain I wasn't certain how you know how true it was I wasn't entirely convinced that it was like a longing and a yearning the way I felt but this morning my daughter came down the stairs and she was the last one up and out and she walked into the kitchen and she walked I have twin daughters who are will be 10 in 10 days and they are very different readers they have completely different tastes it's so it's so interesting to watch them select and start like creating their own way into books and then I have a son who's almost 17 and he's a great reader although less for pleasure now because school has consumed all of his reading time but yeah they're there they're there good and excited and um they're hungry readers it's really nice I'm I'm enormous ly relieved that's amazing and I love you know I have three younger brothers and some of them are not readers and one of them is and it also makes it so fun to be able to talk about that with them and like adds a whole new layer to your relationship with I'm curious about you because I am I'm wondering because you know obviously you're such such a gifted writer but who who was the reader or who wasn't there or how how was yours how did your relationship with books start and words and I don't mind the writing part but just I don't think I've ever told you this story um but for me my both of my parents they were never readers growing up but when I was very young my dad would buy books and they had they were books about like bears that were brothers and sisters or just like you know children's books and instead of instead of reading to me my dad would ask me if I could read to him and I didn't really know how to read yet but those are some of my earliest memories is trying to see how to read to him and do you think what why do you think he was asking you to read to him I haven't you know I honestly don't know maybe maybe because he didn't have a relationship to reading that's something that he's only recently begun actually and it's been such it's been one of them like it's been I'm so proud of him because my whole life he never read and then I wrote this novel and then I wrote this novel and then I gave it to my parents thinking well you know I've never seen them reads there he's probably not gonna read it and then my dad was reading it and he would call me and be like Fatma I just want to know what happens next and I would say Baba that's nothing I did that's just experience of reading and then since then he's he's made a commitment that he's gonna read one book a month Wow and he's kept it and he shifted so quickly into becoming a critic he'll call me now and you're like mother way that that author ended the book I wasn't I wasn't on board and I'm like what are you talking about so yeah that's that was really my introduction to reading yeah um one thing I wanted to ask you you know you you juggle so many different roles and you are so busy and I'm sure so many people would want to hear how do you find time to eat is that something that you have to actually is that it is that like a decision that you have to make like I'm gonna set time aside because even even for me I love reading and yet I resist it every day I never want to do it and then I'm always happy I've done it it's like working out do you feel that way yeah I don't feel that I mean I don't resist it I have to resist making time to read when there is none like cheating on what is you know what other responsibilities exist I think um because I think cuz I have I have a job that actually creates the time and space because when you're shooting and you're sitting in hair and makeup if you know your lines assuming you know your lines it's a really great time to read or a long drive to a set is a really great time to read if you know your lines and you should know your lines so I am all so the set is I get a huge amount of reading done and purposefully on the set which some people have objected to I always have a book when they call cut or they are changing the lens I always know that within the arm's length there's a book or if I'm my character it's carrying a bag my own personal book is in the bag or if it's my in a bed that I know I can put it under the pillow next to me in the bed and some actors feel like it's antisocial that I'm that I'm anti-social but in actuality it's it's my way of staying focused which doesn't really make sense because it takes me away from the scene I'm shooting but actually it keeps me really focused because there's so much chatter when they call cut or they're changing the lens or moving the camera or you have 20 minutes because they're changing the light you know they're big changes and small it for me it just keeps me really focused and it keeps me calm it and this stress that or the things that I'm concerned about the way I don't know it's really helpful so I'll tell you one really really quick little anecdote I don't have a lot of anecdotes but I do have this one and it's real it's true when I was shooting a movie called hocus pocus and it took months and months and months to shoot and I was wearing period costumes so I had a proper corset on I think from the 1600s right would be yes and I figured out that I could fold the New York Times three ways like like they used to do on the subway to remember when people used to read on the subway don't you guys miss that so much anyway I would fold my my my times like that and because we spent so much time flying in that movie we were we were you know we were