00:00Hi, I'm Jessica Knoll, and I'm about to give Marie Claire a peek into my personal library.
00:10The first book that was recommended to me by my mom was The Belcher.
00:17I was home for Thanksgiving one year, and I was bored out of my mind.
00:22I didn't want to watch football.
00:23And she said, you read The Belcher?
00:26And I hadn't, and I was probably about 29 years old.
00:29I read it in about five or six hours.
00:33I didn't go to sleep until I finished it.
00:35It has the kind of propulsion that a thriller has, in my opinion.
00:39I absolutely love her voice of Esther Greenwood.
00:42This story is a heartbreaker.
00:44I reread it time and time again and just absolutely adore it.
00:49Next, I have really become obsessed with Flynn Berry.
00:52She is my new Gillian Flynn until Gillian Flynn comes out with her next book.
00:56I read it after reading Northern Spy, which was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick.
01:02And I was like, who is this writer?
01:03I need to read everything she's ever written.
01:05I absolutely adore her writing.
01:07It's creepy.
01:09It's sharp.
01:09And it's really, it has this subtle, quiet anger to it, which I love my female writers to be angry.
01:16It's one of the things that draws me to books and draws me to voices.
01:19So this is a must.
01:21It's always on my desk when I'm trying to write myself.
01:24Anytime I need some inspiration for my own prose.
01:28Susanna Moore, In The Cut, talk about something that is just quietly angry and quietly erotic.
01:36Maybe even not so quietly erotic.
01:38I keep describing In The Cut as like a nasty full book.
01:42Do not read it if you don't have a strong stomach.
01:44But if you're like me and you like the dark stuff, you will absolutely devour this.
01:48It's super short, really slim, a little read.
01:51I had to go back and watch the Meg Ryan movie after I read it.
01:56And then I went back and read it again.
01:59She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb.
02:01I adore the voice of Dolores.
02:03I heard Wally Lamb say in an interview once that her voice just came to him in the shower.
02:08And I think I read that interview when I was trying to craft the voice of Ani in my debut
02:15novel, Luckiest Girl Alive.
02:16And I immediately had to pick this up and see what it was all about.
02:19And I just absolutely was drawn to Dolores, to her story, to her perspective on the world, her dark sense
02:27of humor.
02:28Love, love, love this.
02:30Lastly, I have to include my newest, Bright Young Women.
02:34It's a fictional reimagining of the last murderous spree of Ted Bundy, one of our country's most famous serial killers.
02:42But I give it back to the women in this book.
02:45I tell the story from their perspective.
02:47And the title, Bright Young Women, comes from the remarks that the judge made at Ted Bundy's sentencing trial,
02:54where he lamented the tragedy of all this was not the women who had lost their futures and their lives,
03:01but that Ted Bundy had lost his, that he had a lot of talent,
03:05that he would have loved to have seen him practice in the courtroom in front of him,
03:08but instead he went another way and he was a bright young man.
03:11And as soon as I heard that, I knew I had to steal it and give it back to the
03:15women.
03:20My favorite genre is obviously thrillers.
03:22It's what I like to read and it's what I like to write.
03:25It's The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
03:27It was supposed to be a movie in the 90s and Gwyneth Paltrow was supposed to play the Camille part.
03:34And I guess it all fell through, but I think we should make another play.
03:39We should push to get this made because it's one of my all-time favorite books.
03:43Who gives the best book recommendations?
03:45Probably my mom.
03:46My mom has really good book recommendations.
03:50Probably reading Happiness Falls by Angie Kim.
03:53I absolutely loved it.
03:54I loved her first one too, Miracle Creek.
03:57My fictional book crush, Mr. Darcy, obviously.
04:01Diesel in Brentwood.
04:03It's in the Brentwood Country Mart.
04:04It's such a lovely Saturday to go there, get your coffee at Farm Shop,
04:08and go browse the shelves at Diesel.
04:10It's my happy place.
04:13It's myLING coming home.
04:16It's my
04:24You
Comments