“I wrote this book about loss,” she says.
EW spoke to the author andTodayshow host and book club mogul about her own personal list of must-reads.
See her Books of My Life below.
Credit: Tyler Essary/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
My favorite book as a child
I lovedThe Baby-Sitters Cluband that group of awesome, empowered girls.
I’ve been maternal since I was little I loved babies, I wanted to be a baby-sitter.
Mila and I read the graphic novels and then we watchedthe Netflix series, which was great.
‘Nothing to See Here’ book cover.Harper Collins Publishers
The genre I would read if I could only pick one
I think literary fiction.
Although I love a good mystery, too.
I can cry at the drop of a hat, but laughter comes harder for me, especially now.
Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures; Getty Images
But Kevin Wilson’sNothing to See Hereis so funny.
Oh, and alsoHere For Itby R. Eric Thomas!
That definitely was the most recent one.
I can’t even believe how talented he is.
In one sentence he conveys everything we feel in life.
The last book to make me cry
Everything!Transcendent Kingdom.
Didn’t you love that?
I’m trying to remember at exactly what moment.
Barbara’s always like, didn’t youlovethat?
And I’m like yes [laughs].
I think I did readWuthering Heightsbut in general, I acted like I loved all of those books.
I do love gothic literature, so I feel like those are the ones I should read.
Every year I’m like, this summer I’m going to read all the classics.
And another one isMoby Dick.
I mean, have you ever readMoby Dick?
A movie adaptation I really love
Ironically:Jane Eyre.
I loved the most recent version.
I read it to my girls and then we watched theGreta Gerwigversion.
I thinkValentinewould be a great television show.The Secret Historywould be good think about how complicated it is.
That, to me, feels like gothic literature.
I mean, I don’t know ifDonna Tarttwould agree.
But it was so layered and anything that’s a character study would be a really fun adaptation.
A book that I read over and over
You know, I really don’t have one.
Because I do so much forward-reading.
ButBel Canto, I’ve read at least twice.
AndThe House on Mango Streetby Sandra Cisneros I’ve read multiple times.
I loved reading it multiple times and seeing the layers you notice as an adult.
But there are books about grief that I’ve read and loved.Once More We Saw Starsby Jayson Greene.
It’s about unimaginable grief, the key in we hope we never ever experience.
It’s much different than mine because mine is about inevitable grief.
My literary heroes
Toni Morrisonfor sure.
She was somebody that I always wanted to meet.
I think I would have had a heart attack right there.
And I was able to interview Maya Angelou shortly before she died.
That moment with her at her kitchen table.
Oh, and Ann Patchett.
I just adore her.