elevated up in harnesses and we'd be way up on a soundstage fine and I would just tell them no you don't have to bring me down between shots and I would just pull the times out of and the New Yorker do I could pull it out of my from back from behind my corset or under my skirt and then just sit in my harness 50 feet up in a soundstage at Disney and um read The Times as a committed reader because the book was too bulky I was actually wondering about you know the relationship between your life as a reader and your life as an actor and if if you think that maybe your love of reading has at all informed the way that you approach your role when you're embodying a character does it how do you think it's helped you imagine characters or I think it's made me want to play better more interesting characters I mean I think books there's so so so many great books and there's so many interesting stories and there's so many characters that are unfamiliar to us if that's what you reach for and I know you and I both reach for the unfamiliar that it makes me it it makes me want more from my own industry it makes me want those stories for everybody not just women for everybody so I think it informs me but not in a way that is necessarily a direct action I think it inspires you know if there's it it inspires sort of an Envy in in some ways but also that we could be we could and continue to we could and should continue to tell more interesting and diverse stories you know I think it's almost like there's a demand for it now so I just wish I was doing them you know I love that and but do you think the opposite could be true are you ever reading a novel and then because you spend so much time also imagining how characters occupy space and a scene do you do you like find yourself imagining possibly like facial expressions I don't know what it's like to be an actor but do you imagine like facial expressions of the characters in a moment that you think other readers might not be doing I bet I'm imagining just the same way mm-hmm anybody else in this room I feel like way back is too much I'm sorry um probably the same way I think you know great storytelling and great writing doesn't doesn't need for you to create it's this bizarre and wonderful miracle where it you know you don't have to work hard to create what what the writer is sharing with you whether it's color or disposition or the smell of a place or the sight I've seen somebody that they didn't reckon you know all that I think that's what astounds me most about good writing is how deeply you are exactly where the author wants you to be and it's extraordinary and it's a sort of skill that I just I I guess more than anything I just have such admiration for being able to take people right where you needed them to be and right where the characters need the reader to be like I think sometimes I remember talking to Molly Stern who was a publisher at Crown and and Hogarth and um sort of you know brought us together and I remember telling her about his turn his like and I can't believe how right he got it you know it's like that's Copenhagen or you know bubbeleh and she's like have you been to Copenhagen Isaac no I've never been a cover but but but a good writer makes you think like absolute that's exactly what a pastry smells like at 4:00 a.m. on the streets you know in the Netherlands I don't know I think about that when I'm teaching writing I always tell my my my writers that you should write the scene as though you're you're holding the readers hand and like you're leading them to everything that they need to see and if they've gone to too many pages ought to smell and that's like a completely that's like a whole way of being in the world that you haven't activated and if you've gone too long without a sound than that to you do that so have you all read a place for us you had the privilege if you've not I'm I really I like any skin in the game I'm removing its because there is so much of that detail that you do so beautifully it's it's bizarre at your 10 tender years that you were able to that you have the language at your fingertips in that way because it's so much of your book is the sight and the smell it's the culture it's you know all of that that is necessary right because we need to know who that family is in order to understand why all those images are so important and heartbreaking why they create such sentimentality and also frustration but without the descriptive part of your book we couldn't as much we couldn't be we couldn't care we couldn't worry in the same way it's the details that that that capture readers I think thank you do you guys see how lucky I've been to have Sarah Jessica's editorial director yeah yeah just I'm so fortunate that it found your hands and I I'm wondering you know what has has your reading has your relationship to reading changed as the editorial director has it changed the way that you read books I know for myself I loved reading so much as a kid and then when I decided to become a writer all of a sudden the joy from it was it just became very pleasurable homework yeah I don't because I don't have the same it's I don't have the same experience with the written word that you do you you have you produce you have to or I'm gonna say you want to produce and I just want to read so it strangely it hasn't it hasn't changed radically the experience reading I think I try to be more thoughtful about you know as an it's like I'm not a line editor I'm sort of a more general you know thinking generally about story and plot and character and you know audience um but but I always feel even when a book you know wasn't for me or we didn't get it or even if it just simply wasn't ready I never I I never want my time back um I I still like I'm not anymore like I'm not more cynical now because I have the chance to put a book in the hands of a reader no I love it as much in fact I think that thing is it's maybe slightly a little bit you know like I can call and maybe get an early copy like that's what it's made me a little bit you know naughty you know yeah and I know that the third book Don is one of the the titles and there's there are four other titles that you chosen is there any ones that you want to talk about like what drew you to them well do you guys have you read have you read I'm have you read some of these most most of these the ones that we have on this list I'm just curious I don't I don't want to talk too much about books that a majority of you haven't read because there's nothing alike experiencing a book for the first time without someone basically ruining that for you I mean I loved all these books the old drift I see it in a lot of people's hands are people done with it Midway show of hands how you just got it oh we shouldn't talk about this book this well let's start with that all right it's have you read it yet no okay no it's a huge undertaking it's it's it's extraordinary it reminds me so much of the way I felt when I read your book because it is epic if if you not read it most nobody in here yet is read it you're in for such a treat okay you're in for such a treat and and um I was talking to somebody who had who had it and it's um be patient with it because it it it travels it's sweeping its it's really like a massive examination of time and place and there's much that I didn't know much that I not only did I learn but I had to learn it was important that I understood better but be patient with it if you're if you're a racer reader you might find that you're not racing but don't don't stop because it it all adds up it's an accumulation it's an extraordinary accumulation of experience and and um and place and you know deeply upsetting about the way people behaved and the way people do behave and and courage and fantasy it's it's it's a it's a wonderful wonderful book I could not put it down and it's you know been met with all sorts of ravishing praise and it's in my humble opinion very deserving I loved what you were saying about like it taught you things that you couldn't know otherwise to me like learning you think that you're reading just to get an experience but it also teaches you so much whether it is about whatever the character is perceiving or even just allowing you to articulate your own experience back to you in a way that you didn't know before and sometimes books sometimes books seem purposefully timed and I don't know a great deal about anomalies there how do you say her name properly sir pal I don't know a huge amount except I know that she's been writing for a while and I think she's a she's teaching and um but you know she has a lesson she is she's offering a lesson and you know you think you know about what what do you know what it was to be colonized right we talked about that I mean we sort of well I don't I I don't think I understood it this way and yeah I think this book is is timely the way I felt your book was timely and it's you can't pin you can't pinpoint it and say specifically why but but there is something fortuitous about this book coming out now and and the fact that she's telling this story I think it's important and necessary I can't wait to read it it's exciting yourself time give yourself time I don't know it's 700 600 642 pages I don't know every page of the light two of the books on here are nonfiction titles the furious hours and say nothing I'm only a few chapters and to say nothing it's if anyone here read say nothing yet yeah jealous of you so I won't say a great deal I won't say nothing but so I had been hearing about say nothing and I have a local bookstore three lives bookstore anybody I love it there ah heaven is heavenly and I monitor myself you know I I'm like do you really deserve do you know do you really deserve to go to three lines today or not but I like to check in with them and see what they're feeling and thinking and they're all great readers and I've been hearing about say nothing and I it's once again it's I thought I understood troubles in Ireland I thought I understood that conflict I really you know we spend a lot of time in Ireland my husband and I and my family and our children and and he has for decades and decades and we were were far north but we're further north than Northern Ireland actually but but once again you know what a great writer is willing to do the work and take you in and and you're willing as the reader to learn you know you can be swept away and and in a book whether it's nonfiction or fiction can be filled with suspense and you know romance and horror and you know everything but also when it's about a time and a place that is based primarily on facts documented facts versus alternative X and it's a really it's a great achievement what he's done and he it's taken him years and it's very illuminating and it's it's as it's like a beach thriller the way it's written I mean you're just like ripping through the pages yeah I remember I've just begun it and I was so impressed by the way that he was able to teach me so much about a conflict that I knew very little about but in this very elegantly done away what we're learning about these personal lives and all of a sudden yeah it's there it's Tara it's so troubling really stunning and it really I think it's the most vivid portrait I've ever seen of Belfast and even the way the streets divide you know the description of homes inside behind doors in government housing or contra mat they call it state estate I can't remember they call it um but you just don't unless there's a documentary you're just not in there that deep right now he does it so beautifully you're right and I love - how you described it as I think this is how you described it what you were talking about like this is an author who was like touched by this obsession and that obsession allowed them to then write this thing I often feel that reading some books like oh this person was like uniquely their mind it was working in a way that allowed them to research all this and gather for us and I and I've since heard it my I I put off heat there's lots of interviews with with the author Patrick I think it's Patrick keep I can remember his name pather Brad and Keith but there's lots of interviews that are really interesting and there's some longer format interviews and I didn't want to listen to them until I had read the book because I was like oh but the more you learn about the way the way he chose to write this story and how he kept uncovering information he's a great journalist I think he's a writer for The New Yorker actually but yeah he he was as embedded as you could possibly be and and and in doing so you know solved in essence solved solved the mystery of a of a murder that really nobody was willing to do you know for lots of various political reasons and complicated reasons and scary reasons it's great book really good and Don is the third title of SJ people Garth and I was really struck by the way the author while the author's biography is also so fascinating he wrote these stories from prison and in his preface he talks about the power of literature and I just wanted to share really quickly like what he says it's incredible he says some may think at naive to turn our attention to the role of literature in the midst of such troubles I would beg to differ literature the art form that arguably comprises the backbone of any culture not only remains at the vanguard of critical thinking but also serves as a catalyst for the thoughts and feelings that in turn create political change let us not forget as long as we continue to breathe life into words those words will not abandon us and I was wondering you know as a reader or as a editorial director what do you believe is the power of fiction this is the power of literature in your own words well I think it's it's sometimes I think oh this is why people who aren't readers are scared of authors this is why people burn books because words are powerful and authors and writers and educators and academics are willing to tell the truth in story whether it's in fiction or nonfiction and I think the power is is the truth and that can be in fiction and I think it's very scary for a lot of people I think it's why dictators and you know leaders you know I think it's why salad-eating dammit Asha is in prison because I he's scary he's that I don't know do any of you are you familiar with him so selahattin Demirtas who I'm sure I'm not pronouncing it correctly he's um he is the he is the he was he is currently in prison since 2000 2016 in Turkey he's the Kurdish opposition he's a leader of the Kurdish opposition party and so he's run for president and he's been put in jail he's a political prisoner he published this book I think almost a year and a half two years ago he wrote these stories while in prison and I think they sold 200,000 copies maybe in two weeks in Turkey [Music] he's very controversial you know if you ask air21 his opinion you know he'll tell you that mr. dammit Asha is a terrorist so you can go home and you'll read all sorts of information um but this book is exquisite and it - I feel is necessary it's a it's a story of being marginalized and it's the story of being a refugee it's a story of being a woman it's these stories of I should say it's it's a collection of short stories it's a um it's a story of you know it'sit's the story of what's happening in Turkey right now and and all over the world and and even as you know after we've published we've seen lots of government's attempts to quiet people that scare them that disagree that opposed that ask questions that want to talk and share their own personal story and their own struggles and their oftenly often the people that are most different and threatening and unfamiliar and this book is funny and touching I don't know how he finds humor but he does and it's not it's not silly humor it's smart and clever it's knowing it's deeply subversive it's painful it's a it's a tribute to women and their strengths and their courage and their um indefatigable spirit and what they require of themselves it's um it's it's it's really a beautiful fun I know it sounds weird to say fun but he's such a good writer he's such a fun nimble writer he enjoys writing so much that you even as you experience this sort of suffering he describes you're so happy to be with him in these stories that sense of the writer enjoying themselves is so palpable it's almost like they're like winking yeah even as he's imprisoned right I have one kind of maybe a hard question and I'm just wondering you know how do you are there any lines or details or moments from books that you know as you're going about your day will return to you and and help you explain like what you're feeling maybe in a moment or you were talking earlier about the detail of the pennies or like the girl who puts her leg up and I just wondered if you there are like certain phrases or something that like have expanded your way of perceiving the world in a way that surprises you I'm very bad at remembering specifics I think my husband and his best friend they I don't know they remember everything from movies and books and they can recite lines from every Mel Brooks movie and and Philip Roth and and I I'm like I can't I feel like I'm terrible about that but I do remember things you know I remember you know I always think of Theo Dekker did you guys read the Goldfinch I was always worried about him until I met um until I met him our and then amar took the Oh Decker's place in my heart but I would write before I met amar I used to see Theo Decker meet what's his name Oh Hobart what's his name the man the furniture I've just forgotten sorry I'm the man who takes him in and he's and he has the daughter Pippy and or the niece or whatever hope I want to say his name is Hobart but it's not Hobart but but anyway I used to see that all the time because Donna Tartt describes 10th Street she makes up 10th Street that doesn't exist and I tried to get from her where are you talking about like where on 10th Street eh but she's made it up you know because it's it's otherworldly that book you know so I used to see him a lot and then I would say oh my god there's um what's his name the guy whose name I can't remember now not the old ekor and so I remember moments like that I remember for some reason in that book a lot I and I don't know why I flash on it but she describes when when Theo and Boris are in Vegas and and Boris has worn his father's coat and it's a dis old wet military coat you know from like the Russian military or something and she describes it hanging up in a bathtub soaking wet and what what you know what wool smells like and it's so bleak and depressing anyway Vegas how she describes it properly and um you know that sort of housing development and so I remember things like that you know I remember so much about how DEA's wedding or visuals and smells but I don't remember and I think I remember them because I want to be there again I want to be back in that book for the first time yeah that feeling or a book that ignites that kind of feeling I one of the worst feelings in my life is when I'm reaching the end of a book that I've loved and it feels like what if I never feel this way as I'm reaching which is not true but yeah you just don't want to say goodbye you don't want to leave that world you want things to be undecided and it's a real conflict because you both want to know what's on the remain pages but you're desperate for it to not be over I'm doing this crazy thing right now so I just started Elena Ferrante --hz Wow Paulito novels and I read the first one in January and I became obsessed with it and I didn't allow my two myself to read the second one until March and now I know there's only two left and I'm like when am I gonna like give in because I see them and I want to read them but I want to space it out exactly you know you got a parcel yeah exactly it's very hard though yeah you gotta find great books in between that distract you from brain calling your name got some recommendations if you need so I have a few quick I don't know how we're doing on time how are we doing on time okay so I have a few quick fun and easy okay we can take questions from the audience okie dokie these are really quick ones what's the best book you were ever gifted uh yours what's the book that you most often find yourself gifting another well yours for a long time to be sexy guy that's the truth but lately I will tell you that lately since and pass passed on which was gifted but um there were a lot of men in my life who aren't great like they're not devoted readers so I gave a lot of them say nothing because I was like this will this will seduce them this will be the lure this will be the the gateway drug or whatever and so then I gave it to so many people and then I went back to three lives and I was like I'm embarrassed to tell you that now I'm buying a copy for myself I bought one for my husband but I felt like that was his if I took it any of you like oh you didn't really mean this for me you meant it so that's the one most recently yeah I love how clear it is that you're such a champion for books like no matter what even if it's like you don't read but I know what's gonna get you and you know what I gave it to this guy and his husband was like she doesn't read he doesn't read I was like just he'll read I'll of it it's been you know I was like your reader yeah well I began that and I was just like immediately pandan it's cozy what this is a kind of funny one this is for me maybe what is one of your fiction character crushes like if they were a real person in real life you totally be in love with them um oh my god [Music] no I can't think of any hold on a second let's come back to that just give me one tip we'll take other questions and then I'll come pray what is a name and and not a name that you encountered in a novel that you loved oh my gosh I love you Decker for some reason just cuz it's like I don't know Theodore Decker its Co easy they sound good together he seems like good together gosh bad at ease my last one if you were a character in a novel as you are but your life was fictionalized where would the story of your life begin we'd say that again why didn't so if you where a character in a novel like you or your life was fictionalized we're like what scene with the story of your life begin wait I'm not sure I'm smart enough wait make it even even make it even dumber um no so if I want to answer you where a character in a novel what would be I mean actually it was like a novel about you where I would it where would that scene begin like for me maybe I would say something like it would begin when I'm you know um me and my brothers have just watched Lion King for the first time and we're like obsessed with that scene where scar kills Mufasa horrible yeah horrible traumatized and yet no drama - yeah and me and my brother we came home and we just could not get it out of my mind we kept throwing each other off the couch thing like long live the king and like throwing each other uh-huh and I do think that maybe that's where the story of my life would begin I think it's great cuz they also created explicable like what it what's happening and why yeah why would a brother do that you know that's very good let's see I guess maybe I guess maybe I might have coming to New York you know as a young girl you know really having time here and then like I'd collapse time a little bit cuz then I'd go back to Cincinnati amazing I would be like the way I would think about it cuz you could make it very cinematic like oh I'm gonna get back there you know like you just answered that so incredibly you just structured the first few chapters of your No thank you so much does anyone from the audience have any questions yes thank you good evening in I enjoyed the discussion very much my question to you Miss Parker will be when you're reading books as an actress do you think in terms of adaptation like oh if I was to adapt this with like a limited TV series awful film like do you approach books in that manner not at all that's why I have no I'm not successful very much that way because I mean I know like I'm not like I don't other people do that really really well and who are who are great book lovers equally you know but I I think my relationship with books is I think I'm self that's like I forget you could be mercenary you know you could think of it strategically and I just I haven't done it yet I really haven't I mean I and in any book that I'm describing here they're all enormous Lee cinematic immediately you can you can imagine a life on a smaller large screen all of these books but I didn't I just love reading but that doesn't mean that I'm not getting it together I'm like wait a minute so maybe I'll be more clever in the future I don't choose chances yeah yeah so scary bye I'm surprised I haven't seen you in the neighborhood yep but now I'm gonna look it up okay okay I'm just curious I am kind of sad sometimes when a book is made into a movie because I have my feeling about like all of a sudden like my I can't live up to your movie I'm wondering right how exactly how you guys feel when a book is made into a movie like thumbs down whatever thumbs up I feel like you've probably seen more adaptations of books to movies than I have I'm very bad about seeing movies so I apologize the way that I think about it is that you just have to separate it it's a different form so you cannot expect the movie to do for you what the book did and if it's if it's been adapted well it'll just take on it'll be the similar story but in a completely different form like organized in a different way yeah I I don't have enough experience but I tend to not I tend to be pretty loyal to the book like I'm like I can't see that cuz I read that I love I love you know but my daughter's they will say are not allowed to see the movie they've read the book because you can always their books tend to be so much more concentrated and movies have to cherry pick you know cuz you don't get to spend eight hours in a movie theater typically no so they have to like carve away some of the stuff that I'm like most attached to or I'm afraid they have yes so my grandmother has always said that you have an upstairs book and a downstairs book and you read them at the same time and you're upstairs it's like your rom-com your moods read and then your downstairs is your nonfiction or your heavy upstairs is the what the rom-com the like beach read that you don't really want people seeing but then you're downstairs you're downstairs book is your like nonfiction your heavy read that you want to show like oh I'm reading this right now so do you read multiple books at once are you all in in one book you wanna go first sure um I do read multiple books at the same time I I think I'm a bad reader and that I don't if I sense that a book is like in an upstairs reading I guess what I'm saying is like if I if since I've started reading as a writer I'm trying like approach books for three reasons you know one is like the story and what is the author doing and the other is like can I learn something from this and if it's not fulfilling both of those and and the then I I just don't say committed to it I guess but I do read multiple things at the same time I don't accept if it's fruit for work like I'll have to be reading a bunch of stuff for work but I don't consider that really voluntary like I don't think that that's my choice and um it's my choice I'm happy to do it it's not a burden but it's different than the book I like and I um I don't dislike be the thing I'm most I like I don't read any book up embarrass stuff I I never got into that genre of book like I I don't know if it was my mom maybe she didn't let us read something the other kids were reading that would be too enjoyable for us like she was very snobby about that and you know that's junk like we went on to have a Barbie doll for instance like that we just weren't and I chose she didn't ever let us read the stuff that and I've got no issue with reading it she just conditioned me so I don't read it but I bet it's fun and I pop I would probably have if I yeah I probably haven't upstairs when we were younger we covered our books with a grocery bag you know like I would just do that and what upstairs and downstairs like everyone everywhere book yes hi I have a question for each so what's your vision for your imprint and in your case do you have another book do you have your next book already in your brain and where is that going mm-hmm for a long time I did not allow myself to think of another book but recently well for actually yeah for a while now I've been I've been starting to think but it's gonna be very different than the first one and so I don't know how I'm gonna approach it so I haven't actually sat down and begun the prose part of it but I'm thinking about it and thinking about it oh I'm so excited yeah and I'm not you know I'm not sure we you know got to publish three beautiful books that I'm very privileged and you know we'll see what you know what happens and what I might find or you know get to be part of you know I'll always be looking for the next book but I do I really do like the thing that's been most interesting and most exciting is that I had had a chance I've had a chance to work in the literary fiction genre which is I think a unique space in the world of publishing and and I think it deserves support and explanation and I I want very much to continue to talk about whether I publish them or not to talk about literary fiction because I think it takes you to two other places I think it's often you know an instrument for cultivating empathy and understanding each other better it's often global voices which I'm most interested in voices from far away a lot of diverse voices people that are unfamiliar places that are unfamiliar religions that are unfamiliar you know so those are the things that I'm interested in as a reader and as a publisher yes which book are books for you celebrate New York the way that Sex in the City did gosh I'm trying to think about a New York book hold on Oh Lord in New York wait a minute there's so many great books about this city what's wrong with me I want it I so much want to answer that question because there's fantastic important books about our city and I I mean oh my god I'm choking I'm falling short I miss I'm that's a great question do other people have ideas EB white right this is New York I haven't read it yet but Patti Smith's dress why sure that is amazing amazing forgive me I hear that's amazing yes oh my god I'm fire the vanities I don't know that's a different ideas a little cynical yeah I think go-go 80s pardon New York is a novel that a book there's a book called New York the novel all right fantastic I hope someone's taking notes I think there's time for two more questions lady right there hello lovely to be here a question for each of you please as editorial director what in a manuscript makes you jump and say hey this is something I want to publish that's for you Sarah and for Fatima you have an India connect do any few books already talked about in there do at some point plan to weave that in into your story thank you go first sure um the novel a place for us is is I don't think of it as a not novel about a family immigrating from India it's not about the immigration experience to me it's about you know what happens when their kids are here and growing up and so the there's only one scene that takes place in Heather broth which is where my family's from in India but I do think that it's a place that I'm going to be returning to in my imagination and in my fiction and trying to understand yeah trying to understand it better and trying to understand what each generation inherits and away from a place oh yeah I've been - I've been - had their broad only twice in my life I'm dying to go back and I've been to Mumbai in Delhi yeah and I'll just say that I think probably the same experience you have when you're opening and reading for the first few pages and you're struck and you want to be nowhere else I mean in the case of Fatima's book it was just taking an immediate light immediately by where we were in that story and just touching on what she gives us just just enough to hook up to make to I just didn't want to be anywhere else I mean and I couldn't a mat for and then of course your your deeper and the next thing you know your deeper and deeper and your hundreds of pages in and I couldn't imagine that we would ever have the opportunity to publish a book of that skill and that that kind of colorful vivid storytelling and and the same with Claire Adams look you know taken to the world which I I love to just mention um golden boy golden child sorry no golden try golden boy is the Charla Strauss musical but it's the clear Adam book and it's a book about a family in Trinidad and Tobago and it's in it's a it's a heartbreaking I don't know if you've had a chance to read it it's a heartbreaking story about sacrifice and um and dignity and class system and money and the economy of Trinidad and Tobago at this time and once again you learned so much but you are completely absorbed because of the characters and we knew that we knew it immediately when we read you know the first 10 20 pages that here was this man desperate to do right by his family and by these boys and so I think what hits you is the place where you find yourself and the people who keep you in that place and just skillful writing yes Thanks um I have a question for Fatima but also it could be extended to Sarah Jessica I'm wondering was there a character for you that was most difficult to write in this book that just you you couldn't get there their voice or their character right and it took a little while to find that cadence and I guess in turn Sarah Jessica it was their character that was most fun for you to read or most exciting or most interesting for you to read in this book for me actually I think like mother Leila was the hardest to write because it was a you know Layla and Rafiq the both of the parents are the least like me in terms of age and where they're from and what role what place they are at in their lives but Rafiq was a little bit easier to imagine my way into but Layla's you know if I met Leila in real life we might disagree about some things we might disagree about what she thinks the role of her daughter's is or like how she approaches her sons but I and so for me it was it was like my up my ultimate goal was like to try and understand and honor her experience and and not approach her as Fatima who would you know if Laila was my mom she's not but if she was would be arguing with her but instead like trying to understand what makes Laila think like this how can I understand her and write her without any kind of judgment so that was the hardest it took a lot of drafts yeah I don't I'm gonna kind of stay with her question for a second just to talk about that more for a second I think when you read a place for us for those of you who haven't yet raised to your local library and get on the wait list because there's always a wait list for that book but I think the last section some people call it the last section basically is a story of Rafiq and I think it's the father and it's it's stunning to experience and has been talked about so much by readers and reviewers because it's it's it's such a massive accomplishment to be inside the father the inside the head of this man who is so unfamiliar right but written by a woman who was at the time what 20 22:23 like 20 you know 1819 I think it's crazy and and that section of the book is so heart-rending it's so deeply moving you understand so much more about the way he chose to parent and all of his shortcomings and why he was withholding and when he was and what it meant to him to be a father in America to raise American children to be an American family even as they are Muslim America you know and I think that that is um it's not so much that I related but I was so all of us in those early days of reading the manuscript were so swept away by Fatima's ability to understand a man who is so different even than her own father like he's not Rafiq is not Fatima's father it's a huge it's just such a triumph and I loved being with him it was painful and painful for most people who read the book that can't stop weeping thank you and yeah you were speaking earlier about what it was like to publish and I just want to say again like it was that you read it that you that I was able to embark on this journey with you was it was like the greatest gift for to me and I'm so grateful and I am I continue to be like so inspired by the way that you think about literature and the way that you talk about it and I'm sure everybody tonight is you know feeling that too and also really excited to go home and he's nice to be [Applause] I just quickly say thank you so much for me you did beautifully and it's always nice to be in a room with readers it's so cool that I hope next time if I'm invited back we can turn the tables on you you can talk and we can listen so thank you for having me thank you so much another round of applause please for Fatima and for Sarah Jessica I've met a lot of publishing people and booksellers and librarians and I don't think there's a bigger book champion than you it is amazing thank you so much that's so great so um we are going to let our special guests walk around the room there and kind of make their way the rest of us I just want to let you know about an event that's happening on Monday there's the third and final event in this series for this year I know there's at least one person in the room who has a 100% attendance record at this series over two years so I want to see how there's two I know right here all right so I'd like to see the rest of you up in the Bronx on Monday Sonia Manzano better known as Maria from Sesame Street is going to tell us about how much she loves books and that's gonna be extraordinary so please join us meanwhile we can all proceed up to the first floor and there's a little reception thing going on so make sure you got your book make sure you get some cheese and some cookies and thank you for coming

Channel: National Book Foundation

Views: 18,089

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Id: wenojvxdR74

Length: 69min 18sec (4158 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019